How Firmus’ AI catches Problems Before They Cost You

And why the Bluebeam-Firmus pairing might just be the right tool at the right time

September 16, 2025 | By Frank Kalman

In construction, the most expensive mistakes rarely announce themselves. They hide in plain sight—buried in a drawing set everyone swears has been “thoroughly reviewed.” Then the job starts, and suddenly:

• The RFI no one should have had to write.
• The scope gap you only find when the trade crews are already standing there.
• The tiny detail error that quietly burns weeks and bleeds six figures from your budget.

Rework quietly devours budgets. Direct rework averages around 5% of total project spend in the United States, and when you count the ripple effects, some studies put the hit closer to 9–20%. Add the roughly $1,080 it takes to process each RFI, and you see why so many projects feel like they’re running uphill.

Why this keeps happening

Despite investments in BIM, 3D coordination and digital twins, the universal language of construction is still the PDF drawing set. Architects draw them. Engineers redline them. Contractors bid from them. Owners sign off on them. Every stakeholder touches them—and that’s exactly where risk hides.

As Firmus founder Shir Abecasis explains:

“Design or construction documents are the language of construction. Everyone communicates through drawings.”

Firmus’ origin story

The “aha moment” came when Abecasis’ team saw drawings instructing field crews to build things incorrectly.

“That’s when we realized: this is data—if only AI could read it, these mistakes could be caught early.”

That insight sparked Firmus’ mission: to treat PDFs as true data and build an AI engine that understands the unique, complex language of construction drawings. Abecasis credits her team’s humility and persistence.

“I’m most proud of the Firmus team—humble, can-do, unafraid of tackling hard problems. We focused on the hardest challenge, understanding PDFs as true data, because that’s where the value is.”

AI built for construction, not the internet

Most AI models are trained on internet text. Firmus trained its model on construction drawings, so its insights are purpose-built for the jobsite.

Firmus doesn’t scan emails or contracts first—it starts with the drawings themselves, flagging gaps and inconsistencies quickly and reliably. Its interface highlights missing tags, referenced sheets and conflicts directly on the drawings.

No AI smoke-and-mirrors: when Firmus finds an issue, you see the exact sheets and callouts, side by side, where the problem lives. The human stays in charge—now with a machine that catches the “how did we miss that?” moments.

Validated through partnership

To bring that intelligence straight into existing workflows, Firmus joined forces with Bluebeam, the jobsite’s trusted platform for marking up and collaborating on drawings.

Rather than introducing yet another standalone tool, Firmus’ AI now surfaces risks inside the PDFs teams already use—no extra exporting or toggling required. Bluebeam CEO Usman Shuja noted that Firmus “solved one of the biggest problems in the ecosystem: understanding drawings … it’s PDF-native and fits perfectly.”

For Firmus, the partnership is about reach, not identity: Bluebeam validates the approach and ensures more AEC professionals can access Firmus’ insights—without changing how they work.

Moving past AI hype

The construction industry has seen plenty of “game-changing” AI tools that wilt under real-world conditions—bots that predict schedules but ignore sequencing, OCR tools that strip PDFs of context. Firmus took a different path: embedding intelligence exactly where the work happens, in the language the industry already speaks.

As Abecasis explained: “Most AI models are trained on internet text. Firmus trained ours on construction drawings—a unique, complex language—so the insights are purpose-built for this industry.”

What’s next

Firmus is continuing to refine its drawing-level intelligence while expanding integration points so project teams can catch risks earlier and win more jobs by establishing trust with clients. Bluebeam customers will start seeing Firmus-powered insights natively in their workflows, but Firmus remains focused on its mission: fewer surprises in the field and more predictable, successful projects.

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See how Firmus can surface risks before they cost you.

Schedule a demo or explore our case studies to learn how drawing-level AI can save time, money and headaches on your next project.