Software and intelligence

37 terms in software and intelligence

Reconstruction Tax

The Reconstruction Tax is the hidden, recurring cost a construction business carries when the understanding of a job is rebuilt from scratch at each handover between estimating, procurement, site, accounts and management, because traditional construction software stores job data without preserving an understanding of the job. VIABUILD coined the term and is built to eliminate it. The Reconstruction Tax guide. See also: System of understanding, Re-keying.

Re-keying

Re-keying is manually typing information into one system that already exists in another, the estimate re-entered as a budget, the quote re-entered as an order. Every re-key is a chance to lose intent and introduce error, and it is the day-to-day mechanism of the Reconstruction Tax. Estimate to budget handover reference. See also: Reconstruction Tax.

Construction Operating System

A Construction Operating System is software that runs the connected workflows of a building business, estimating, procurement, scheduling, site, claims and finance, on one shared model of each job, rather than a set of disconnected tools. VIABUILD describes itself as the Construction Operating System for residential builders. AI construction operating system page. See also: System of understanding.

System of understanding

A system of understanding is software that holds a structured model of how a build fits together and interprets information once for every later workflow, rather than storing documents for humans to re-interpret at each step. It is the philosophy behind VIABUILD, in contrast to a system of record. System of understanding page. See also: System of record, Interpret once principle.

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

The Model Context Protocol is an open standard that gives an AI application one consistent way to discover the tools another system offers and call them. A system that runs an MCP server publishes named tools with descriptions and inputs; a compatible AI agent lists them, calls one and reasons over the result. VIABUILD runs an MCP server per workspace so compatible agents can read authorised job data and draft permitted records, with sending and paying left to a person. VIABUILD MCP feature page. See also: AI agent, System of understanding.

AI agent

An AI agent is an AI application that can take multi-step actions through tools, rather than only answering questions. A normal AI assistant can answer questions; an agent connected to a construction system through MCP can work with authorised live business information and perform permitted actions. The useful test for a builder is where the agent stops: preparing and drafting is agent work, while sending, approving and paying should stay with a person. AI agents in construction. See also: Model Context Protocol (MCP).

System of record

A system of record is software that stores information as the authoritative copy, a filing cabinet with search. It keeps data without preserving an understanding of the job, which is why every handover out of it requires a human to rebuild context. System of understanding page. See also: System of understanding.

Interpret once principle

The interpret once principle holds that information should only need to be understood once, a room identified at estimating, a supplier recognised in accounts, each serving every later workflow instead of being re-entered. It is the working rule that eliminates the Reconstruction Tax. System of understanding page. See also: Reconstruction Tax.

Construction Intelligence

Construction Intelligence is software that holds a structural understanding of how a job fits together and reasons over it, the shared model that estimator, site, accounts and client can all read. It is understanding first and automation as a consequence, not automation bolted onto storage. Construction Intelligence reference. See also: Structured intelligence.

Structured intelligence

Structured intelligence is intelligence that works from a connected model of the build, the jobs, cost lines, orders, invoices, claims and schedule and how they connect, rather than from raw documents alone. Because it knows what a piece of information is and where it belongs, its output is specific, grounded and checkable rather than a guess to be trusted. Oryn feature page. See also: Oryn, Grounded.

Oryn

Oryn is VIABUILD’s embedded intelligence layer. It reads the one shared understanding of a job and brings the right context to each decision, reading documents, matching invoices to orders, drafting claims and answering questions with sources, while never changing a record touching money or legal on its own. Oryn is a name, not an acronym, and not a chatbot. Oryn feature page. See also: Structured intelligence, Trust grammar.

Trust grammar

The trust grammar is the visual language that keeps a human in control of AI in VIABUILD. Amber means a candidate waiting on you, green means committed and confirmed by a human, every AI value cites its source, and money and legal never auto-commit. AI in construction guide. See also: Candidate and committed, Staged action.

Candidate and committed

Candidate and committed are the two states of any value AI prepares in VIABUILD. A value Oryn has extracted or suggested is a candidate, shown amber, until a human commits it, at which point it turns green and becomes part of the record. AI in construction guide. See also: Trust grammar.

Staged action

A staged action is a prepared, human-readable summary of exactly what an AI system will do, frozen in a plain sentence, that is only carried out when the user confirms it. It is the only way Oryn changes a record from an instruction, with permissions re-checked at the moment of confirmation. Construction AI assistant page. See also: Trust grammar.

Grounded (AI)

Grounded means every value and answer an AI system produces carries the exact source it came from, a document and page or the in-app screen. A grounded system is forbidden from using outside knowledge, answers only from the material in front of it, and says so when it does not know rather than guessing. Construction AI assistant page. See also: Structured intelligence.

Deterministic engine

A deterministic engine is a precise, repeatable calculation with no language model involved, used wherever numbers, geometry or matching must be exact, cash flow forecasts, budget variance, purchase order matching and takeoff measurement. The same inputs always produce the same answer, which is why money maths should never be left to a model. AI in construction guide. See also: Model assisted, Blended engine.

Model assisted

Model assisted describes a capability where a language model does the language work, reading an invoice, coding a line, drafting a note, always grounded in the job’s real data and always presented as a suggestion for a human to confirm. The language is the model’s job; the numbers stay deterministic. AI in construction guide. See also: Deterministic engine.

Blended engine

A blended engine reads everything it can with deterministic rules first and calls a language model only for what rules cannot resolve. A fully machine-readable document can be processed with no model call at all, which keeps the work fast, cheap and exact wherever exactness is possible. AI in construction guide. See also: Deterministic engine, Model assisted.

Language model

A language model is AI that reads and produces natural language. In construction software it is genuinely useful where language is the actual problem, reading documents and drafting words, and unreliable as a source of numbers, which is why trustworthy systems keep calculations deterministic and use models only for language. AI in construction guide. See also: Model assisted.

Document intelligence

Document intelligence is software that reads construction documents into structured meaning, classifying the document, extracting its facts with the page each came from, and filing it against the right job. Trustworthy systems are built deterministic-first, keep every extraction traceable to its source, and leave commitment to a human. Document intelligence reference. See also: Grounded.

Variance alert

A variance alert is an automatic notification that fires when a job’s cost position crosses a defined threshold against budget. Done properly it is deterministic, an exact calculation on real figures, not an AI estimate, and it exists so a drifting job is seen while the drift can still be acted on. AI construction project management page. See also: Deterministic engine.

AI takeoff

AI takeoff is software-assisted quantity measurement from plans, done properly with deterministic computer vision and geometry, one click to fill and measure a room, reading the architect’s printed dimensions and trusting them over inference. It is precise measurement from the drawing, not a language model guessing at the plan. AI takeoff software page. See also: Takeoff.

AI estimating

AI estimating is the honest use of AI inside the estimating workflow, measured quantities, the builder’s own rates and assemblies, and a deterministic calculation producing the number, with models assisting on language tasks around it. A model can produce a rough figure; a defensible estimate stays deterministic. AI construction estimating page. See also: Deterministic engine.

AI accounts payable

AI accounts payable is software that reads a supplier invoice, matches it to the right purchase order deterministically, suggests the cost code for each line and queues it for one-tap human approval. Nothing posts on its own, and high-value or low-confidence invoices are forced to human review by design. AI accounts payable feature. See also: Invoice matching.

Construction management software

Construction management software is the category of tools a building business runs its jobs on, spanning estimating, scheduling, cost control, claims and client communication. Choosing it well is a criteria question, the must-haves, the platform versus point-solution trade-off, and the vendor questions that expose weak answers. Choosing construction software guide. See also: Point solution.

Point solution

A point solution is software that does one job well, takeoff, scheduling or safety, and leaves the rest of the business to other tools. The trade-off against a platform is integration, because every seam between point solutions is a handover where understanding is rebuilt by hand. Choosing construction software guide. See also: Construction management software.

Software integration

Software integration is connecting two systems so information flows between them without being re-entered, such as a construction platform passing invoices and costs to the accounting system. A real integration removes a re-keying handover, and a shallow one just moves the retyping somewhere else, which is the difference worth testing before relying on it. Choosing construction software guide. See also: Re-keying.

Application programming interface(API)

An application programming interface is the defined way one system lets another read or write its data, the plumbing behind an integration. Whether a construction tool has a usable API decides how well it can join the rest of a builder’s systems rather than becoming an island that has to be typed into. Choosing construction software guide. See also: Software integration.

Cloud-based software

Cloud-based software runs on remote servers and is used through a browser or app, so the same current data is available to the office and the site without installing or syncing anything. For a building business it is what lets the estimator, the supervisor and accounts work from one live picture of a job rather than emailed copies. Choosing construction software guide.

Audit trail

An audit trail is the recorded history of who changed what and when in a system. On money and contract records it is what makes a value defensible later, because a number without a history is just an assertion, and it is part of why committed and confirmed records matter more than editable ones. AI in construction guide. See also: Candidate and committed.

Role-based access

Role-based access controls what each person can see and do in a system according to their role, so a subcontractor, an estimator and an owner each get the right slice. On construction software it is what lets one shared model of a job be opened to everyone who needs it without exposing what they should not touch. AI in construction guide. See also: Staged action.

Data migration

Data migration is moving a builder’s existing jobs, contacts, cost data and history into a new system when changing software. Done well it carries the useful history across, and done badly it recreates the Reconstruction Tax on day one, which is why migration is planned as part of choosing a platform rather than left to the end. Migration page. See also: Reconstruction Tax.

Optical character recognition(OCR)

Optical character recognition is the deterministic reading of printed or scanned text into machine-readable characters, the first step in turning a paper or PDF invoice into data. It is a rules-based technology rather than a language model, which is why a machine-readable document can be read exactly with no model involved at all. Document intelligence reference. See also: Document intelligence.

Computer vision

Computer vision is software that interprets images and drawings by geometry and pattern rather than language, used in takeoff to read the lines and dimensions of a plan. Because it measures rather than guesses, a takeoff built on computer vision trusts the architect’s printed dimensions instead of inferring them. AI takeoff software page. See also: AI takeoff.

Confidence score

A confidence score is how sure an AI system is about a value it has extracted or suggested. In a trustworthy system a low score routes the item to a human rather than committing it, which is how confidence is used to protect the record instead of being shown and ignored. Construction AI assistant page. See also: Candidate and committed.

Human in the loop

Human in the loop means a person confirms an AI system’s work before it takes effect, rather than the system acting on its own. In VIABUILD it is enforced by the trust grammar, where money and legal never auto-commit and every AI value waits as a candidate until a human commits it. AI in construction guide. See also: Trust grammar.

AI hallucination

A hallucination is a confident but wrong answer a language model produces when it fills a gap with plausible invention rather than fact. It is the specific failure grounding is built to prevent, by forbidding a system from using outside knowledge and requiring every answer to cite the source it came from or say it does not know. Construction AI assistant page. See also: Grounded.