Catching $233K–$583K in Hidden Coordination Conflicts Before They Hit the Field
How Flikt.AI identified critical cross-discipline conflicts on a commercial retail project — validated by the General Contractor.
The Challenge
A commercial retail development in South Florida was preparing to break ground. The project included construction plan sets across five disciplines: Civil, Structural, Architectural, Electrical, and Landscape. Like most projects, the plan documents had been developed by separate design teams working independently — creating the conditions for costly coordination conflicts that typically aren’t caught until field construction is underway.
The General Contractor wanted to validate whether AI-powered plan review could catch real conflicts before they became expensive change orders.
The Analysis
Flikt.AI analyzed 8 construction plan pages across all five disciplines. The system cross-referenced spatial layouts, specifications, and coordination details across every sheet — a process that would take a human reviewer significantly longer to complete with the same level of cross-discipline coverage.
The analysis was benchmarked against 14 ground truth conflicts identified through independent GC field review and AI spatial analysis with GC severity corrections.
The Results
5 cross-discipline conflicts detected — all confirmed accurate by the GC.
$55K–$120K in potential rework costs identified in the detected conflicts alone. $233K–$583K total exposure across all 14 confirmed conflicts on the project.
Conflicts Detected
- Underground Electrical vs. Landscape Plantings — Conduit routing conflicted with new tree plantings and relocated palms. Root zone damage would have required re-routing after installation. Estimated impact: $8K–$18K.
- Missing Structural Calculations for Electrical Equipment — Electrical plans showed equipment modifications, but the structural calculations index was missing foundation design for the new loads. Estimated impact: $12K–$25K.
- Site Demolition vs. Utility Relocations — The architectural demolition plan overlapped with the civil survey showing existing utilities running through the demolition areas. Estimated impact: $25K–$50K.
- Irrigation vs. Electrical Underground — Landscape irrigation lines and electrical underground conduit were routed through the same areas with no coordination between disciplines. Estimated impact: $6K–$15K.
- Wind Load Calculations for Site Lighting — Wind load calculations did not account for new site lighting structures, a potential structural and safety concern in a high-wind coastal zone. Estimated impact: $4K–$12K.
GC Validation
The General Contractor independently reviewed each finding and confirmed all five as legitimate coordination issues. The GC also provided severity calibration — adjusting some findings based on construction practice context (e.g., underground routing responsibility, pre-engineered structural components). This feedback loop is exactly how Flikt.AI improves with every project.
Key Takeaway
Flikt.AI detected spatial coordination conflicts across multiple disciplines that traditional single-discipline review processes often miss. These are the types of conflicts that typically surface during construction — when the cost to resolve them is 10–50x higher than catching them during pre-construction document review.
Every conflict Flikt.AI flagged was real. No false alarms. No wasted time chasing phantom issues.
Project details have been anonymized to protect client confidentiality. Conflict descriptions and cost estimates are based on actual findings validated by the project’s General Contractor.