STACK IQ lets estimators work STACK takeoffs and estimates from Claude or ChatGPT

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 07:34:52 -0400

STACK Construction Technologies has introduced STACK IQ, a connection that lets an estimator run tasks in STACK’s takeoff and estimating software by typing requests into Claude or ChatGPT. For Construction Pros listed the release on September 22, 2026. It is aimed at the preconstruction work that follows a finished estimate, such as proposals, schedules of values, vendor leveling sheets and takeoff libraries.

What it does

After an estimate is finished in STACK, the estimator has to carry the same numbers into a proposal and a schedule of values for the owner. For Construction Pros reports that STACK built the tool after customers asked for help with repetitive work of this kind, such as reformatting proposals and building takeoff libraries. With STACK IQ, the estimator asks an AI assistant for those documents in plain English, and the assistant pulls the figures from the STACK project.

The link runs on the Model Context Protocol, an open standard that lets an AI assistant read from and act in another company’s software. The estimator adds STACK from the connector directory in Claude or the plugin directory in ChatGPT, signs in to STACK, and picks which capabilities to allow. STACK says any assistant that accepts custom MCP connectors can connect, including Copilot, and its FAQ says Gemini support is following quickly.

STACK’s prompt library walks through the order of work. The estimator asks for a project by name, and the assistant asks which one if more than one matches. The estimator can then ask it to flag missing unit prices and mistagged items, and to build a proposal broken out by CSI division. The library also has prompts for a schedule of values on the AIA G703 form, a vendor leveling sheet with freight, sales tax and lead time, and a job cost budget with direct costs split from indirects. STACK says some actions wait for the user’s approval before anything changes in STACK.

What STACK IQ can do today, according to STACK's prompt library
Task	Status per STACK
Read your project list and takeoff details	Available
Edit takeoff colors in bulk or by tag or one at a time	Available
Update a project's name or status or bid date	Available
Copy takeoffs into a new or existing library	Available
Read estimate data	Available
Build proposals and schedules of values and vendor sheets	Available
Flag stale snapshots and missing prices and mis-tags	Available
Bulk-edit projects	Not yet available
Delete takeoffs or estimates or projects	Not yet available
Read or write items and assemblies	Not yet available
Upload plans or read plan sheets and graphics	Not yet available
Audit measurements for outliers	Not yet available
Update or write to the estimate	Not yet available

Source: 21266854.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net

STACK IQ cannot yet read plan sheets or audit measurements for outliers, so the estimator still measures the takeoff in STACK. It also cannot read or write items and assemblies, and it cannot write to the estimate. The library adds two smaller cautions. Tags do not carry over when takeoffs are copied into a library, and the assistant works from a snapshot of STACK, so it may miss something created seconds earlier.

Evidence so far

STACK has published no time savings, error rates or pilot results for STACK IQ. Its product page carries short endorsements from three customers: Gulf Coast Pavers, Turner Brothers and Hemington Landscape Services. Evan Borseti of Turner Brothers says the firm produces estimates, proposals and budgets from one prompt and has made its document formatting identical from job to job. None of the three gives a figure.

These are STACK’s claims, and nobody has measured them independently:

Tasks that used to take an afternoon now take a sentence.
Pricing can come from your last 50 projects, down to the line item.
STACK IQ lets a veteran estimator do the work of three people.

Read the second claim against the table above. STACK lists reading items and assemblies as not yet available, and how the tool prices from project history without them could not be verified.

How to measure it on your projects

Track document prep hours per bid. Count the estimator hours from the moment the estimate revision is locked to the moment the proposal, schedule of values and any vendor leveling sheet are ready to send. Leave takeoff hours out, since STACK IQ does not measure quantities today.

Capture the baseline before the pilot:

Pick the last 10 bids that went out from STACK.
For each one, ask the estimator to log or reconstruct the hours spent on the proposal, the SOV and the leveling sheet.
Note every correction made after the documents went out, such as a wrong unit price or a missed exclusion.

During the pilot, have the same estimators build those documents through STACK IQ for the next 10 bids and log the same hours. Count post-send corrections too, and compare both figures with the baseline. Record the time spent checking the assistant’s output as prep time, because STACK tells users to review every change before they approve it.

A first step for this week is to have one estimator time the proposal and SOV on the next bid that leaves your office.

Availability and cost

STACK says STACK IQ is included in all paid STACK subscriptions at no extra charge. The user needs an active STACK subscription and access to ChatGPT or Claude, and nothing has to be installed. STACK also runs a user group on its support site, STACK IQ Insiders, where it posts example prompts and known issues.