# Harnessing AI for Preconstruction Excellence How Nibbi Brothers General Contractors Leverages Firmus AI to streamline design reviews, mitigate risks, and gain a competitive edge ## ABOUT NIBBI BROTHERS GENERAL CONTRACTORS Nibbi has been constructing technically complex, iconic structures in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1950. The company has the knowledge and experience required to deliver the region’s most challenging, logistically difficult, and sustainable projects. Nibbi bases its success on the continued and focused application of three key strategies: The Right Goals, The Right Team, The Right Approach. ## Mission Servicing our clients and community by building safely with integrity, innovation and quality. ### Situation Nibbi has learned from decades of experience that the right approach is honest, collaborative, proactive, and supported by advanced technology. Nibbi knows that early team collaboration and proactive problem-solving can help maximize quality and avoid significant problems down the road. Their expert use of technology leads to fewer change orders and related budget/schedule impacts. In addition, Nibbi is unique in that it employs architects in-house, primarily focused on reviewing design drawings for buildability, cost, and risk mitigation, making Nibbi’s QA/QC department more robust than other GCs who typically tackle these issues when they start construction. Nibbi QA Project Manager Anita Hsieh, a licensed architect, is tapped into the architecture and QA/QC communities and keeps abreast of new technologies and tools. “We try to keep an eye on things that are making waves, but we’re very cautious about jumping into anything until we can see how we can use the tools for projects that are on the books,” said Hsieh. “Testing new software takes a lot of time and there has to be an investment on both sides.” ### Opportunity Several years ago, one of Nibbi’s Project Executive’s brought Firmus to the team’s attention as a company using AI to review design plans. “If there are technologies that exist that could either make us more efficient, more productive, improve the quality of our buildings, then we’d be foolish not to take a look,” said Mukesh Darke, Director of Information Technology at Nibbi. Initially, when AI was emerging in the construction space, no one understood exactly how it worked and many people felt it might threaten their job security. “I was actually excited about the possibility that it could save me some time on mundane tasks,” said Hsieh. “Once we saw Firmus’ analysis firsthand, my reaction was, okay, these are things that I would probably not even get to just because I don’t have the time to sift through drawings and look at all the little things that might be missing. But now that I have a tool that shows me pages are missing, tags are missing, discrepancies are present, I’m like, wow, this is important information.” Hsieh continued, “I think in the beginning it was more of me building trust with the tool. All these things were found, and I spent some time fact-checking, and I realized, okay, all these things are correct, and maybe they’re repetitive, but that’s what the tool is supposed to do, right? I think it’s been great, now that I have built that trust, I don’t have to spend time backchecking the findings. It’s been great to know that I have the confidence that I know what it’s doing, and it’s comfortable with the content that I’m feeding it. ### Benefits Firmus’ AI analyzes construction drawings to identify design related issues early, reducing the chance of costly mistakes and disputes. It provides insights for informed decision-making, and empowers professionals by automating mundane and time-consuming tasks, allowing them to focus on strategic project aspects and improving job satisfaction. Nibbi leverages Firmus AI for efficiency, actionable insights, and collaboration. “At the end of the day, I can sleep better knowing I did as thorough a job as I could with the tools I had.” — Anita Hsieh, AIA, QA Project Manager ### 01. Efficiency Nibbi’s QA/QC team is accustomed to spending a lot of time on deep dives into their projects to ensure success. Adding Firmus to their set of tools provides a high level of consistency and takes a significant load off the team related to those more tedious tasks. ### 02. Actionable Insights Firmus AI analyzes construction drawings to identify incomplete design, scope gaps, missing information, and discrepancies. It allows users to efficiently address identified issues, ensuring project accuracy, and enabling them to gain a competitive edge. ### 03. Collaboration “We recently had a project where the architect was impressed that we’re using an AI tool. We started scanning drawings, maybe in the mid CDs, and overall, you can sense the level of drawing competency increases each time they submit. I think the architect appreciates having multiple tools at their disposal. It’s more like a team effort. It’s improved the way we interact with them over time.” ## Final Thoughts “Firmus AI is very easy to work with, and they are great people to work with. They’re genuinely receptive to our input, not just receiving the input and blowing it off. They really do take into account what our thoughts are and appreciate it. And the feeling is mutual,” said Darke. ## ABOUT FIRMUS Firmus is the market leader in preconstruction AI design review and risk analysis. Firmus’ easy-to-use platform enables general contractors, developers, and AEC stakeholders to detect and mitigate design issues early.