AI in architecture: design or office work?
“AI in architecture” covers two different kinds of tool: image generators and rendering tools for design and visualisation, and language models and AI agents for texts, tables and documents. If you search for it, much of what you find is of the first kind. Chaos Veras, for example, turns sketches or 3D models into realistic images and works with Revit, SketchUp, Rhino, Archicad and other programs. This guide covers the second kind: the office work around tendering, contract award and site supervision.
| Design and rendering | Office work | |
|---|---|---|
| Input | Sketch, 3D model, text description | Bills of quantities, bids, minutes, correspondence |
| Result | Images, variants, visualisations | Texts, tables, checklists |
| Typical question | Who owns the image, and does it have to be labelled? | Does every figure match its source? |
| Examples | Chaos Veras, ArkoAI | Language models, AI agents, AI features in AVA software |
How widespread AI is in the profession is shown by the 2025 professional policy survey of the German state chambers of architects (conducted by Reiß and Hommerich, 15,624 responses): 29 per cent used AI in their daily work. In practices with fewer than five staff, the figure among the self-employed was only 19 per cent.
Which office tasks in a design practice are suitable for AI?
Suitable tasks are those in which a text or table is produced from existing documents and every statement can be checked against a source. The table shows six of them.
| Task | Documents | AI delivers | You check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checking the bill of quantities | Bill of quantities as an Excel or PDF export, building description | List of gaps, contradictions and unclear items | Every reference in the bill of quantities |
| Price comparison | Bids as Excel exports or PDFs with a text layer | Table per item with all bidders, anomalies marked | Every price against the bid |
| Checking variations | Variation quote, contracted bill of quantities, contract, correspondence | Comparison of which work is new and which was already contracted | The assessment itself |
| Building description | Room schedule, notes, earlier descriptions | Draft text following your structure | Materials, dimensions, standards |
| Minutes | Typed notes, list of participants, open points | Minutes with task list and deadlines | Responsibilities and dates |
| Correspondence | Letters from the contractor, contract, minutes | Draft reply with source references | Every statement against its source |
Several of these tasks are basic services under the HOAI (German fee scale for architects and engineers). Annex 10.1 lists, in work stage 6, “drawing up specifications of works with bills of quantities by trade”, in work stage 7, “checking and evaluating the bids, including drawing up a price comparison”, likewise for bids for additional and changed work, and in work stage 8, “documenting the construction process (for example a site diary)”. AI does not change who owes these services.
The same office tasks apply to engineering practices, for example in structural design or building services engineering. For calculations, the German Federal Chamber of Engineers draws a clear line: plausibility checks and comparing the proposed solutions with the real requirements on site “are and remain indispensable”.
Tendering with AI: what works for the bill of quantities?
AI can proofread a bill of quantities, suggest item texts and check documents for completeness; the specification of works is still drawn up in your AVA software (for tendering, contract award and billing), with quantities from your design. For data exchange between AVA and estimating programs there is GAEB DA XML, the format of the Joint Committee for Electronics in Construction (GAEB). It is not standardised, but is regarded as a national standard; according to the GAEB technical documentation, data exchange phase X83 passes the invitation to tender to the bidders, X84 brings the bid back, and X86 stands for the award of contract.
- Items without a quantity or unit, and duplicate or missing item numbers
- Contradictions between preliminaries, item texts and the building description
- Brand names where you intended a product-neutral tender
- Inconsistent terms, units and quality specifications
- Work from the building description for which no item exists
Some AVA vendors have built in AI, according to their websites as of September 2026: SIDOUN KIAVA, with an assistant that checks bills of quantities and drafts specifications of works, and Phase0, which generates the basic structure of a bill of quantities in a chat and can check long texts for compliance with VOB and DIN. If you are a company responding to tenders, the other side is covered in the guide Writing a quote.
How are price comparisons and variation checks produced with AI?
From the bidders' bids, an AI agent builds a price comparison table for each item; for variations, it compares the variation quote with the contracted bill of quantities. What matters in a comparison is explained in the guide Comparing quotes.
Read the bill of quantities boq-shell.xlsx and the three bids in the subfolder bids. Create a price comparison: for each item number, the unit rates and total amounts of all bidders, with the lowest price marked and deviations of more than 20 per cent from the average highlighted. List separately any items a bidder did not price and any alternative bids. Save price-comparison-shell.csv.
- Input
- Bill of quantities and bids as Excel exports from the AVA software or as PDFs with a text layer.
- Result
- A table per item with all bidders, markings for anomalies, and a list of missing items.
- Check
- Check the total per bidder against the bid total, and read up every marked item in the bid. Evaluating the bids remains your job.
With a variation, the agent clarifies two questions in advance: is the work already contained in an item or in the preliminaries of the contracted bill of quantities? And how do the variation prices compare with comparable unit rates in the main bid? Whether a variation is justified, and in what amount, is assessed by the practice according to the contract and the law.
“The results of AI-based calculations cannot replace human judgement.”
What applies to plans, copyright and confidentiality?
Plans and designs are protected by copyright if they are personal intellectual creations; § 2 UrhG (German Copyright Act) expressly mentions works of architecture and their designs, as well as technical representations such as drawings and plans. For designs created with AI tools, the German Federal Chamber of Architects considers that the copyright questions depend on the AI used, the software's terms of use and the individual case.
- Check your architect's or engineer's contract for confidentiality clauses.
- For contracts awarded under the VgV (German Public Procurement Ordinance), the public contracting authority must ensure the confidentiality of bids, including their annexes (§ 5(2) VgV); clarify with the authority whether bids may go into an AI tool.
- Only have personal data of private clients, neighbours or bidders' employees processed under a data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR; more in the guide DPAs for AI tools.
- Only use tools whose provider undertakes not to use inputs for training.
- Read the terms of use of image generators before AI designs go to clients.
Alongside the AVA software, not instead of it: Biwak in a design practice
Biwak suits the document work alongside the AVA software, not instead of it. Create a folder for each contract package and export the bill of quantities and bids from the AVA software as Excel files in .xlsx format or as PDFs with a text layer; Biwak does not read the old .xls format. In the desktop app, you describe what the AI agent should produce from them, and it saves the result, such as a price comparison table or a list of contradictions, as a new file, reliably as CSV, HTML or Markdown. Before each task, Biwak backs up the folder. This checkpoint is not a substitute for your own data backup: it only covers the working folder, keeps older states only for a limited time, and only newer app versions include large plan documents in PDF format.
- Proofreading a bill of quantities from an Excel or PDF export
- Price comparison table from the Excel exports of several bids
- Holding a variation quote up against the contracted bill of quantities
- Minutes and building descriptions from typed notes
- No substitute for AVA or BIM software and no GAEB import; work with Excel, CSV or PDF exports
- No web search in the desktop app, so no research into standards or court rulings
- No text recognition for scanned documents; Biwak does not promise to analyse drawings and plans as graphics
- No building description or minutes as a finished Word or PDF file from the desktop app: you transfer the text into your office template; only the browser workspace at biwak.ai/chat, a preview feature, has such tools
Frequently asked questions
Can AI draw up a bill of quantities?
It can suggest item texts and proofread a bill of quantities; some AVA programs have built-in features for this. The quantities come from your design, and drawing up the specifications of works remains a service of the practice, for buildings a basic service of work stage 6 (HOAI Annex 10.1). Check every suggestion before it goes into the tender.
What is GAEB?
GAEB stands for the Joint Committee for Electronics in Construction. Its format GAEB DA XML is used to exchange bills of quantities and bids between AVA and estimating programs, for example X83 for the invitation to tender and X84 for submitting the bid. It is not standardised, but is regarded as a national standard.
Who owns designs created with AI?
There is no blanket answer. Only personal intellectual creations are protected by copyright (§ 2(2) UrhG), and according to the German Federal Chamber of Architects, the answer depends on the AI used, the terms of use and the individual case. Read the tool's terms before you pass on AI designs.
Do I have to label AI visualisations?
The transparency obligations of the EU AI Act have applied since 2 August 2026. For photorealistic AI renderings in real photos, the German Federal Chamber of Architects recommends the note “Visualisation created using AI-based tools”. Whether your image is covered depends on its content and use.
Can AI calculate quantities and costs instead of the AVA software?
It is not built for that: quantities, cost estimates, GAEB exchange and award documentation remain in the AVA software, where they are documented traceably. AI checks texts, builds comparison tables from exports and drafts letters; some AVA vendors are now building such features in themselves.
Sources
- HOAI, Annex 10: basic services for buildings and interiors
- GAEB: frequently asked questions on GAEB data exchange
- GAEB: technical documentation GAEB DA XML 3.3, May 2021 (PDF)
- § 121 GWB: specification of works
- § 5 VgV: maintaining confidentiality
- § 2 UrhG: protected works
- German Federal Chamber of Architects: artificial intelligence, question 7 (data, data protection and copyright)
- German Federal Chamber of Architects: artificial intelligence, question 11 (Do I have to disclose my use of AI?)
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), Art. 50 and Art. 113
- German Federal Chamber of Engineers: Responsibility of engineers in the age of artificial intelligence (20 June 2025)
- Deutsches Architektenblatt: AI in architecture: how far has practice really got? (16 April 2026)
This text is not legal advice. It is the groundwork we had to do for ourselves, with the legal references, so that your lawyer does not have to start from scratch. Where a question depends on your circumstances, the text says so.