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Sample report · invented firm

Where AI fitsTolmie Hart Engineering

// AI assessment Engineering firm

At a glance

Where to start

Proposals and quotes: proposal first drafts from your past bids.

What it costs today

About $14,400 a month.

Book 30 minutes with Chase

Book 30 minutes with Chase: cal.com/chase-sidekick/intro

The two-minute version

Where you stand
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
Principals first: one approved tool your firm controls, one page of rules, and a month on proposals and quotes.
What you'd report at day 90
Hours per proposal, and win rate, before and after.

Top opportunities, in your order

Opportunity 1

Proposal first drafts from your past bids

You ranked proposals and quotes first. Your best material sits in your proposal library, yet people rebuild it for every RFP, pulling senior engineers off billable work.

Your best material sits in your proposal library, yet people rebuild it for every RFP, pulling senior engineers off billable work.

BriefExample

DRAFT FOR REVIEW. Not sent.

Proposal section, first draft with gaps flagged

District of Harlow Bay, RFP 26-114: Alder Creek culvert replacement
Relevant experience

Our team has designed creek crossing replacements for BC municipalities since 2017. Close matches:

  • Mill Creek box culvert, Township of Esker (2023): fish passage, design through construction.
  • Birch Road crossing, City of Pell River (2022): replacement under a live collector road.

Flagged For You

  1. GAP: The RFP wants a hydrotechnical lead with 10 years' experience. The closest CV shows 8.
  2. GAP: No past bid covers the District's new design flow requirement (RFP 4.3). A project lead writes this.
  3. CHECK: Confirm Esker and Pell River let you cite these projects, and the "since 2017" date.
  4. LEFT BLANK: approach, team, hours and fee.
Draws from
The RFP, your proposal library, project sheets and CVs.
Reviewed by
The proposal coordinator, then the project lead. Approach and fee stay with the principal.

Opportunity 2

A Monday leadership brief on projects and margins

You ranked leadership reporting second. The warning signs sit in project accounting: fee spent ahead of work done, unbilled work ageing. IT sets up a read-only connector, then the brief flags them every Monday.

The warning signs sit in project accounting: fee spent ahead of work done, unbilled work ageing.

BriefExample

Monday leadership brief

Monday, Nov 30, 7:00 am. Leadership brief. For leaders only.

Needs A Decision This Week

  1. Ridge Road interchange (P-2231): $142,000 of a $200,000 fee spent; PM estimates the work is just over half done. A change request drafted in July was never sent. Send it, or absorb the overrun?
  2. Harlow Bay proposal due Thursday. Go or no-go today.

MARGIN WATCH (project accounting, as of Friday)

  • P-2307 Esker pump station: $48,200 unbilled for more than 60 days.

BILLABLE HOURS, LAST 4 WEEKS (against your targets)

  • Structural: ahead of target.
  • Municipal: behind target. Two seniors on proposals.
  • Transportation: on target.
Draws from
Project accounting (through a read-only connector IT sets up), PM status notes and the proposal tracker.
Reviewed by
Your finance lead, before the Monday meeting. Leaders only.

Opportunity 3

Project meetings turned into actions the same day

You ranked operations and projects third. Before recording, tell everyone on the call, clients and subconsultants included, and check the client contract.

Before recording, tell everyone on the call, clients and subconsultants included, and check the client contract.

Draws from
The meeting transcript (everyone told the call was recorded), the calendar invite and the project folder.
Reviewed by
The project manager checks each [CONFIRM] line against the contract and sends it herself.

Where else AI fits

  1. Sales and new business

    Today
    Check-ins depend on each principal's week.
    Set up once
    Your client list and past project notes.
    Then runs
    A monthly list per principal, with drafts.
    You still decide
    Who to contact and what to offer.

  2. Marketing

    Today
    Finished projects never get written up.
    Set up once
    Your project sheets and past write-ups.
    Then runs
    A draft write-up when a project closes.
    You still decide
    What's cited; clients approve first.

What this time costs today

You told us 20 to 50 hours a week across your team on proposals and quotes; we used 35. That's time spent today, not a promised saving.

  1. 35 hours × $95your numbers
  2. $3,325a week
  3. $14,400a month
  4. $173,000a year

35 hours × $95 = $3,325 a week ≈ $14,400 a month ≈ $173,000 a year

Your data and AI

You hold some information worth protecting: confidential client business information and staff records. You're not early: it comes down to the right account, clear limits on what AI can reach, and a person reading what goes out.

In this order

  1. Step 1Status: Done

    Accounts first

    Everyone uses two-step sign-in, you told us. Worth a quick check with IT. Keep it on for every account AI connects to.

    Everyone uses two-step sign-in, you told us. Worth a quick check with IT. Keep it on for every account AI connects to, keep passwords in a password manager, and keep reminding people what phishing looks like.

  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. You told us you hold confidential client business information and staff records. 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

  • Training off, in a business workspace the firm owns. Use a business workspace so the firm 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.
  • Connections need approval. 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.
  • Drafts only, to start. 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 if an email or web page hides instructions aimed at the AI. Check the actual connection, because instructions alone aren't a lock.

What stays with you

  • Engineering judgment and anything you seal. Design, calculations and sealed documents stay with the Professional of Record.
  • Fees and go or no-go calls. AI prepares the numbers; leaders choose.

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 as it earns trust.
    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 September 2026. Your Professional of Record confirms how they apply to your firm.

What it takes

  • Principals first

    You and up to five principals use it first: about 3 hours of yours over two weeks, then 30 minutes a week. Others follow.

  • Turning it on

    IT does it, with Chase or from his checklist: principals first, data storage checked, file permissions tidied.

  • 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, before your team does.

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

Starting instruction

Here is an RFP section and three of our past proposals. Draft the 'relevant experience' section using only projects in these proposals. Flag every RFP requirement we don't clearly meet, and leave approach, team, hours and fee blank. [paste the RFP section and past proposals here]

How to check it

Check every project, date and role against the project sheet, and confirm permission to cite.

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

How Chase would help

  • Solo for Execs

    Start with yourself. AI leadership in 30 days: AI set up around your own work, plus what you need to lead it in your firm and answer the questions your principals, team and clients ask.

    CAD 2,900 once

  • Fractional leadership

    Chase leads AI adoption with your leadership team for 90 days: first two weeks meeting your leaders and showing AI on your firm's own templates and past work (not client files), then agreed measures reviewed every 30 days. Teams come in once leaders use it.

    From CAD 6,000 a month

    Scaled to how many leaders and teams are involved.

Who sets it up
Chase works with your IT team directly, or gives them a checklist, your choice. Your IT team turns it on.
If it isn't working
Fractional: measures agreed up front and reviewed every 30 days; if a milestone slips because of us, we keep working at no extra fee until it's delivered.
You keep everything that's built.

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

30 minutes with Chase to walk through your report and decide where to start.

You ranked proposals and quotes first and worry about client data. We'd start there.

Book 30 minutes with Chase

Book 30 minutes with Chase: cal.com/chase-sidekick/intro