AI for MEP estimating, takeoff and design in 2026: what trade-focused vendors say they do

Bid intake and estimating

Rebar is built for commercial mechanical teams: it reads, tags and prioritizes inbound bid requests, does AI ductwork takeoff covering weight, materials, lengths and accessories, and answers spec questions while citing the clause it read. Countfire counts symbols across every drawing, flags missed symbols, and describes its Smart Select as AI trained on real takeoff data.

Pelles AI describes a broader trade-contractor platform: agents, drawing, spec and scope comparison, QA/QC checklists, RFIs and submittals. A Rebar customer quoted on its site says a project that took up to 2 days now takes 6 to 8 hours; Pelles cites 100+ hours saved per project. These are vendor and customer claims.

Coordination, cost and materials

BidLight runs inside Revit and Navisworks, diffs exports element by element, and shows what changes cost revision by revision; it publishes per-licence prices from $30 per month. Kojo covers trade materials management, with AI invoice scanning that matches invoices to POs and delivery slips.

Design: the engineer's side

Endra targets MEP engineers rather than contractors. It lists electrical design (power distribution, lighting, fire alarm, circuiting, cable and equipment sizing, routing) as live, mechanical as ETA 2027, and plumbing as in development. It describes firm Playbooks of design standards, agents for tasks such as cable routing, and two-way Revit sync, and claims a 12x productivity increase.

Pricing

BidLight is the only one of the six with public prices (Basics $30, Core $39, Complete $51 per licence per month). Countfire's FAQ mentions a free 7-day trial. Kojo offers a custom quote. Rebar, Pelles and Endra route to demos or calls.

What to ask before a pilot

These are our suggestions, not findings. For takeoff, run a past mechanical set your team has already taken off by hand and compare duct lengths, weights and fixture counts. For spec Q&A, check that every answer cites a clause you can open. For design tools, ask which code editions and families they support.