NITACO Launches "Sekisan AI" to Reduce Estimation Time from 3 Days to Half a Day by Automating Quantity Take-offs from Drawings

NITACO Inc. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Kenta Nitta), which operates a BPO business specializing in the construction industry and the Tsukubi AI series, today announced the launch of "Sekisan AI," an AI service specialized for construction estimation. This is a commissioned service that combines AI and human oversight, where we first review your company's estimation workflow to identify areas that can be handled by AI, then build a completely customized system from scratch for your company. Final confirmation is performed by your estimation staff.

■ Development Background

In the construction industry, estimation primarily relies on manual work involving visually inspecting drawings, with many sites taking 2 to 3 days to complete the quantity take-off for a single project. Risks include losing profits due to a single missed item, reliance on person-specific unit price masters, and stalled estimation processes due to the retirement of experienced staff. Compounded by rising material costs (up 38% compared to 2015), a 30% decrease in the number of workers (from 6.85 million to 4.79 million), and the 2024 overtime labor regulations, "how to build an estimation system that suits our company's methods" has become a major industry challenge.

■ Service Overview: Introduction in 2 Steps - "Free Diagnosis → Fully Customized Construction"

Step 0: Free Diagnosis (30-60 minutes)

We will review your company's estimation workflow, drawing formats, and unit price masters to provide specific details on "what can be delegated to AI / the scale and timeframe of construction."

Step 1: Fully Customized Construction

Based on the diagnosis results, we will build a system from scratch tailored to your company. The goal is for the AI to automatically calculate quantities from PDF, CAD, and scanned paper drawings, reflect your company's unit price masters, and output a breakdown and quotation in Excel format.

■ Why "Fully Customized Commissioned Service"?

There is perhaps no other business process as varied from company to company as estimation. Even if a general-purpose package is applied, given the differences in work types, price lists, unit rates, and client-specified forms, the site will eventually revert to manual work, saying "it doesn't fit our methods." Therefore, this service is provided as a fully customized commissioned service that adapts AI to your company's specific way of working.

■ 3 Features

① AI Drawing Reading × Automatic Quantity Take-off

Aiming to reduce time from 2-3 days per project to about half a day. Automatically checks for missed items using a matrix of parts and items.

② Integration with In-house Unit Price Masters

Incorporates your company's price lists and unit rates to automatically calculate with the latest prices. Aims to break free from reliance on a single experienced individual.

③ Fully Customized for All Work Types

From interior finishing, new construction, scaffolding, civil engineering, to equipment installation, we build and support from scratch according to your company's estimation workflow.

■ Service Format and Pricing

- Implementation Flow: Free Diagnosis (30-60 minutes) → Proposal of construction scope and estimated costs → Fully Customized Construction → Operational Support

- Service Format: Fully Customized Commissioned Service (Monthly SaaS plans are not offered)

- Supported Drawings: PDF, CAD data, scanned images of paper drawings

- Pricing: Individual quotation based on requirements

- Application Slots: Limited acceptance on a first-come, first-served basis

■ Company Overview

NITACO's mission is to "Create 1 million person-equivalents of labor for the construction industry." We provide services that solve the labor shortage in the construction industry by maximizing the use of "technology" and "BPO."
In addition to "Tsukubi BPO," a business outsourcing service specializing in the architecture and construction industry, and "Tsukubi AI," a suite of AI services, we contribute to the prosperity of the architecture and construction industry through services such as "Tsukubi Work," a multi-job referral service, and "Tsukubi Sales," a sales agency service.