How PlanHub Transformed Subcontractor Onboarding with AI

About this
Project

About this project

This project set out to transform how subcontractor data moves through the PlanHub ecosystem. The team aimed to convert unstructured files into clean, reliable intelligence that GCs could use instantly. The solution needed to read Excel and CSV uploads automatically, validate and standardize subcontractor details, map trade descriptions accurately to CSI Division codes, and plug seamlessly into existing onboarding workflows. The outcome would be a smoother, smarter data pipeline, giving every GC consistent, ready-to-use subcontractor information from day one.

About
Client

About the client

PlanHub is a leading construction technology platform revolutionizing how General Contractors (GCs), Subcontractors, and Suppliers connect across the United States. Focused on simplifying preconstruction and bidding, PlanHub offers a collaborative digital space where GCs can post bids, share documents, and manage communications efficiently. Yet, despite this digital-first approach, one challenge persisted – subcontractor onboarding remained highly manual, inconsistent, and error-prone. This bottleneck not only slowed down project timelines but also impacted the quality of trade-level insights and analytics available to contractors. To stay ahead in a competitive market, PlanHub needed to fix this – not with more manpower, but with machine intelligence.

Our
Offering

What Challenge Was PlanHub Facing?

In the world of construction bidding, time and data accuracy can make or break a project.
PlanHub – a leading U.S. preconstruction and bidding platform connecting General Contractors (GCs), Subcontractors, and Suppliers – found itself constrained by one recurring challenge: unstructured subcontractor data.

Every GC uploading a subcontractor contact list faced the same frustration – endless Excel or CSV files filled with inconsistencies, missing fields, and duplicates. This manual process led to:

Incorrect or incomplete data entries
Duplicate subcontractor profiles
Slower onboarding timelines
Poor trade categorization, limiting analytics and reporting

PlanHub recognized that this manual, error-prone system didn’t align with its mission to simplify preconstruction workflows. They needed a smarter, scalable solution – one that could read, understand, and structure messy subcontractor data automatically.

How Did Successive Digital Help Bring This Vision to Life?

To turn this vision into reality, PlanHub partnered with Successive Digital – leveraging its proven expertise in AI/ML integration and digital product engineering.

Successive Digital took a holistic approach: combining AI innovation with scalable system design. Together, the teams conceptualized and implemented an AI-powered subcontractor data parsing and trade mapping solution, built around Kagen’s GenAI models.

This partnership focused on:

End-to-end automation of unstructured data ingestion and parsing
GenAI-based trade mapping using NLP-driven CSI classification
Data normalization pipelines to clean and validate records
Seamless integration into PlanHub’s onboarding workflows with governed APIs

What Did the AI Solution Look Like in Action?

1. Smart Upload & Parsing

General Contractors can now upload subcontractor lists in Excel or CSV format. The AI parsing engine detects file structure automatically and extracts essential details such as company name, contact info, trade, and address.

Result: Instant compatibility with PlanHub’s data model – no more manual reformatting.

2. Automated Data Cleaning

Each record is processed by the AI engine to identify, extract, and standardize data points. The system:

Normalizes phone numbers and email formats
Validates required fields like company name and trade
Detects and merges duplicate entries

Result: Clean, consistent, and validated subcontractor data with minimal human intervention.

3. Intelligent Trade Mapping

Using Kagen’s GenAI models, the solution interprets trade descriptions and keywords to assign the correct CSI Division Name and Code – with 95%+ accuracy.

Result: Standardized trade categorization for analytics, search, and reporting.

4. Integrated Data Governance

All processes run through secure APIs connected to PlanHub’s backend, ensuring:

Role-based data access.
Complete audit trails for all parsing and mapping actions.
Compliance with internal validation rules.

Result: A governed, transparent, and auditable data ecosystem.

What Technologies Powered the Transformation?

Successive Digital built a robust architecture using:

AI/ML Engine: Kagen GenAI models for NLP-based trade classification.
Backend: Python-based microservices.
Data Processing: Pandas, AWS Lambda.
Storage: Amazon S3 for ingestion and archival.
APIs: REST-based integration with PlanHub backend.

This tech foundation ensured scalability, performance, and future AI extensibility.

Result

Providing results that exceeded the client’s expectations

Manual Effort Reduction: 60% fewer hours spent on subcontractor data cleanup.

Data Accuracy: 90–95% improvement in trade mapping precision.
Onboarding Speed: 2× faster subcontractor profile setup for General Contractors.
Error Reduction: 70% fewer mismatched trade or contact records.
Analytics Readiness: Fully standardized, analytics-ready data for business intelligence and reporting.

Through this transformation, PlanHub empowered GCs to onboard subcontractors faster, more accurately, and with data that’s ready for downstream analytics.

How Did Successive Digital Enable This Success?

Successive Digital acted as more than just a technology partner – it became an innovation accelerator for PlanHub.

By bringing together AI engineering, data architecture, and product integration expertise, Successive Digital helped:

Eliminate manual data bottlenecks.
Achieve a high degree of parsing and trade mapping precision.
Integrate AI seamlessly into PlanHub’s existing ecosystem.
Build a future-ready foundation for analytics, automation, and smarter decision-making.

This collaboration showcased how AI and human expertise can work hand-in-hand to transform a traditionally manual industry into a digitally intelligent ecosystem.

What Does the Future Look Like?

With standardized and AI-enriched subcontractor data now in place, PlanHub is exploring new possibilities – from predictive analytics to automated qualification of subcontractors. The groundwork laid by Successive Digital’s AI-powered solution has positioned PlanHub as a front-runner in digital preconstruction innovation, where data isn’t just stored – it’s understood, classified, and leveraged intelligently.

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