HOW IT WORKS
AI proposes. Your estimator approves. Nothing submits itself.
BidStream carries a bid from the invitation through to the proposal you send. Seven stages, and a human decision at every one of them. This page walks the control points — what the software proposes, what it waits for you to approve, and what it deliberately will not do.
AI-assisted. Estimator-controlled. Traceable to the plan.
Where does the AI stop and the estimator start?
Every quantity that reaches your bid passes a human. That is the design, not a setting you have to switch on. The AI reads the drawings and proposes; the estimator decides; the record of who decided stays attached to the sheet the decision came from.
- Every proposed detection appears on its source sheet in a review card, where the estimator approves or rejects it one at a time.
- Scope the model is unsure about is flagged for human review instead of being quietly assumed.
- The project copilot answers from your project data and proposes actions with a confirm-or-cancel step — it does not write on its own.
- Nothing auto-submits. There is no path in the product where a number reaches a general contractor without an estimator approving it.
- The estimated cost of an AI run is shown before it starts, and spend caps are set per organization.
What happens to a plan set when you load it?
1 · Intake
Several PDFs at once, each with its own type and label. The set splits into batches and resumes, so a 90-sheet set does not lose progress halfway. Sheet numbers and titles are read from the title block. Drawings, specifications and other documents are handled differently — a spec carries no scale.
2 · Scope and risk
Before any takeoff, the notes, the cover sheet and the specifications are read for what the bid has to protect against: exclusions, allowances, RFIs and scope that belongs to a subcontractor. Each finding routes to its exit — an exclusion to the proposal, a sub scope to the subcontracts tab.
3 · Takeoff
Assisted detection works on the drawing geometry and proposes copies of a repeated symbol for your review; a vision pass handles scanned sheets. Length, area, volume and angle are measured on a scale you confirm per sheet, in architect’s notation.
4 · Estimate and proposal
Approved quantities feed the line-item register. Adjust a measurement and the line item recalculates. The proposal is generated from the estimate under your branding, and the exclusions caught in the scope stage arrive in the document on their own.
What does the general contractor actually see?
The shareable proposal link shows sell prices only. Your cost and your margin stay on your side of the link — verified as of October 2, 2026, and re-verified at each release.
- A shareable link, so the GC does not need an account or a login to read your number.
- A PDF export with real vector annotations that opens in any reader, not a flattened screenshot of your markups.
- The exclusions and qualifications you approved, printed with the price instead of living in a separate email.
What BidStream will not do
A short list is worth more than a long one here, because the things an estimating tool refuses to do are what make it safe to put in front of a bid you are responsible for.
- It does not submit a bid, send a proposal or release a price without an estimator approving it.
- It does not decide what your work is worth. The numbers that leave the system are the numbers your team approved.
- The schedule output proposes phases with duration and overlap as a planning aid, and is not a contractual construction schedule.
- It has no post-award features — this is pre-award estimating and proposal work, and it stops when the job is awarded.
- It does not replace the judgment call on ambiguous scope. It makes the ambiguity visible earlier, which is a different thing.
THE QUESTIONS WE ACTUALLY GET
Before you book anything
We already have a system that works. Why change it?
Most estimators we talk to do have a system that works — until two bids land in the same week. The question worth asking is not whether your process works, but what it costs you the week it is under load: which bid gets the careful read and which one gets the fast one. BidStream is built for that week. If your bid volume is flat and one estimator covers it comfortably, you probably do not need this yet.
How much setup is there before it is useful?
You start from a PDF plan set — the same one the GC sent you. There is no data migration step standing between you and the first takeoff. Confirming the scale per sheet is the one piece of setup that cannot be skipped, because every measurement after it depends on that confirmation being right.
Why would I trust AI with my numbers?
You should not, and the product does not ask you to. The AI proposes detections on the sheet they came from; your estimator approves or rejects each one. The number that reaches your bid is a number a person on your team approved. Where the model is unsure, it says so instead of guessing quietly.
Does the general contractor see my cost or my margin?
No. The shared proposal link shows sell price only — your cost and margin do not travel with it. This was verified as of October 2, 2026, and it is re-verified at every release because it is the single thing a contractor cannot afford to have regress.
Can my estimator override what the AI proposed?
Overriding is the normal path, not an escape hatch. Each proposed detection is approved or rejected individually, measurements are adjusted by hand whenever the drawing calls for it, and the line item recalculates from the adjusted quantity.
Does this replace my takeoff tool?
It covers counting, measuring, markup and the handoff into an estimate and a proposal, so for many specialty contractors it does replace the takeoff tool plus the spreadsheet that followed it. The honest answer depends on what else your current tool does for you — bring it to the walkthrough and we will tell you plainly where it overlaps and where it does not.
See it on a bid you are working on
Book a 20-minute walkthrough on one of your current bids. Nothing to send us beforehand — bring the job you are bidding this week and we will walk the stages on it.