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Private AI for an
engineering firm.

Project files are valuable, versioned and often contract-sensitive. A local AI system can help staff find and prepare work without turning a public chatbot into another uncontrolled project repository.

By Harry Ycas and Matt Hicks, co-founders · 31 August 2026

Where it helps

  • Project search. Find the relevant specification, RFI, calculation note, site instruction or meeting decision and return the source passage beside the answer.
  • Site notes to drafts. Turn dictated observations into a structured inspection-note or report draft using the firm’s template.
  • Revision comparison. Summarise what changed between two issued documents, while leaving technical acceptance with the responsible engineer.
  • Meeting actions. Extract decisions, owners, due dates and unresolved technical questions from a recorded project meeting.
  • Repeatable checks. Fit calculators, registers and document checklists where the inputs, formulae and output can be acceptance-tested.

The system must respect project control

An assistant should not silently mix superseded and current documents. The deployment scope names the authoritative folders, revision conventions, matter boundaries and output locations. Cited answers make checking faster; they do not make an uncontrolled source current.

Engineers Australia’s ethics and professional-conduct material remains relevant to judgement, competence and responsibility. For construction work, the applicable jurisdiction and approved code matter; Safe Work Australia explains the status of model Codes of Practice.

What stays local

In the standard offline configuration, project documents, prompts, recordings and model inference remain on the customer appliance. Web research, cloud document systems, email, updates, remote support and off-site fine-tuning are connection or data-handling exceptions. The quote and configuration record name each enabled path.

How to test the fit

Choose three examples: a clean current project file, a messy revision history and one awkward report that normally takes hours. Remove client secrets for the demonstration. Those examples become acceptance tests for retrieval, source citation, formatting and access boundaries before handover.

Book a 20-minute walkthrough and bring one repeatable engineering workflow.

Questions

Asked by engineering teams

Can it make an engineering decision?

No. It can retrieve project material, structure notes, compare documents and prepare drafts. A competent person still checks the source, calculation, design assumption and final professional work.

Can it work with drawings and site photos?

That is scoped against the actual formats and workflow. If image or drawing work is included, the written quote names the accepted inputs and the acceptance test proves the agreed examples before handover.

Does project data stay local?

In the standard offline configuration, project files, prompts, recordings and model inference stay on the appliance. Research, external integrations, updates, remote support and off-site fine-tuning are separately recorded exceptions.

Will it replace document control?

No. It should work with the controlled system of record, not invent a second one. The scope records approved sources, revision handling, output location and the human approval step.