# Agentic Workflow > An agentic workflow is a business process in which AI agents handle defined steps, such as intake, extraction, and record updates, while people review the work at checkpoints. A preconstruction team might use one for bid intake or CRM upkeep. - Stages: Business Development, Preconstruction, Estimating - Concepts: Agents - Published: 2026-08-28 - Canonical: https://buildr.com/library/agentic-workflow ## Why it matters in construction An agentic workflow assigns the repetitive steps in a process to an agent and keeps the judgment calls with people. It changes the process across its handoffs instead of adding an AI feature to one screen. Bid invitation intake, proposal leveling, CRM activity logging, weekly pipeline updates, and closeout collection all fit the pattern. They involve a lot of reading and transcription, with a few decision points where a person needs to weigh in. ## How it works 1. **Map the process.** Write down each step from trigger to outcome. For bid intake: the invitation arrives, the details are extracted, the job is checked against go/no-go criteria, an opportunity is created, an estimator is assigned, and the team schedules a review. 2. **Assign ownership.** Identify which steps belong to the agent, which require a person, and which produce a draft for someone to review. 3. **Define handoffs.** State what the agent produces at each checkpoint and what a person must do next. A precon director might approve a scored summary with sources before the job moves to "Pursuing." 4. **Set failure rules.** If the agent cannot find a bid date or a sub is missing from the database, it should flag the issue rather than guess. 5. **Track the results.** Log actions, measure time from invitation to decision, and record overrides. Frequent overrides point to a step that needs work. 6. **Expand carefully.** As a step becomes more reliable, the team can allow the agent to do more before review. People should spend their time where their judgment changes the outcome. Agents are most useful on the reading, transcription, and routing around those decisions. ## Example in practice For example, a commercial GC receives about 35 invitations to bid a month. A coordinator spends two days a week entering them, chasing missing bid dates, and building a weekly list for the precon meeting. The agent reads each invitation, populates the CRM, scores it against the rubric, and flags missing information. Each morning, the coordinator reviews the queue. The precon director receives a ranked list with scores and sources instead of a spreadsheet of names. The coordinator can spend more time on sub outreach for pursued jobs. ## Go deeper - [Agentic: What It Means, and What It Means for Construction](/blog/what-is-agentic-ai-in-construction.md) - [The Days of Manually Updating Your CRM Are Over](/blog/manual-crm-updates-are-over.md) - [5 Estimating Workflow Fixes that Actually Save Time (Not Just Rearrange It)](/blog/5-construction-estimating-workflow-fixes.md) ## How Buildr applies this Buildr's CRM captures activity from email and calendar and updates pipeline records automatically, with people reviewing stage changes rather than entering them. See [Buildr CRM](/crm). ## Related terms - [AI Agent](/library/ai-agent.md): An AI agent uses a language model and connected tools to carry out multi-step tasks. For example, it can read a bid invitation, check it against go/no-go criteria, and create an opportunity in the CRM. - [Human-in-the-Loop](/library/human-in-the-loop.md): Human-in-the-loop is an AI design pattern in which a person reviews, corrects, or approves the model's output before it takes effect. In construction, an estimator still owns the award and a BD lead still approves a pipeline update, while the AI handles reading and drafting. - [Copilot vs. Agent](/library/copilot-vs-agent.md): Copilots and agents are two ways AI can appear in construction software. A copilot helps a person with a task, such as drafting a proposal section. An agent takes a goal and carries out its steps, such as processing a bid invitation and proposing a CRM update. - [Autonomous CRM Updates](/library/autonomous-crm-updates.md): Autonomous CRM updates use AI agents to read emails, calendar events, and call notes, then create or update contacts, opportunities, and activities in a construction CRM without manual data entry for every interaction. - [Activity Capture](/library/activity-capture.md): Activity capture uses AI to log emails, meetings, calls, and site visits against the right contacts and opportunities in a construction CRM. It gives business development teams a usable relationship history without manual data entry. ## Referenced by - [AI Project Closeout](/library/ai-project-closeout.md): AI project closeout uses document extraction and agents to collect, classify, and verify the O&M manuals, warranties, as-builts, and lien waivers required at turnover. It tracks outstanding items by subcontractor. - [Model Context Protocol (MCP)](/library/model-context-protocol.md): Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets AI assistants connect to outside tools and data sources through a common interface. For a construction firm, it can let an AI agent use a project management system, CRM, or document library without a separate custom integration for each connection. ## FAQ ### What is the difference between an AI agent and an agentic workflow? An agent is the software that does a task. An agentic workflow is the process design around it: which steps the agent owns, where a person checks the work, what triggers the next step, and what happens on failure. ### Where should the human checkpoints go? Anywhere the action is hard to undo or expensive to get wrong. Approving a bid, sending a proposal to an owner, committing staff to a project, and awarding a sub are typical review points. Logging activity and drafting summaries usually are not. ### Do we need to redesign our process to use agents? Usually, you first need to write it down. Many precon processes exist as habit. An agentic workflow requires clear steps, inputs, and decision criteria.