QualifyDataQualifyDataYes — an architecture or engineering firm's project records can be licensed to AI companies, and a project archive runs deep: every commission produced correspondence, revisions, proposals and coordination records over months or years. Client confidentiality comes first, and the firm decides what is even considered.
AI developers pay to see how real professional work moved — how a project was won, documented, revised, coordinated and delivered. An A&E firm generates that record in writing, across many systems, on every project. Buyers license a cleaned copy of records like yours, with names and identifiers taken out. You keep your originals, and your practice does not change.
QualifyData is a broker. We put your archive in front of 15 AI companies, they bid, and we submit the best offer to you in writing. You go through the process one time instead of once per buyer.
Five minutes. See if your archive qualifies.No cost. No commitment. No logins, no records handed over — just a few questions about the size of your archive.
A firm's project trail is long and connected. These are the categories of records firms commonly run through their systems:
What matters most is how many sources the work ran through and what kind of records they hold. Years of projects documented across correspondence, revisions, proposals and project data is a deep archive — and depth is what buyers are pricing.
Five minutes. See if your archive qualifies.A firm's clients trust it with their buildings, their sites and their plans, and this process is built around that trust rather than around it. Client agreements and professional obligations govern what a firm can share, and no page on a website can tell a firm how those obligations apply to a particular project. That judgment belongs to the firm, with its own counsel. Here is what we can describe: the mechanics.
One thing we will say plainly: this page is information, not legal advice. Whether any given material can be licensed is a call for the firm's own counsel, and we do not advise on that call. Your counsel is welcome on the intro call and reviews every agreement before you sign it.
A&E is a desk-and-documents business — principals, project architects and engineers, drafters and administrators all work in systems all day. The general shape:
| Years the firm has been operating | 3 or more |
| People working at desks (design, engineering, project and admin staff) | 20 or more |
| Software systems the work runs through | 5 or more is strong |
| Location | US or Canada |
Published fit criteria for the program, checked November 2026. The AI companies make the final call on fit — the five-minute check is where that call starts.
What counts is the desk team and the written record their project work created — not the size of any single commission.
A merged or closed firm is measured as it was at its peak — the desk staff it had in its final stretch of real operation, the years of project records it built, the systems it ran on. If the records still exist and you hold authority over them, they can still be licensed. There is one real deadline: records in accounts that get cancelled or left to lapse can go with the accounts, so the order is license first, cancel after. The full picture is on our page for closed companies.
Read the closed-companies page →Some firms are too small or too thin on paper for buyers to work with, and we would rather say so here than waste your time:
If your firm is close to the line, the five-minute check is still the fastest way to find out — the buyers make the final call, not us.
We walk through how your firm's work moves through its systems and answer your questions. No data, no logins.
A client services agreement lets us represent your firm. It does not commit you to a deal, and your counsel can review it first.
60 to 90 minutes covering counts and sizes only — system by system, how far back, how much. No records are shared and nobody gets a login.
Your archive summary — with no actual records in it — goes to 15 AI companies. They bid, and we submit the best offer to you in writing.
You and your counsel review the terms, and your firm signs directly with the AI company behind that offer.
Your team exports copies, typically 5 to 10 business days, and the buyer reviews the export over about 30 days. The AI company then pays your firm directly — typically 90 to 120 days from signing to payment. Timelines are typical, not promised, and no offer is guaranteed.
It depends on how many sources the work ran through and what kind of records they hold, how many people worked at desks, and how many years of records the firm has. Case studies from AI labs run from $150K to $550K, and higher for large archives. Your firm's number only exists as a written offer after the intake call — the estimator gives you the rough range first.
What buyers license is the record of how projects were run — correspondence, revision history, proposals, project data and coordination — described as categories, not specific file types. The firm builds the list of what is considered, system by system, and anything the firm leaves off the list does not go. The intake call is where the categories in your archive are confirmed.
The firm does. Nothing is included unless the firm lists it — system by system, year by year. If the firm's counsel excludes a category of material, it stays out. The intake call covers counts and sizes of what the firm has listed, and no records are shared on that call.
No. You license a cleaned copy of your records for a set term. Your originals stay yours, your team keeps working exactly as it does now, and the license has an end date. It is a license, not a sale.
Yes, if the records still exist and you hold authority over them. A merged or closed firm is sized as it was at its peak — its desk staff, its years of records, its systems. Our closed-companies page covers the details, including why the timing matters before old accounts are cancelled.
Nothing, at any step. Your business never pays anything.
We never touch or access your data. Not during the intake, not during the export, not ever. Your records go straight from your systems to the AI company you sign with — we are never in that chain. Your business never pays anything.