The Latest on AI Preconstruction Innovation from STACK Construction Technology
STACK making rapid investments in core product and practical tooling that delivers broad and targeted AI preconstruction tools for trade contractors
Construction software is like a shark—it needs to keep moving. Functional updates to meet new and emerging needs. Security patches. New technologies to keep the product current with best practices.
Delivering this rapid innovation requires not just a commitment to customers and the industry, but an underlying product architecture that facilitates ongoing change. For STACK customers, this translates into a steady firehose of new product features to drive more and more value through the product.
STACK Construction AI News
On the company’s 2026 2nd Half Strategic Product Update June 29, STACK announced a slew of usability and functional enhancements along with a new construction AI (artificial intelligence) product direction.
Buried deep in this update was a teaser for a shakeup of STACK’s AI offering—including a new layer to support agentic AI processes, and the sunsetting of the company’s existing floorplan AI tool, called Stack Assist. Already live in the product for customers who have opted in is STACK iQ, an AI data parsing and execution layer that opens the application up to external applications like Claude and ChatGPT. Stack iQ is released now in the product, but customers need to opt in to begin using the feature.
STACK iQ currently works with ChatGPT and Claude, with other AI offerings coming soon, according to STACK Senior Vice President of Product & Engineering Ben Coffman and STACK Project Manager David Fouché, who presented the update. Fouché demonstrated how a user, not even logged into STACK, could use Claude to respond to a request for proposals (RFP), turning the AI chatbot into a de facto user interface that could also, without a keystroke, execute against commands in the software.
Coming too are baked-in workflows for specific trades, with concrete contractors first in line.
“I'm very eager to say as we're going into the trades in a real meaningful and big way,” Coffman said. “We're going to be looking at concrete, roofing, electrical and exteriors, and we're going to be maniacal about it. You can expect concrete to be first, and we should be seeing some of that in Q3 and for a lot of these, and the rest of these in Q4. We aren’t going to just say ‘hey, you have AI for these tools.’ We're going to incorporate them as purpose-built tooling into our takeoff and estimating product so the product itself will cater to your specific trade.”
STACK iQ will respect the underlying preventive and detective controls, permissions and business rules of the underlying product—one less thing to worry about compared to a one-off integration.
STACK Acquisitions
I had first encountered STACK Construction Technologies years ago, as it expanded its footprint into software that extended its preconstruction offering into project management. On our June 2026 demo call and update, we saw that despite these project management-related acquisitions, STACK has continued to primarily focus on preconstruction and its automated takeoff features. Since acquiring these products for the construction phase of a project, their plan viewer now serves as the dedicated mobile interface, and it has rebranded its acquired project management module to STACK Build & Operate.
That makes sense as contractors intent on growth need to bid more projects, and those focused on even holding steady need to ensure bidding is accurate to result in profitable projects . Failure to account for rising materials and other costs, or dropping the ball on project elements, can turn a contractor into the lowest bidder, who wins the right to lose money on the project.
Even before the announcement of Stack iQ, AI had already become a fixture in construction software messaging and somewhat in product offerings, STACK's approach not only applies AI to appropriate processes, but leverages the institutional knowledge that already exists within contractor organizations, extending the benefit from preconstruction into the execution phase.
“For too long, value and quality in construction have been defined by the architect's blueprints and STACK has changed that,” STACK Senior Vice President of Marketing Lindsay Powers said on our briefing. “We understand that the estimator who's built hundreds of projects knows more about cost and materials and construction than any document or any spec book that is out there, so STACK helps them to capture that knowledge and puts it to work on every bid they put through our system. That means that when their bid is done, they will understand what they estimated, and that intelligence only compounds with every bid that they put through our platform. From their very first evaluation, to their next measurement to the takeoff to the estimate to that proposal, every project that they put through STACK makes them smarter, and it makes every project more profitable.”
During a recent product demonstration and discussion with STACK executives, the company outlined how its cloud-native platform combines takeoff, estimating, proposal generation and AI-assisted workflows into a unified preconstruction environment.
Guide on the Side AI
The preconstruction value stream for STACK’s trade contractors starts with their AI-generated takeoff, which to outward appearances may look similar to offerings for other types of contractors from Togal, Zetane, Patabid, Procore Estimating and others. AI-driven takeoff will leverage computer vision, pattern recognition, and large language models (LLMs) to identify and quantify elements ranging from doors, windows, fixtures, square footage, materials requirements and more.
While some STACK customers will strictly use the takeoff module, the greater value flows from extending that data through later phases of activity. Keeping data in a unified enterprise application reduces manual steps and errors while preserving data integrity and transparency. Other AI capabilities round out takeoff, delivering what Powers describes as an AI-accelerated workflow.
“Our goal is not to replace the estimator, but to give them an intelligent, connected process facilitated by cloud-based software,” Powers said.
STACK AI tools can:
Read cover sheets
Identify disciplines
Organize documents into categories such as:
Architectural
Electrical
Mechanical
Plumbing
General
An embedded AI assistant also delivers intelligent chat and search, helping estimators and others surface insights from plans and documents including summaries of longer documents, specifications, and potential omissions.
Aerial Construction Imagery
Reality capture is a growing construction technology product category, and STACK embeds aerial jobsite imagery directly in the platform through an integration with Nearmap.
Aerial features include:
Top-down imagery
North, south, east and west perspectives
Bird's-eye views
Remote hazard identification
Automated scaling and measurement for quantity takeoffs
The capability can make STACK a rock-solid fit for trade contractors including:
Roofing contractors
Landscaping contractors
Hardsape, parking lot and paving
Others that engage in detailed site measurement activities
Competing with Excel for Preconstruction
There are other AI takeoff tools, but as is the case in other construction software product categories, subvertical, discipline and project mix matter. STACK primarily competes with No Solution in contractors that do not have dedicated takeoff and proposal generation software. Most rely on Microsoft Excel.
"Excel is great because it's flexible, but that's not always the best thing you want to have, because it's too flexible,” STACK Director of Solutions Consulting Jared Wasilewski said.
Wasilewski’s concern stems from the fact that Excel files lack the preventive and detective controls of an enterprise solution—processes and data can change with no centralized control or audit trail. That creates risk a solution like STACK eliminates.
"Contractors are very connected and very attached to their Excel workbooks, where they've designed and developed formulas for sometimes decades, handed down from generation to generation,” Powers said.
These spreadsheets may contain years of institutional knowledge, reflecting company-specific labor assumptions and proprietary formulas. That is why STACK offers deep integration that extends takeoff natively with Excel estimating spreadsheets. Once data is in Excel, STACK continues to ensure data integrity by updating them with real-time, cloud-synched data.
Modifications made to a takeoff in STACK can ripple through hundreds of line items and proposals instantly, significantly speeding up estimate reviews and variance identification.
Who Is It For?
While online software media thrives on listicles and “best of” lists, the AI takeoff sector is one more proof point that there is no single best solution for every contractor. STACK, with its historical focus, its concentration on self-performing trade contractors rather than general contractors, and its aerial imagery, makes it a solid fit for certain contractors.
Generals who do not self-perform, and those with low bidding volume, are probably not the best fits for STACK. But commercial specialty trade contractors, self-performing general contractors and construction material suppliers that perform significant estimating activity and want to improve the speed, accuracy and scalability of preconstruction workflows should probably learn more about the product. STACK may be a no-brainer for roofing, waterproofing, insulation, concrete, masonry and interior finish trade contractors seeking a cloud-native platform that combines takeoff, estimating, proposal generation and AI-assisted productivity while preserving estimator expertise and existing Excel-based processes.
BOTTOM LINE
We’ll be delving more deeply into STACK Construction Technology in the coming weeks and will share more of what we discover. But STACK is remarkable as an early example of a pragmatic AI application that solves specific problems for trade contractors. What’s more is that the company is mature enough to swap technologies in and out of the application, as evidenced by STACK Assist giving way to STACK iQ, which offers more robust functionality more broadly across the application. The modular nature of the product set also means contractors can start with one function and then expand their usage when the time is right for them. The freemium nature of the product also means smaller contractors can adopt and run on the product for some time; with the confidence they can transition into a paid subscription as they grow. Here is a company laser-focused on a specific set of trade contractors, making heavy and ongoing investment to serve them better, and taking mature steps towards an AI-assisted future.
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