“They know our industry and business, support us daily, guide improvements, and keep us secure. A true proactive strategic partner, not just IT support.”
CFO, AEC client
AI & AUTOMATION FOR AEC FIRMS
PUT YOUR EXPERTS BACK ON BILLABLE WORK.
Architecture, engineering and construction firms run on documents — submittals, RFIs, specifications, field reports, change orders. We automate the repetitive handling around them, put the right guardrails in place, and give your licensed professionals their time back. Delivered by the same team that already runs your IT and security.
Managed IT built around the way AEC firms work, with fewer interruptions, faster support and clearer visibility into where your technology is headed.
20+ Years
Trusted IT Partner
SOC2
Type ll Attested
Atlanta Based
Local team, local support
Trusted by
Businesses across the Southeast
AI & Automation Built Around How AEC Firms Actually Work
AI is not one thing, and it is rarely a product you buy. For an AEC practice the real opportunity is narrower and more practical: the document-heavy, repetitive work that surrounds every project, logging submittals, routing RFIs, chasing approvals, assembling the same reports each month, handled faster, more consistently, and without a person copying data between systems.
That work rarely appears on a project plan, but it is where a surprising share of billable capacity quietly goes. A senior engineer reformatting a report is an expensive way to produce a document.
We Already Know Your Stack, Not Just the Technology
We have spent over two decades supporting architecture, engineering and construction firms, so we already understand Revit, AutoCAD, Procore, SharePoint and the way project data moves between them, nd where it stops moving.
That matters more than it sounds. Most automation fails not because the model is wrong but because nobody accounted for how a file actually gets from the design team to the PM to the client. We start from the systems you run today rather than the ones a platform vendor would prefer you ran.
Every engagement is scoped to your size, systems and goals, no forced platforms and no experiments left running without oversight. Because the same team already manages your IT and security, governance is designed in rather than retrofitted.
We support the business, collaboration and AEC platforms your teams rely on every day.
Applied AI: What It Means in Practice
Applied AI is our name for the difference between a pilot and a working system. Plenty of firms have trialed a tool. Far fewer have something running in production — integrated with the systems they already use, governed properly, and still supported a year later.
That is the whole job: find the workflow that genuinely costs you time, build around it, and stay with it after launch.
Seen a larger firm do something impressive with AI? There is usually a version of it scoped to your practice. Big-company outcomes rarely require a big-company budget when the work is sized to what you actually need.
Where AI Adoption Actually Stands in Construction
Adoption is moving quickly, and it is concentrated in exactly the administrative work that surrounds project delivery.
61
%
of construction firms now use AI or plan to increase their investment in it, up from 44% a year earlier.
45
%
deploy AI for office and administrative functions — the repetitive work that surrounds delivery, not the design itself.
46
%
of construction businesses now use AI or machine learning tools, close to double the share recorded in 2023.
Discover. Design. Deliver. Improve.
A four-stage model that takes you from curiosity to something running in production — and keeps improving it afterwards.
DISCOVER
Find where AI actually pays off
We map your project workflows, systems and data to find the bottlenecks worth solving — and the ones not worth automating yet.
GOVERN
Put the guardrails in place
Policies, approval processes and monitoring so your team can use Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot without exposing client design data.
BUILD
Deliver something that works
Automations, agents, integrations and custom applications engineered around Revit, Procore, SharePoint and the rest of your stack.
ADOPT
Make it stick
Training, enablement and ongoing improvement — because a tool nobody uses correctly delivers nothing.
What We Build
Nine capability areas. Most engagements start with one and expand as the value proves out.
Workflow & Process Automation
Submittal logging, RFI routing, change-order approvals, project onboarding and invoicing.The repetitive steps buried in every project, connected across the systems you already run.
Knowledge Management
Turn closed-out project folders, specifications, details and lessons learned into a searchable knowledge base, so the answer from a similar job three years ago takes seconds rather than an afternoon.
Document & Contract Intelligence
Read, summarize and compare across contracts, specifications, drawing sets and submittals — surfacing scope changes, obligations and risk that would otherwise need a full manual review.
Custom Application Development
When off-the-shelf project software falls short, we build the portal, dashboard or system bridge your practice actually needs, including the integrations between design, PM and finance tools that nobody ships out of the box.
Data Analytics & Reporting
Consolidate project, labor and financial data into dashboards that answer the questions principals keep asking: utilization, project margin, WIP and workload across the studio.
Compensation & Incentive Management
Automate commission and bonus calculations, remove spreadsheet risk, and give sales teams visibility into what they have earned.
Experience Management
Capture and analyze client and staff feedback across projects, spotting themes long before they surface in a project review or a lost repeat commission.
AI Governance
Policies, approval workflows, usage monitoring and locally hosted models where sensitivity demands it, so client design data and project IP never leave your control as your team adopts AI.
AI-Powered Intake & Client Support
Intelligent intake and routing for RFIs, project queries and support requests, shortening response times without removing professional judgment from the loop.
Proven Inside 360. Applied to Your Firm.
We build these for ourselves before we recommend them. Two examples from our own business, and how the same pattern maps onto AEC workflows.
440
+
hours reclaimed every year
Automated Quarterly Business Reporting
The challenge. Every quarter, relationship managers spent hours gathering information from multiple systems, checking data, building charts, writing summaries and assembling client-ready reports. The preparation consumed more than 440 hours of skilled time a year.
What we built
- Connected the source systems holding service, labor, device, project, opportunity and planning data
- Automated the analysis and narrative so each report begins with completed charts, summaries and recommendations
- Standardized the deliverable so nobody rebuilds the report client by client
- Delivered every draft automatically through SharePoint, email and Teams
What this means for an AEC firm
The same pattern applies to the recurring documents your practice already produces:
Reports & reviews — project updates, operational scorecards, compliance packages, executive and client reporting.
Documents & handoffs — intake packages, proposals, engagement documents, meeting recaps, field reports, billing support, approvals and follow-up.
If your team repeatedly gathers information, organizes it, summarizes it and delivers the same type of output, that workflow is a candidate.
3
minutes saved on every ticket
Private AI for Service Desk Triage
The challenge. Every incoming ticket needed someone to read it, determine the issue, select the right type, subtype and item, gather context and prepare it for action. A few minutes each time — repeated constantly, and producing inconsistent data whenever classifications were applied differently.
What we built
- A locally hosted model chosen after benchmarking five candidates for accuracy and reliability
- ConnectWise and IT Glue integration for ticket history, taxonomy validation and client asset context
- Historical-ticket matching to strengthen classification using similar resolved work
- A local second-opinion check that flags disagreements before action
Why local AI mattered. A cloud model could have done the job, but this workload is repetitive and high volume. Running locally keeps ticket data under our control and stops cost rising with every token. A sanitization layer strips email addresses, IP addresses, hostnames and client names before anything reaches the model.
What this means for an AEC firm
Project-based firms run exactly this kind of high-volume classification every day:
RFIs, submittals, field reports, change requests, safety observations and project correspondence — classified, enriched and routed for faster follow-up.
For firms handling confidential work, the same approach organizes contracts and correspondence, extracts dates and obligations, and routes sensitive documents inside an environment you control.
Is your IT provider delivering enough value?
Get an independent AEC Cyber & IT Health Check to assess your current provider, uncover risks and identify practical opportunities to improve support, security, planning and IT value, with no obligation to switch.
Why Businesses Choose 360 Smart Networks for AI
AI vendors are everywhere. What is rarer is a partner who understands both the technology and the way an architecture, engineering or construction practice actually runs — and who will still be supporting the result a year from now.
How an Engagement Starts
01
Discover
A conversation about your workflows, your systems and where time actually goes. No preparation needed and no obligation.
02
Scope
We come back with a right-sized plan — what to build first, what it will cost, and what it should return. Phased so you can start small.
03
Build & Support
We deliver it, train your team, and keep improving it. Ongoing support and enablement are part of the engagement, not an upsell.
Built for AEC First, Not Adapted To It
Architecture, engineering and construction is our specialism, not a vertical we added later. Submittals, RFIs, specifications and drawing sets create exactly the document-heavy, repetitive work that automation handles well — and exactly the confidentiality requirements that make governance non-negotiable.
Our deepest experience is with architecture, engineering and construction firms, where submittals, RFIs, specifications and drawing sets create exactly this kind of repetitive, document-heavy work. We also support legal, financial services, manufacturing, real estate and nonprofit organizations.
AI and automation work alongside our managed IT services and managed cybersecurity, which is what makes the governance side workable rather than theoretical.
Latest Insights
Hardware Cost Increase Due to AI Ram Consumption
Hardware Cost Increase Due to AI Ram Consumption
The Growing Role of AI in Cybersecurity
The Growing Role of AI in Cybersecurity
Report: AI in IT: 2026 Predictions for AEC and Manufacturing
Report: AI in IT: 2026 Predictions for AEC and Manufacturing
AI for Cybersecurity: 5 MustHaves for IT Leaders
AI for Cybersecurity: 5 MustHaves for IT Leaders
AI & Automation — Frequently Asked Questions
What does 360 Smart Networks actually build with AI?
We build around a specific bottleneck rather than selling a fixed package. That includes workflow and process automation for intake, approvals, onboarding and invoicing; knowledge management that makes buried expertise searchable; document and contract intelligence; custom applications, portals and dashboards; data analytics and reporting; AI governance; and AI-powered intake and client support. Engagements scale from a single automated workflow to a full custom application.
Do we need an AI strategy before we start?
No. Most engagements begin with a short conversation about your workflows, systems and where time actually goes. From there we scope a right-sized plan, priced and phased around what makes sense for your team. Strategy emerges from the work rather than preceding it as a separate project.
How do you keep our data safe when using AI?
Security and governance are built in from day one rather than added afterwards. We establish policies, approval processes and monitoring around tools like Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot, and where data sensitivity requires it we deploy locally hosted models so information never leaves your controlled environment. Our own internal AI platform uses a sanitization layer that strips email addresses, IP addresses, hostnames and client names before anything reaches the model.
What is private or local AI, and when do we need it?
Private AI means running the model inside an environment you control rather than sending data to a cloud provider. It suits repetitive, high-volume workloads where data is sensitive or where per-token cloud costs would climb with usage. We evaluate volume, sensitivity, accuracy requirements and economics, then design the right local, cloud or hybrid architecture.
Can you work with the tools we already use?
Yes. We build on tools your team already trusts and connect the systems you already run. Our own automation work integrates with platforms including Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Teams, ConnectWise and IT Glue, and we engineer bridges where off-the-shelf software falls short.
How is this different from hiring an AI consultancy?
Our AI and automation work sits inside a managed IT and cybersecurity practice, so security, uptime and compliance are part of the build rather than an afterthought. The team delivering the automation is the same team already handling your infrastructure — which means no handoff between the people who build it and the people who keep it running.
What kind of results should we expect?
It depends on the workflow, but the pattern is consistent: less manual effort in work your team already performs. Internally, automating our quarterly business reporting returned over 440 hours a year to client-facing work, and our AI ticket triage platform removed roughly three minutes of manual effort from every ticket while producing cleaner operational data.
Which industries do you work with?
We support architecture, engineering and construction firms as our primary specialism, alongside legal, financial services, manufacturing, real estate, wholesale, business services and nonprofit organizations. The test is not the industry — if your team repeatedly gathers information, organizes it, summarizes it and delivers the same type of output, that workflow is a candidate.
How much does an AI or automation engagement cost?
Engagements are scoped and phased around your size, systems and goals rather than sold as packages. A single automated workflow is a very different investment from a full custom application. We start with a discovery conversation and give you a right-sized plan before any commitment.
Do you provide training as well as building the solution?
Yes. Enablement, training and remediation are part of the offering — configuring approved tools, training teams, reviewing existing AI usage across the business, closing gaps and improving adoption over time. A tool nobody uses correctly delivers nothing.
