Engineering firms live and die by accurate takeoffs, precise estimates, and lean designs. Yet traditional workflows soak up hundreds of staff hours and inflate project budgets with hidden inefficiencies. By adopting an AI value engineering tool, firms can reclaim those hours and deliver projects for millions less each year. Here is how it works and why Makeoff’s platform offers an immediate return on investment.
Industry snapshot: The United States hosts roughly 75,000 engineering firms that generate about 262 billion USD in annual revenue.
Representative firm: A mid-sized practice often designs projects worth around 20 million USD per year (for example, ten projects at 2 million USD each).
Why this matters: Even small percentage improvements at this scale translate into six- or seven-figure savings.
Estimators and project engineers spend 40 – 60 percent of their working hours measuring quantities and building cost models. For a 2,000-hour work year, that is 800 –1,200 hours tied up in repetitive tasks. Digital modeling and AI tools can cut this burden by 80 percent or more, freeing staff for higher-value design and client work.
The traditional approach chains an estimator to roughly 1,000 hours of takeoffs a year. At $40 an hour, that slog costs about $40,000 just for counting and measuring. Turn on AI assistance and the workload collapses to 200 hours, trimming the bill to roughly $8,000. That single shift puts an extra $32,000 back in your pocket while freeing up weeks of productive time.
Multiply those savings by every estimator or project engineer on the team and the yearly reduction in payroll can easily surpass 50,000 USD for a mid-sized firm.
For a firm that oversees 18 million USD in annual construction spend, even a conservative 5 percent reduction in material and subcontractor costs equals 900,000 USD saved each year.
Even with a cautious outlook, the math is staggering. Shaving time off estimating tasks alone frees up about $30,000 a year. Layer on smarter material choices and leaner construction planning, and you are looking at another $900,000 in savings. Added together, a mid-sized firm pockets roughly one million dollars without breaking a sweat.
Smaller firms see proportionate benefits while larger enterprises can unlock five to eight-figure gains.
If every US engineering firm realized a 10 percent saving on the projects they design, national construction spending would drop by 100 – 200 billion USD annually. Beyond dollars, reallocating millions of engineer hours toward innovation accelerates schedules, lifts quality, and lowers carbon footprints.
Makeoff's AI-powered electrical estimating platform helps you value engineer every bid, forecast multiple project scenarios, and reduce costs to win more profitable work. Our intelligent bid and cost-optimization engine deliver the speed, accuracy, and margin improvements electrical contractors need to thrive in today's competitive market. Experience the future of electrical estimating by booking a demo now.