Jobs AI can do / Sales and customers
Drafting quotes from RFQs, starting from your past jobs.
AI can read an incoming RFQ and its drawings, find the most similar jobs you have already quoted or built, and draft the routing, hours, material and price for your estimator to review. It fits custom, job-shop and engineered-to-order work. At 80 RFQs a month, it is worth about $39,600 a year in estimator time at the low end, which is borderline. It pays most clearly above about 80 RFQs a month, or when you turn down RFQs for lack of estimator time.
Why it's hard
What's actually in the way.
Most companies think the problem is that estimators are slow, or that they need a quoting tool.
The real problem is usually that the answer is already in your history, but hard to find. The last time you made a similar part, its routing and actual hours sit in the ERP, a job folder or one estimator's head.
So we check first whether your past quotes and jobs are recorded well enough to draft from, and whether actual hours were tracked or only quoted hours.
Today
How it's done by hand.
An estimator reads each RFQ and its drawings, works out the routing, setup and run hours, and material, then prices it with your rates and markup rules. One quoting software vendor puts a simple single-part quote at up to 2 hours. More complex parts take longer, and RFQs that wait too long get declined or lost.
With AI
What the workflow does, and where a person decides.
- Reads the RFQ and drawingsPulls material, size, part type, processes, tolerances and quantity, with a confidence score for each. Anything unsure is shown to the estimator, not used silently.
- Finds similar past jobsPicks the 3 most similar jobs, giving more weight to jobs with actual hours than to quoted hours only.
- Drafts the quoteDrafts the routing, hours, material, outside services and price, using current material prices and your rates and markup rules. It shows where every line came from.
- The estimator decidesThe estimator reviews, edits and sends each quote under their own name. Nothing goes to a customer automatically.
The math
What it's worth, at the low end.
| Input | Value | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|
| RFQs you quote each monthExample company | 80 | Example company |
| Estimator hours in a typical quoteOur assumption. One quoting vendor (Paperless Parts) puts a simple single-part quote at up to 2 hours | 3 h | Our assumption. One quoting vendor (Paperless Parts) puts a simple single-part quote at up to 2 hours |
| Cost of an hour of estimator time, with benefitsBLS cost estimators in manufacturing, median $75,940 a year (May 2025), with benefits | $55 | BLS cost estimators in manufacturing, median $75,940 a year (May 2025), with benefits |
| Share of estimator time savedLow end. Our assumption; the only published figures are vendor case studies | 25% | Low end. Our assumption; the only published figures are vendor case studies |
| Worth each yearPays for itself in about 12 months | $39,600 a year | Pays for itself in about 12 months |
Payback counts the full cost of the build. Extra jobs won from RFQs you no longer have to turn down are left out, so the real number may be higher. Your own numbers will differ. Move the sliders for this job to see yours.
When it doesn't pay
When we'd tell you not to build it.
The Scan
What we'd need from you.
The Rapid Scan tests this job on exports from your systems. We never connect to them. You get a verdict and a payback number within 10 business days of getting your data. It costs $5,000, credited toward the build.
- 24 months of quotes, with outcome and job number if won
- Job history: routing, setup and run hours, material
- Actual hours and material cost, if recorded
- Drawings for 50 to 100 past jobs
- 20 to 30 RFQs from the last 6 months you already quoted
- Material prices, labor and machine rates, and markup rules
Questions
What people ask us.
Can it read our drawings?
That is the main risk, so the Scan tests it on your own drawings first. It reads PDFs and scans; native CAD files are reviewed case by case.
Will it send quotes to customers?
No. Your estimator reviews and sends every quote under their own name.
What about customer drawings under NDA?
They stay in a private folder, are used only to test your workflow, and are deleted 30 days after the readout.
How do we know the drafts are any good?
In the Scan your senior estimator rates the drafts without knowing which job the system ranked first. Before go-live it runs next to your estimators for 3 weeks.
See your own number. A 30-minute call goes through your volume and how your team does this today. If it doesn't fit, we say so.