If you’ve used AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude, you may have asked them to help clean up a document, generate an image, or massage an email. Those are useful starting points. However, the capabilities of this new technology have come a long, long way.
Modern AI “agents” can perform complex admin tasks, much like a tireless co-worker. Sometimes for hours at a time. You simply describe the outcome and let your agent handle the tedium. With the right setup, it can also perform daily or weekly recurring “jobs” on your behalf.
As one of the founders of Gather, I think this has HUGE implications for how designers work, making them more efficient and effective. So much of your day is spent doing repetitive and boring work. Reviewing, comparing, and copy-pasting information from spreadsheets, emails, BIM software, and other tools is probably something you wouldn’t miss if you didn’t have to do it.
It’s also all too easy to make critical mistakes along the way that can delay projects or lead to cost overruns.
We imagine a future where designers spend more time designing and less time admin-ing.
Introducing the Gather platform
The Gather platform lets you connect your projects to ChatGPT, Claude, and other compatible AI tools.
Once connected, you can ask an agent to check your specifications, find missing details, and make the changes you choose.
You can also connect the other tools you use, like your email. Then your agent can work with the information in both places: read a supplier’s quote from your inbox, compare it with the specifications in Gather, and help you update the project after you review the differences.
Let’s look at how that could work.
How it works
Let’s consider just one example…
Suppose one of your suppliers sent you an email with an updated quote for those chairs you specified for a hotel lobby. You need to check it against the specifications, decide which changes to accept, update the project, and respond to the supplier.
Here’s a workflow you could configure with Gather and email connected to your assistant.
Start with a simple prompt:
“Find the latest quote for the lobby chairs in my email. Compare the quantities, finishes, and prices with the specifications in Gather. Show me what changed and flag anything you can’t confidently match.”
The agent could retrieve the quote and the relevant specifications, then prepare an item-by-item comparison. You’d have the differences in front of you to review, including any questions to resolve with the supplier.
This would take just a few minutes.
Once you’ve chosen the changes, give the next instruction:
“Apply these changes to the matching specifications in Gather. Summarize what was updated and anything that failed. Draft a reply to the supplier with the remaining questions for me to review.”
That takes the work through to updated project records and a prepared response. You make the decisions about the specification; the agent helps carry those decisions into the tools where the work happens.
All of this happens with simple written instructions much like those you might give to a co-worker.
Put the same approach to work elsewhere
The same idea applies to other checks and handoffs your team repeats. These examples depend on connecting the relevant tools and setting up the workflow.
Check specifications against your firm’s requirements. An agent could read your purchasing checklist from a shared document and compare it with the lobby specifications in Gather. After you review the missing details, ask it to create the follow-up tasks you choose in your project-management tool, with references to the affected items.
Prepare for installation. Connect the installation date on your calendar with delivery information in Gather. An agent could flag late deliveries or missing dates and prepare follow-up tasks containing the relevant order and supplier details. With a configured recurring check, it could bring those issues to your attention as installation approaches.
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Most of the tasks you do in Gather can also be done with the help of an AI agent and our MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a standard that lets AI tools connect to services like Gather. server.
You can ask for help with a single task or combine several steps into a workflow that works the way your team does.
Bring the tools you already use
Connect Gather and your other apps to the same AI assistant, and it can help with work that spans them.
Here are a few tools you could connect together (not an exhaustive list):
- Excel and Google Sheets: Spreadsheets, budgets, and project data.
- Google Drive and Dropbox: Shared files and project documents.
- Gmail and Outlook: Email, calendars, and correspondence.
- Revit: Model information, schedules, and quantities.
- Asana and monday.com: Tasks, deadlines, and project coordination.
- QuickBooks Online and Xero: Accounting, invoices, and payments.
- Canva: Presentations and visual materials.
- Slack or Microsoft Teams: Team conversations and project updates.
(The available connections and actions depend on your AI tool, subscription, and permissions. Check the app or connector directory in ChatGPT or Claude to see what your setup supports.)
Build a custom tool for your firm’s unique workflow
Your firm may have internal tools or workflows that are unique to how you work.
Gather’s API gives a developer a way to connect those systems with Gather and build custom extensions for your team.
That could mean bringing product data from an internal library into Gather or building a tool that checks specifications against your firm’s standards.
These extensions require custom code written by a developer. You define the workflow; a developer builds the connection.
Start with one task your team repeats
We believe designers should decide which tools they use and how those tools work together. Your project information shouldn’t be trapped in a walled garden.
That’s why openness is part of Gather’s foundation and our commitment to the future.
The Gather platform is a step in that direction.
The future is already here…is your firm ready?
Let’s explore what your team could do with Gather and its AI-enabled platform. The possibilities are endless.
