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AI Opportunity Map

Sample map · invented firm

Where AI fitsPendray Voss Custom Homes

AI Opportunity Map Custom home building

Stage 1 of 3: getting started with AI How the stages work

At a glance

Where to start

Proposals and quotes: AI lays out subtrade bids against your scope sheet, and you decide who gets the work.

What your time on proposals and quotes costs today

About $12,900 a month in staff time.

An estimate, from the hours you gave us.

You ranked proposals and quotes first and worry about client data.

Book a free 30-minute call

Free, 30 minutes with Chase Bernier, Sidekick’s founder. He helps you pick your first job and gets your IT note ready to send.

Book a free 30-minute call: cal.com/chase-sidekick/intro

Your first three moves

  1. This week

    Turn on two-step sign-in

    Do it for everyone.

    Who
    Your IT provider, from the note in your map. No IT person? Chase walks you through it on a call.
    Time
    About 15 minutes of your time.
    Why
    Every security problem we've seen at clients came from weak passwords or phishing. None came from AI.

  2. This month

    Test AI on one past job

    Write down the "before" number first: hours to level the bids for one trade. Then try the starting instruction in your map. Test it on a trade you've already awarded.

    Who
    You and your project managers.
    Time
    About 1 hour each.
    Why
    You see whether it finds what you found before you spend more. The "before" number shows whether it worked.

  3. Then

    Use AI every working day

    Start with proposals and quotes. AI drafts and a person checks.

    Who
    Your project managers, with a 30-minute check-in each week.
    Time
    About 30 minutes a week.
    Why
    A little every working day is how it becomes part of the job by Day 90.

What to do after your map, step by step

The two-minute version

Where you stand
Stage 1 of 3: getting started with AI. A few people use AI on their own. No approved tool or written rule yet.
The main risk
Information about your clients going into personal AI tools with no settings changed.
A sensible first move
Turn on two-step sign-in this week. You and your project managers test AI on one past job this month. Then use AI on proposals and quotes daily.
What you'd measure after 90 days
Hours to level the bids for one trade, before and after.

Top opportunities, in your order

Opportunity 1

Subtrade bids, levelled side by side

Three mechanical bids never price the same scope. Each set of bids is laid out against your scope sheet, with gaps and exclusions flagged, so you compare like with like.

Three mechanical bids never price the same scope.

SummarySample layout

A bid levelling sheet

BID LEVELLING. Mechanical, [project]
3 bids against your scope sheet. Prices as quoted, plus GST.

Bid 1

  • Includes radiant floors, HRV and driveway snowmelt.
  • Excludes the pool equipment hookup, which is in your scope.
  • Valid for 30 days.

BID 2 (lowest)

  • Includes radiant floors and HRV.
  • Excludes snowmelt. Commissioning isn't mentioned.
  • Boiler lead time: 10 weeks.

BID 3 (highest)

  • Includes everything on the scope sheet.
  • Adds an alternate: air-to-water heat pump, priced separately.

Gaps to close before you compare

  1. Ask bidder 2 to price snowmelt and confirm commissioning.
  2. Ask bidder 1 to price the pool hookup.
  3. WorkSafeBC clearance letters: on file for bidders 1 and 3. Bidder 2: requested.

No ranking given. Who gets the work is yours.

Draws from
The bids in the tender folder and your scope sheet for this trade.
Reviewed by
You, line by line. Who gets the work, and every price, stays with you.

Opportunity 2

A three-week look-ahead on every site

One late window delivery or missed inspection pushes six trades. Each Friday a three-week look-ahead is drafted for every site, with clashes, unbooked inspections and unconfirmed subtrades flagged.

One late window delivery or missed inspection pushes six trades.

SummarySample layout

Three-week look-ahead for one house

THREE-WEEK LOOK-AHEAD. [project]. Draft for you.

Week 1

  • Roofing starts Monday. Confirmed.
  • Windows: the supplier moved delivery a week. Install slides a week.
  • Electrical rough-in continues. 2 workers.

Week 2

  • Window install. [CONFIRM] Installer crew not booked yet.
  • Plumbing rough-in: waiting on the owners' fixture picks.

Week 3

  • Pre-drywall plumbing and electrical inspections. Not booked yet.
  • Insulation: needs the windows in first.

Clashes found

  1. The window delay pushes insulation, and drywall with it. Option: move the drywall start a week.
  2. The mechanical sub is booked on your other project the same two days.

Confirmations to each subtrade are drafted once you approve.

Draws from
Your project schedule, subtrade emails, supplier delivery dates and inspection bookings.
Reviewed by
The project manager, before confirmations go to the subtrades.

Opportunity 3

RFIs and decisions, tracked to an answer

Questions from site, subtrades and consultants wait on your project managers, and an unanswered RFI stalls a crew. One daily list shows every open question, who owes the answer and how long it has waited.

Questions from site, subtrades and consultants wait on your project managers, and an unanswered RFI stalls a crew.

SummarySample layout

Open RFIs and decisions

OPEN QUESTIONS. Monday. Oldest first.

Waiting on consultants

  1. Project A: backing for the floating stair. Structural engineer, 11 days. Drywall closes that wall in four weeks. Reminder drafted.
  2. Project A: shower drain 40 mm off the drawing. Architect, 4 days.

Waiting on you

  1. Project B: the mechanical sub asks to swap the specified boiler for one in stock. Same output, lower price. The mechanical engineer's okay is needed too.
  2. Project A: the site super asks if the owners' extra pot lights go in before the change order is signed. Your rule says no. Reply drafted saying so.

Waiting on clients

  1. Project B: appliance picks over the allowance. Change order sent 6 days ago.

Answered last week

  • The steel beam stays as drawn. Sent to the framer and the site super.
Draws from
Your RFI log, project email, consultant replies and the site supers' daily notes.
Reviewed by
Each project manager, for their own projects. Answers come from them or the consultant named.
Where else AI fits

Where else AI fits

  1. Job costs

    Today
    Overruns found months later, near the end.
    Set up once
    Your budget by cost code, accounting app and change orders.
    AI does
    A monthly cost report per project, showing where a job is going over budget.
    You still decide
    The forecast, contingency, and what the client sees.

  2. Past projects

    Today
    Office and site dig through old emails for answers.
    Set up once
    Read access to past project folders and email.
    AI does
    Plain-word answers with links to the source files.
    You still decide
    Whether the old answer fits this house.
How we worked out the cost

What your time on proposals and quotes costs today

You told us 21 to 50 hours a week across your team on proposals and quotes, at $85 an hour; we used 35 hours. An estimate of what this time costs you today.

  1. 35 hours × $85your numbers
  2. $3,000a week
  3. $12,900a month
  4. $155,000a year

Your data and AI

You hold some information worth protecting: personal information about your clients, staff records and confidential client business information. Protecting it while you use AI comes down to the right account, clear limits on what AI can reach, and a person reading what goes out.

  1. Step 1Status: To do

    Accounts first

    Turn on two-step sign-in for everyone first.

    Start here. Only some of your people use two-step sign-in. The security problems we've seen at clients came from weak passwords, phishing and risky links on accounts without two-step sign-in. Turn it on for everyone in Microsoft 365, keep passwords in a password manager, and give people a quick refresher on phishing. A connected AI assistant makes a stolen password more costly, so this comes first.

  2. Step 2

    Know what's sensitive and where it lives

    List what's sensitive in each system, and keep restricted items out of reach.

    Write down what's sensitive and where it lives. Start from the list you gave us, above. For each system you'd connect, like email, shared files or your CRM, ask what's actually in it. Everyday contact and business information can usually be connected. Keep restricted items, such as staff records and bank or card numbers, somewhere the connection doesn't reach, and test it.

  3. Step 3

    Then choose the tool

    You run Microsoft 365, so Copilot is the natural place to start: it works inside the sign-in and permissions IT already manages. A ChatGPT or Claude business plan is the alternative if your people prefer one of those.

    Choose the tool that fits the systems you already use and the people who'll use it, on a business plan. Microsoft, Google, OpenAI and Anthropic each say business data isn't used to train their AI models by default. Check any contract with clients for rules on AI or where data is stored. Then pick the one your team will pick up every day.

Your tool options

You run Microsoft 365, so Copilot is the natural place to start: it works inside the sign-in and permissions IT already manages. A ChatGPT or Claude business plan is the alternative if your people prefer one of those.

  • Copilot in Microsoft 365. Works inside the sign-in and permissions IT already manages; Microsoft says it only shows people what they can already open.
  • A ChatGPT or Claude business plan. OpenAI and Anthropic each say they don't train on business data by default. Both connect to Outlook and SharePoint with admin approval.

Settings to ask for

  • A paid business account your company owns, with training on your data turned off. Use a business workspace so the company owns the accounts and data, training is off by default, and you control which apps people connect and can remove access the day someone leaves.
  • Only IT can link AI to your email or files. In Microsoft 365, IT can require admin approval before anyone connects an AI app to email or files. That way every connection is a decision someone made.
  • AI can read and draft, but can't send or change anything. Where the tool allows it, leave send and edit permissions off to start. AI prepares the email and a person sends it. That also limits the damage from a trick email or web page written to fool the AI. Have IT confirm the connection itself has no send or edit permission; telling the AI not to send is not enough.
What stays with you

What stays with you

  • Pricing and margins. Your numbers come from years of homes built, won and lost.
  • Structural, code and permit calls. Those stay with you, your engineer, your architect and the city.
What could go wrong, and how to prevent it

What could go wrong, and how to prevent it

  1. Confidential information

    How it's prevented
    Every connection makes AI more useful and adds more to correct, so start where a mistake is cheap and widen access once someone has checked its work on the last one.
    Do this week
    Pick the one system you'd most like AI to read. Write down what's in it, and anything in it you'd never want in a draft.

  2. Wrong answers going to clients

    How it's prevented
    A named person checks facts, figures and promises, and each correction becomes a written rule so it doesn't come back.
    Do this week
    Pick one kind of draft, such as quotes or follow-up emails, and name the person who approves it.

  3. Staff using unapproved tools

    How it's prevented
    A ban nobody can check does little. One approved tool people like, plus one page of rules, gives them a better option.
    Do this week
    Ask your team, with no penalty, which AI tools they use now and what for.

  4. Work in personal AI accounts

    How it's prevented
    Ask who uses a personal AI account for work, then move that work into the business account.
    Do this week
    Ask who uses a personal AI account for work, then turn training off in each one until you move to a business plan.

Rules here were checked against their sources in October 2026. Have your lawyer confirm how they apply to your projects.

What it takes

What it takes

  • Project managers first

    You and up to five project managers use it first: about 4 hours of yours in the first two weeks, and 45 minutes from each of the others. Then staff join: two 90-minute workshops, then about 30 minutes a week.

  • Turning it on

    IT turns it on for your project managers first, with Chase or from his checklist. IT checks where data is kept and who can open which files. No IT person? Chase walks you through it on a call.

  • A one-page AI-use policy

    Which tool, what goes in, and who reviews before anything leaves.

A first project for you

Try this yourself after you turn on two-step sign-in, before your team does.

Use a business AI account. Leave out bank and card numbers and staff records.

Starting instruction

Lay these subtrade bids side by side against my scope sheet. For each bid, list what's included, what's excluded and anything not mentioned. Then list the questions to send each bidder. Don't rank them or recommend one. [paste my scope sheet] [paste the bids]

How to check it

Test it on a trade you've already awarded. If it finds the gaps you found, use it on the next tender.

If it saves you time, that's the case for your project managers.

Your next steps

  1. Weeks 1-2 Turn on two-step sign-in, write down the "before" number (hours to level the bids for one trade), then test AI on one past job.
  2. Weeks 3-6 Get AI into proposals and quotes every working day.
  3. Weeks 7-12 Add a three-week look-ahead on every site. Staff join from week 7.
  4. Day 90 Compare hours to level the bids for one trade, before and after. Keep, widen or stop.

What to do after your map, step by step

  • Choosing help

    Eight questions and five red flags before you pay any AI provider.

    See a blank copy

  • Getting sign-off

    The order to follow, and a ready-to-send note for your IT provider.

    See a blank copy

  • Your first 90 days

    A plan by week, with what must be done first.

    See a blank copy

  • One-page summary for your partners or board

    One page for your partners or board, ready to print.

    Open

A 90-day plan is in the full map.

How Chase would help

  • Solo: set-up, coaching and leader documents for you

    Start with yourself. Chase sets up Copilot, ChatGPT or Claude, adjusts it as you correct it and coaches you for 30 days. Plus a written AI position for the company, a staff AI-use policy, talking points and a personal 90-day plan.

    $2,900 CAD once

  • Fractional: Chase as your part-time AI lead

    For 90 days Chase works with your leaders on your company's own work until they use AI daily. You set the measures and review them with Chase every 30 days. Teams join once leaders use it.

    From $6,000 CAD a month

    Scaled to how many leaders and teams are involved.

Who sets it up, and if it isn't working
Who sets it up
Chase works with your IT provider directly, or gives them a checklist, your choice. Your IT provider turns it on. No IT person? Chase walks you through it on a call.
If it isn't working
If a day 30, 60 or 90 review is late because of us, we keep working at no extra fee until it's done.
You keep everything that's built.

Chase never logs in to your systems or asks for client files. He doesn't give legal advice.

In 30 minutes Chase helps you pick your first job and gets your IT note ready to send.

Book a free 30-minute call

Book a free 30-minute call: cal.com/chase-sidekick/intro