AI for renovation firms: changes, SAL progress reports and site documents

The AI for Restructuring Companies it serves above all on the paper that revolves around the construction site: the request to be understood before the inspection, the variant requested on WhatsApp to be put in writing, the documents of the subcontractors to be checked before they enter, the progress to be presented to the customer, the questions about deductions. In a small construction business these steps fall on the owner or on the internal surveyor, often in the evening, and an assistant connected to mail, WhatsApp and archive documents can prepare them.

The technical choices remain out. What building title is used is decided by the qualified technician, the safety is organized by employers and coordinators, the deduction of the customer is valued by his accountant. For each step you find here what the rules say and where an AI assistant takes away work without taking responsibility that is not his.

Before the inspection: understand if the job requires a technician and a practice

Requests come from the website, portals and word of mouth with the same level of detail: «how much does it cost to make home again?». An assistant can ask the questions that the owner asks on the phone: what real estate is, what floor, what year, what you want to change, if the condominium administrator is informed, by when, if you think to ask for a deduction. It comes out a card that says whether a survey is worth it and who is to be there, and those who do not respond receive a reminder as in the automatic follow-up.

The most useful question is whether the work touches structures, elevations or distribution of spaces, because from there the building title depends. The single text of the building provides for the SCIA, among other things, for extraordinary maintenance concerning structural parts or elevations (DPR 380/2001, Art. 22), while the CILA covers interventions that do not fall under the other lists and must be assured by a qualified technician. For the interventions of the superbonus the law has provided for a dedicated CILA, known as CILAS (D.L. 34/2020, art. 119, paragraph 13-ter). The assistant does not choose: he reports to the technician the requests that need him.

One detail concerns the company directly: the CILA also ‘contains the identification data of the company’ to which the works are entrusted, and if the CILA is not presented the penalty is 1,000 euros, reduced by two thirds if the communication spontaneously arrives at work in progress (DPR 380/2001, art. 6-bis). When the technician asks you for the data the day before presenting it, the assistant has them ready with visura, DURC and license to credits.

Variants requested on site: from the message to the signature of the client

The civil code is net: the contractor cannot make changes to the agreed arrangements if the client has not authorized them, and "authorization must be proven in writing". If the price has been set globally, no additional fee shall be payable for the authorized variations, unless otherwise agreed (Art. 1659). In a renovation the variants are almost always born by voice, in front of an open wall.

An example. During the demolition of a bathroom, the customer writes on WhatsApp: "as long as you are we move the door half a meter". The assistant recognizes a variant request, opens a card with description, photos, cost and extra days that you value, and sends it to the customer with a dry question: do you approve? Only with the yes written the variant enters the schedule of work and the next state of progress.

The same archive serves at the end of the work, when the customer asks why the total has changed: every difference from the estimate has an approved card. For works started from 28 May 2022 over €70,000, the Revenue Agency recalls that, for the purposes of deduction, the act of entrustment must indicate that the works are carried out by employers who apply collective building agreements (rules for facilities). The assistant checks that that clause is in the contract before signing.

Who enters the construction site, and with what documents

In a renovation the firm that signs with the customer often works with others: electrician, plumber, drywallist, window and window maker. D.Lgs. 81/2008 assigns precise tasks to the entrusted company, including verifying the safety conditions of the works entrusted and the consistency of the POSs of the performing companies with their own, before transmitting them to the coordinator for execution (Art. 97). The client shall verify the suitability of the companies and their licence for credits, including sub-contracting, and before the start of the works subject to building permit or activity start complaint shall transmit to the administration the preliminary notification and the DURC (Art. 90).

From 1 October 2024, companies and self-employed workers operating on temporary or mobile construction sites must have the credit-based licence issued by the National Labour Inspectorate: it starts at 30 credits, and below 15 they cannot work on site (Art. 27). The online DURC is worth 120 days from the request (INPS), and if the DURC of the companies is missing, or the notification and the security plan when they are provided for, the law suspends the effectiveness of the qualification (Article 90, paragraph 10).

A second example: the electrical system is entrusted to a company that enters next week. Reading the PDFs received, as you do for any corporate document, the assistant notes that his DURC expires three days before the entrance and that the POS reports the address of another construction site. He sends you two lines and a draft of emails for the enterprise, and the entry remains pending until the documents arrive. The law checks remain yours; the assistant avoids discovering the shortcomings in the morning itself.

SAL and payments: what comes to the customer at every progress

If the work is carried out by lots, each party may request that the verification be carried out by lot and the contractor may request payment in proportion. The payment assumes the acceptance of the paid party, the simple down payments do not (Art. 1666). It is the logic of the progress states: every SAL is also the moment when the customer looks at the job and approves it.

From the calculation, from the journal of the works, from the voice notes of the foreman and from the photos, the assistant prepares the draft of the SAL: works carried out with the quantities, approved variants with their amount, photos of the phase, sum required. The holder or technician controls it, then the invoice starts, and the rest of the round is that of the invoice automation.

Together with the SAL the customer who requests the deduction receives practical information. For the Revenue Agency the payment must be made by bank or postal transfer that reports the reason referred to the building recovery interventions, the tax code of those who deduct and the VAT number or the tax code of those who receive the payment (rules for facilities). The assistant sends this already written data, with your VAT number, before the payment expires.

Between one SAL and another the customer asks for updates. From the day-end voice notes of the foreman the assistant prepares a message with what was done and what happens in the days after, the same principle of Transcript with AI, and keeps the list of pending choices: tiles, sanitary fixtures, colors, each with the date by which it serves. A late choice tile is a yard delay, and the customer knows it first.

Questions about 2026 deductions: what the assistant can answer

For expenses incurred in 2025 and 2026 the Revenue Agency indicates a deduction of 50% on the unit used as the main dwelling, for those who own or hold a real right of enjoyment, and 36% in other cases where it is due, with an expenditure limit of 96,000 euros per unit of real estate. For 2027 the percentages fall to 36% and 30%, and from 2025 it is no longer deductible to replace heating systems with unique fossil fuel boilers (Deduction measure).

These rules change with budget laws, and a language model trained on old texts can confidently repeat the percentages of years ago. The solution is simple: the assistant answers only with the texts you approved for the current year, with the link to the Agency page, and everything related to the individual customer's case goes to his accountant or the CAF.

Where AI doesn't have to get its hands on a construction venture

• Building titles and assurances. They are acts of the qualified technician, with his responsibility: the assistant collects the data and remembers the deadlines.
• The contents of the POS. A model can help fill it out, but the plan describes the risks of that construction site, and a text taken from another job with the address changed does not.
• Cracks, moisture, structures. A chat photo is not enough to assess a structural problem, and the right answer from the assistant is a technician's inspection.
• End of work dates. You communicate those of the updated program, never an estimate written for kindness.
• Customer documents. Identity cards, visures and floor plans should be treated with tools that have a contract for data processing, as explained in the guide on AI and GDPR.

The first piece to automate: the yard file

If today’s problem is disputed variations, start with the variation records. If it is subcontractor documents, start with the deadline schedule. In both cases, you need a place that brings site data together, whether your existing management software, a well-kept shared spreadsheet or an app built for you; the choice between a ready-made product and custom development is discussed in Custom CRM or off-the-shelf business management software.

If you want variants, SALs and sub-contractor deadlines to live in a single yard file that the assistant reads and updates, we can build it as custom software on the flows of your enterprise. For the processes entrusted to the installers there is the guide for Electricians, for the shops that work on order that for the Artisans, and a larger picture on the page AI for SMEs.