AI for architects · Sydney

AI for architects: give the hours back to the drawings

In most practices the design is the part everyone protects and the admin is the part that quietly eats it. Fee proposals rewritten from the last one, minutes typed up after the meeting, consultant comments chased by email, timesheets reconciled at month end. I help architecture practices turning over one to ten million take that load off, one small step at a time, using the systems you already run.

Start a conversation How it works

Where a practice’s week actually goes

Ask any director of a small or mid-sized practice where the week went and design is rarely the answer. A fee proposal that takes half a day because the scope has to be pieced together from three earlier jobs. A client meeting whose minutes are not out until Thursday. A structural engineer’s markup sitting in someone’s inbox while the set goes to council without it. Timesheets that do not match the stage, so nobody is sure whether the job is still making money.

None of it is hard. All of it is constant, and it lands on registered architects and project leads whose hours are the most expensive in the building. That is the kind of work AI is now good at: reading documents and email, comparing them against each other, drafting the next thing in your format, and putting a short list in front of a person to check.

This is not about a new platform or touching your models. You keep ArchiCAD or Revit, Synergy, Deltek or Xero, your templates and your project folders. The job is to connect AI to what you already run, so the paperwork around the design is drafted for you and your people review it instead of writing it.

What I’d take off your plate first

Usually ArchiCAD or Revit for drawings, Synergy, Deltek or a spreadsheet for jobs and timesheets, Xero or MYOB for money, and Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for email, folders and everything else. I connect AI to those, rather than asking you to replace them.

Fee proposals from your past work

A brief, a site address and a few notes become a fee proposal in your template, with scope, stages and exclusions drawn from comparable past jobs. The director sets the fee and checks the words instead of rebuilding them.

Meeting minutes and actions

Client, consultant and site meetings turned into minutes in your format, with actions assigned by name and date, filed to the project and sent once someone has read them.

Consultant coordination

Markups, RFIs and emails from engineers, surveyors and certifiers read as they arrive, logged against the project, and outstanding items listed before each issue so nothing goes out with a comment still open.

DA and CDC documentation

Statements, schedules and cover letters drafted from your drawings list, the planning controls and earlier submissions, and council requests for information summarised with a first draft of the response.

Specifications and schedules

Specification sections and finishes schedules started from your master and from similar projects, with changes since the last issue flagged, so the documenter edits rather than retypes.

Timesheets, WIP and invoicing

Hours checked against stages each week, jobs running over flagged early with a sentence on why, and stage invoices drafted for Xero or your practice system the day a stage is reached.

And the admin every office has

The same work turns up in every practice: email, spreadsheets, documents, and a Microsoft or Google setup that grew without a plan.

Invoicing and accounts payable

Supplier bills read, coded and matched to the order or the job before they reach Xero or MYOB. Mismatches drafted into an email for someone to approve. Overdue invoices chased politely, on a schedule.

Email that answers itself, nearly

The inbox triaged each morning, routine replies drafted in your tone, attachments filed to the right folder, and a short list of what actually needs you today.

Spreadsheets you stop rebuilding

The weekly report that someone copies and pastes together every Monday, produced before you arrive, with a sentence on why the number moved.

Documents and slides

Proposals, letters, reports and board slides drafted from your own templates and your own past work, so the first draft is eighty per cent there rather than a blank page.

Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, set up properly

Shared drives that make sense, permissions that match who you are now, and AI connected to mail, calendar and files the same way for everyone instead of five people doing it five ways.

Project and job tracking

Status updates written from what actually happened in email and the job system, tasks pulled out of meeting notes, and a morning brief per person of what is due.

How it works: audit, roadmap, implementation, training, support

Sold one step at a time. Each step is quoted before it starts, stands on its own, and you decide after each one whether to take the next. Most businesses your size go from the audit to a working, trained setup in three to six months.

Audit

Two weeks, fixed price. A map of every system you run, a ten-minute staff survey, a few five-minute screen recordings of the work that eats the week, and short conversations with the people who run the business. It costs your team minutes, not hours.
Roadmap

A ninety-day plan written from what the audit found: which processes first, ranked by admin removed against cost and risk, which AI plan and accounts your team should be on, and a two-page policy on what may go in. Every item has its own price.
Implementation

I build the first one or two automations inside your own Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, connected to the systems you already run. AI drafts, a person approves anything that leaves the building, and it runs beside the manual way until you trust it.
Training

Your team learns on their own work, not on demos. One standard setup for everyone, a short session per group, and one-to-one time with the two or three people who will carry it once I step back.
Support

A light monthly retainer: one call, a one-page summary, fixes, and the next routine your team worked out promoted into something the business runs. I read the AI news so your people do not have to.

Use AI without handing over your clients’ data

A practice’s files hold things clients trust you with: their home or site, their budget, sometimes their family plans or a commercial deal not yet public. They also hold your fee history and the way you price, which you would rather competitors never saw. None of it needs to leave your own accounts for AI to be useful.

The work happens inside your Microsoft or Google tenant on a business AI plan, with a company account for every person who uses it. Nothing goes into a free chatbot, your models and drawings stay where they are, and anything that goes to a client, consultant or council waits for a person to say yes.

The basics, every time

Company accounts on a business AI plan, never personal logins. Business plans do not train on your data.
AI connected to your own Microsoft or Google tenant, so files stay where they already live and access is revoked in one place.
A two-page policy your team can actually remember: which accounts, what may go in, what never does.
Everything I build lives in your accounts and is logged. I work from a staff login, not the master key.

Where most start

A typical first project: meeting minutes and consultant actions

The quick win in a practice is often the meeting. A recording or rough notes become minutes in your template with actions by name, filed to the job and drafted to everyone who attended. It runs beside the usual way for a few weeks until the team trusts it. From there, fee proposals and the weekly timesheet check are usually next.

Where I work

Based in the Sutherland Shire. In person across these areas, remote everywhere else in Australia.

Sutherland Shire

Cronulla, Miranda, Caringbah, Sutherland, Gymea and around.

Southern Highlands

Bowral, Mittagong, Moss Vale, Exeter, Robertson and around.

St George

Hurstville, Kogarah, Rockdale, Sans Souci, Bexley and around.

Eastern Suburbs

Bondi Junction, Double Bay, Paddington, Woollahra, Randwick and around.

Frequently asked questions

Will AI touch our drawings or models?

Not unless you want it to, and it is rarely where the time goes. The admin around the drawings is where the hours are: proposals, minutes, coordination, submissions and invoicing. Your ArchiCAD or Revit files stay exactly as they are.

We use Synergy (or Deltek, or a spreadsheet). Do we need to change?

No. I connect AI to what you already run. Where your practice system has a way in, I use it. Where it does not, I start from exports and move to a proper connection later.

Can AI write our fee proposals?

It can write the first draft: the scope, stages, exclusions and assumptions, drawn from your own past proposals. The fee itself stays with a director. That is judgement about the client and the job, and it should stay human.

We are a small studio. Is this worth it?

If a director is spending evenings on proposals and month-end timesheets, usually yes. The audit will say so honestly, and if a tidier template would do the job, I will tell you that instead.

How much of my team’s time does this take?

Minutes, by design. Ten for the survey, ten for an optional screen recording, an hour with the key people. Whoever runs operations spends two or three hours across the first fortnight.

Do we have to commit to the whole thing?

No. Every step is quoted on its own and you decide after each one. Plenty of businesses take the audit and one project, and stop there until they see it working.

Are you tied to a particular AI vendor?

No. I lead with Claude because I think it is the strongest all-rounder for business work today, and I work just as happily with Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT or Gemini if that is what your team already uses. Everything is built so the model is one part you can swap.

Questions architects ask me

ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot: which should my business use?

Pick one and standardise, on a business plan. If your business lives in Outlook, Teams and SharePoint, Copilot is the natural start; if you want the strongest all-rounder for writing and documents, I lead with Claude; ChatGPT is a sound choice too. All three can connect to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace now.

What is an AI connector, and why does it matter?

A connector links an AI assistant to a system you already use, such as your email, calendar or shared drive, so it can find and read things itself. It matters because without one you are the connector: copying text in and pasting answers out.

Running a practice and doing the admin at night?

Tell me what you run, how many people, and what eats the most time. I will tell you honestly whether an audit is worth it.

Tell me about your business

Tell me what you're dealing with

Three lines is plenty. I reply personally, usually within a day, and the first call is free.