An AI knowledge base for residential developers

The plan the buyer is asking for

Suppose a buyer and developer have agreed to move a partition wall in the buyer's unit. The accepted change is recorded in the unit's file, with a revised plan attached. The document library still contains the earlier plan and the layout used in sales materials. A new customer-care colleague receives a request for the plan showing the change.

The assistant can find the correct unit's file, identify the agreement, and provide a link to the drawing. In this example, a short explanation might read: “A revised plan is attached to the accepted partition-wall change for this unit. Here are the agreement and its attachment.” The links take the colleague to both records. They can check the unit number and what was agreed, then prepare a reply with the appropriate file.

The colleague can also see why this plan answers the question. They do not have to choose a drawing based only on a similar filename or the date it was added to a folder. The attachment's connection to the specific agreement explains the choice. The brochure layout may still serve a sales purpose, but it does not show the individual change described here.

When the project team needs to answer

Finding the agreed plan answers a request for a document. If the buyer also asks whether the wall has been built in its new position, customer care needs information from the project team. The accepted change alone does not establish that the work is complete.

Customer care can forward a focused question with the plan: has the change shown in this agreement been completed in this unit? The project colleague receives a specific issue to clarify, rather than a request to find everything concerning the unit. Their answer can then be kept with the same file, so the next colleague does not have to start over.

The same approach helps if the change record has no drawing attached. The colleague needs clarification from the person coordinating buyer changes. The assistant can show what it found and what is still missing from the answer.

What your current document library can do

Before commissioning a separate application, follow the path from a buyer's question to the document. If the unit's file already links to the agreement and attached plan, making that view available to customer care may be enough. With well-maintained files, ordinary search by development, building, and unit number may meet the need.

Project document tools also help people work with successive versions. Autodesk's Forma Data Management tutorial summary lists uploading new versions, reviewing version history, and comparing files. Check those capabilities in your current tool if people spend time establishing what changed in a drawing. The link between a plan and a particular buyer's agreement is separate information the firm needs to maintain.

An AI knowledge base has a stronger case when the records are scattered: buyer correspondence sits in the customer system, the agreement in change documentation, and the drawing in the project library. A colleague can describe the question in their own words, and the assistant can help bring those materials together. If unit numbers repeat across buildings, the colleague should name the building as well.

Employees should be able to open documents for the buyers they support, under the access permissions set by the firm. The buyer-change coordinator remains responsible for keeping the agreed plans with the correct files.

If the project team's main need is to recover the reasoning behind earlier design choices, see our article on Company Brain for engineering design consultancies.

Discussing the work with Syntalith

Syntalith builds Company Brain applications that help employees find answers in company records. We could start with questions about accepted buyer changes in one development. The proposed project would connect unit files with their documents, giving the colleague a short explanation and links to the agreement and its attachments.

The buyer-change coordinator would help check whether the assistant finds the right materials. Customer care would assess whether those materials let them prepare a reply without further searching. Working through a few familiar cases together would also show whether the difficulty comes from scattered documents or missing information that needs to be added first.

For a first conversation, describe a recent buyer question that sent a colleague to the project team for help, and where the relevant documents are stored. See Syntalith's pricing page for commercial information.