For fit-out and renovation firms with a team, in the UAE and the UK.
Not sure where AI fits in your fit-out or renovation firm? We’ll show you what to fix first, from the site visit to the final payment.
We talk to you and your team, from the estimators to the site supervisors, and see how your jobs really run. Then we lay out a plan: where AI helps, where it doesn’t, and what each step is worth.
A free call, usually 15–20 minutes, about where your business is and where you want it. If it’s a fit, you’ll get the price on the call.
Roadmap
- First 30 days: every quote that goes quiet followed up by the quoting software, with replies going to the estimator.
- Months 2–3: AI reads supplier prices as they arrive and keeps the rates current, for the estimator to approve.
- Later: trade bookings that AI proposes from each site’s daily updates and the project manager confirms.
- Not worth doing: a chatbot on the website, since most work comes by referral.
What we look at in a fit-out firm
We follow a job from the office to the site and back, and look at how it passes from one person to the next.
Winning the work
- Where enquiries come from, who replies, and which get a site visit.
- How long a full BOQ takes after the site visit.
- How current the supplier prices behind a quote are.
- What happens to a quote after it’s sent.
Running the job
- When client selections are ordered, especially long-lead items.
- How progress on each site reaches the project managers.
- How clients get updates on their job.
- What happens when a client changes something mid-job.
Getting paid
- How finished stages and agreed changes get invoiced.
- How overdue stage payments come to light.
- How snags are closed and the job handed over.
Who we talk to
You first, then the people who keep your jobs moving.
They see each job from the inside, and the gap between how a job is meant to run and how it really runs is usually where the hours and the money go.
- Whoever runs the office and handles enquiries
- Estimators and quantity surveyors
- Designers and draughtsmen, for design-and-build work
- Project managers
- Site supervisors and foremen
- Accounts and invoicing
- Workshop managers and installers, if you make your own joinery
Examples of what an audit can find
Three findings from a sample report for a 14-person fit-out firm in Dubai: what’s happening, what it’s worth and what we’d recommend. The firm, its figures and its findings are illustrative, not findings about your firm.
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A gap in the process
11 of the last 30 quotes got no follow-up after they were sent.
Clients read quotes at the weekend and call on Sunday with questions. A quote that gets no call stays in the leads until a cheaper bid wins.
Seen in: open quotes with their sent dates, and the last three lost jobs
What it’s worth: About AED 6,500–18,500 a month in profit, from quotes that go quiet today.
We’d recommend: Have the quoting software the firm already pays for follow up every quote that goes quiet, at the weekend, with each reply going to the estimator.
- First 30 days
- Software you already pay for
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Repetitive work
The last 10 quotes used imported-material prices about 4 months old, and 3 are now signed jobs.
Supplier quotes and price lists arrive on WhatsApp and by email, and typing them into the rate sheet waits for a quiet week. Meanwhile quotes go out on old prices, and once a job is signed, the firm absorbs the rise.
Seen in: the last 10 quotes, and the date of the rate sheet
What it’s worth: About AED 2,700–8,400 a month in profit that old prices now give away.
We’d recommend: Use AI to read each supplier quote and price list as it arrives and update the matching rates, for the estimator to approve.
- Months 2–3
- A build
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Several jobs, one process
On the last five jobs, 6 reworks came from a trade going in too early, like a door fitted before the sanitary ware.
Checking each site, deciding which trade goes next and booking it fall to the project managers, from memory and WhatsApp. There’s no daily view of where all ten live jobs have got to.
Seen in: daily site reports and the rework list for the last five jobs
What it’s worth: About AED 1,700–7,200 a month in profit, from rework avoided.
We’d recommend: Have AI propose when each trade goes in on every job, from the site team’s daily updates, and book it once the project manager confirms.
- Later
- A build
Questions
Can AI price our jobs?
Not on its own. Your estimator still approves every price, but some of the work around pricing, like keeping supplier prices up to date, may suit AI. Whether it’s worth doing in your firm is what the audit works out.
We do residential and commercial jobs. Does the audit cover both?
Yes. A home renovation and an office fit-out don’t run the same way, so we follow each kind of job on its own.
My project managers are on site most days. How much of their time does it take?
Usually 30–45 minutes each, on Zoom. All the interviews are usually done within a week.
What does it cost?
A fixed fee, set by the size of your team. You’ll hear it on the discovery call, before you commit to anything.
What do we get at the end?
A report you keep, ready usually 7–10 working days after the last interview, and a one-to-one walk-through of it. It shows how your work runs today, what to fix first and what to leave alone, the tools that fit, and what each step is worth, worked out from your own team’s time and wages.
Find out where AI fits in your business, before you spend anything on it.
Start with a short call, usually 15–20 minutes, about where the business is and where you want it. If the audit fits, you’ll get the price on the call.
Book a discovery call