The Problem
A 2,400-staff construction firm running multiple large infrastructure projects across western India was losing time and money to documentation drag. Requests for Information (RFIs). the standard mechanism for resolving construction-site questions with architects/engineers. averaged 11 days from issue to closure. Each delayed RFI delayed dependent work; project managers estimated 14% of total schedule slippage came from RFI bottlenecks alone. Vendor invoicing was paper-heavy; the central AP team was perpetually 3 weeks behind.
The COO's challenge: cut RFI cycle time and stop losing money to documentation friction without disrupting on-site teams.
What I Built
1. RFI lifecycle automation. Site engineers issue RFIs via mobile app (with photos and drawings annotated). Claude classifies the RFI type, routes to the right architect/engineer based on project + discipline, and tracks SLA. Auto-reminders escalate gradually through a pre-agreed chain. Closed RFIs feed a knowledge base. when a similar question is asked next time, the AI surfaces the past resolution.
2. Vendor invoice OCR + 3-way match. Vendor invoices (paper, scanned to email) flow through Azure Form Recognizer for layout parsing + Claude for line-item interpretation. The system runs a 3-way match against the PO and goods-receipt note. Routine matches auto-approve into the ERP; exceptions route with specific reasons.
3. Project document organisation. The vast SharePoint document libraries are indexed by AI; project teams can query in natural language ("show me all approved structural drawings for Site B Tower 4") rather than clicking through folders. New documents are auto-tagged on upload. discipline, project, drawing type, revision.
4. Compliance and safety audit trails. Daily site safety reports are aggregated, missing entries flagged to site managers, and trends surfaced to the central HSE team. Compliance documentation that previously required dedicated admin headcount now generates automatically.
Outcome
The firm completed two large projects ahead of schedule for the first time in five years, directly traced to RFI velocity. ₹6.8 crore of annualised savings (a mix of avoided liquidated damages, faster supplier payments earning early-payment discounts, and AP labour redirected). The CTO's KPI for the year ("double project document searchability") was hit by month 4.