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AI Assists. You Decide.
We never claim 100% accuracy. Here's exactly how our human-in-the-loop process protects your bid, and what happens when the AI isn't sure.
The question we get asked most
Every conversation with a new electrical contractor ends up in the same place: "What happens when the AI gets it wrong?"
It's the right question to ask. A missed receptacle or a miscounted panel schedule can cost you a bid, a relationship, or a margin you couldn't afford to lose. We take that seriously.
So here is the honest answer: our AI is not the final decision-maker. A human always is.
"CDS Vision's takeoff process is designed so that no output leaves our hands without a human reviewer signing off on it. The AI does the heavy lifting. Your estimator, or ours, makes the call."
How the process actually works
When our system processes a set of electrical drawings, it extracts counts and generates a confidence score for the project as a whole, giving you a clear picture of how reliable the output is before it reaches your estimator.
Every takeoff is then reviewed by a human before delivery. That review is informed by the project confidence score, ensuring the right level of attention goes to every job.
That means the output you receive has already gone through two layers:
- The AI's extraction and project-level confidence scoring
- A human reviewer who signs off before the takeoff is delivered
You are never handed a raw AI output and told to trust it. Every takeoff is a human-reviewed document.
What "flagged for review" looks like in practice
When the system flags an item, it surfaces the exact sheet, the exact location, and the exact symbol or label it wasn't sure about. The reviewer sees what the AI saw, not a summary.
This matters because it keeps the human reviewer in context. They're not re-doing the takeoff from scratch. They're reviewing a short, specific list of exceptions with full visual context. On a 100-sheet job, that might mean reviewing 6 to 8 flagged items instead of 100 sheets. That's still dramatically faster than a fully manual takeoff.
Why this is safer than manual-only estimating
Manual electrical takeoff is not error-free. Experienced estimators miss items, especially on large, complex sets with dense panel schedules or non-standard symbols. Fatigue, time pressure, and drawing quality all affect accuracy.
Our process doesn't replace the human estimator's judgment. It changes what they're spending their time on. Instead of reading every sheet looking for items, they're reviewing a focused list of exceptions the AI wasn't confident about. That's a better use of expert attention and it results in a more consistent takeoff.
What happens before you commit to anything
Every new client starts with a side-by-side pilot. We run our AI on a project you have already estimated and delivered. You compare our output against your numbers before you pay anything or change your bidding process.
This isn't a demo. It's a real test against a real job, with your drawings, your symbols, and your standard of accuracy. If the takeoff doesn't meet your bar, you walk away. No cost, no obligation.
The pilot exists because we believe the only way to earn trust in a high-stakes workflow is to prove it first, not pitch it.