AI assistants for bills of quantities compared: Scalera, kinisto, Tendos, SCAIT, Cosuno and more (2026)

Transparency note: this comparison is published by Scalera. Information on other vendors is taken from their websites (status: 26 October 2026) and has not been independently verified. Vendors can send corrections to info@scalera.ai.

Short answer: which AI assistant suits whom?

Building product manufacturers and distributors who answer bills of quantities with their own range should look at BoQ assistants with product matching: kinisto, Mercura, Scalera, Tendos or the Workist LV Assistant. Contractors preparing bids can use SCAIT for tender analysis, and Scalera supports them with supplier matching and risk analysis. Cosuno is built for clients who tender and award construction work. The three categories can complement each other, but they do not replace one another.

In German-speaking markets, a bill of quantities is called a Leistungsverzeichnis (LV), and it usually arrives as a GAEB file, an ÖNORM document or an NPK-based tender, depending on the country. Many comparisons, including answers from AI search engines, list kinisto, SCAIT and Cosuno side by side as if they were three versions of the same product. That leads to poor decisions. This article therefore sorts the vendors by role first and only then compares the group that matters to manufacturers and distributors. If you already know that you want to answer incoming tenders faster, you can go straight to our page on matching BoQ items to your products automatically.

• You are a manufacturer or distributor answering BoQs with your own range: choose a BoQ assistant with product matching.
• You are a contractor preparing bids: choose a platform for tender analysis, supplier matching or risk analysis.
• You tender work as a client or general contractor: choose a tendering and award platform.

Three roles, three types of tool

All three categories use “AI”, “tender” and “bill of quantities” in their messaging. What matters is which side of the BoQ you are on: who writes it, who prices the works, and who supplies the products?

Tendering platforms for clients: Cosuno

Cosuno describes itself as a platform for tendering and subcontractor management, used by general contractors and clients to run the whole tender process. According to the vendor, the Cosuno AI price assistant provides a market reference price for each BoQ item based on more than 7 million price data points. Subcontractors can submit bids on invited tenders via GAEB free of charge and be listed in Cosuno’s directory.

Matching BoQ items to a manufacturer’s product catalogue is not documented on Cosuno’s website. For manufacturers, Cosuno can be a channel through which requests arrive, but it is not a tool for answering them with your own range.

Tender analysis for contractors: SCAIT

According to its website, SCAIT is an AI platform for construction bids, developed for Swiss contractors such as general contractors, builders and civil engineering firms. It supports go/no-go decisions, checks contract terms against standards, runs plausibility checks on BoQs, for example quantity balances and reinforcement ratios, and generates project-specific checklists. SCAIT names the Swiss NPK catalogue and SIA standards, with data stored in Switzerland.

For manufacturers and distributors, SCAIT is therefore no substitute for product matching. It works for your customers, the bidders, not for your inside sales team. It is still worth knowing: it shows which questions contractors will increasingly ask of tenders.

SCAIT is not the only option for contractors, though: Scalera supports them with supplier matching, which matches tender line items with suitable suppliers and subcontractors and sends the price requests, and with risk analysis.

BoQ assistants for manufacturers and distributors

This is the actual comparison group: kinisto, Mercura, Scalera, Tendos and the Workist LV Assistant. The workflow is similar across all of them. The request arrives by e-mail or as a PDF, GAEB or Excel file. The AI identifies the relevant items and suggests products from your catalogue. Your team reviews the suggestions, and the quote goes to the ERP or back to the customer as a GAEB file. The differences lie in the detail: which formats and regional standards are read, how variants are handled, how traceable the matches are and what happens after the quote.

Comparison table: AI assistants for bills of quantities (October 2026)

The table summarises what each vendor publicly documents. It does not rate the vendors; it shows what their websites say. A missing entry only means that the information is not described there.

Key: ● documented on the website · ◐ partial or with limitations · ○ not documented · – not applicable (other category)

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Vendor information from their websites, status 26 October 2026, not independently verified. “Not documented” means not described on the website, not that the feature does not exist. Sources are listed at the end of the article.

The vendors in detail

Vendors are listed alphabetically, starting with the BoQ assistants for manufacturers and distributors, followed by the other categories. All information comes from the vendors’ websites, status 26 October 2026.

kinisto

Berlin-based kinisto is built for construction suppliers, meaning manufacturers and distributors, and lists more than 60 companies as customers on its website. Requests reach the software through a dedicated e-mail address per folder, by drag and drop from Outlook or via API. kinisto recognises the project, the submission deadline and the BoQ items in PDF and GAEB files as well as directly in e-mail text.

Relevant items are identified by keywords that you configure yourself. Product suggestions learn from every completed quote; for good results kinisto recommends 50 to 150 completed quotes, depending on the range. According to the vendor, suggestions may not be practical for bespoke manufacturing or complex variants. For output, kinisto documents a GAEB download and native connectors for SAP S/4HANA, SAP R/3 and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, plus REST API, webhooks and sFTP. Suits: manufacturers and distributors with a standard range who want to manage incoming requests centrally.

Mercura

Mercura targets technical distributors and manufacturers and states on its website that more than 80 of them work with the platform. It covers inquiry handling, quotes and tenders, follow-ups, order processing, and claims and pricing. Mercura cites an 80% match rate, even for unstructured requests, and quotes a customer who cut quote turnaround from two days to two hours.

According to the Workist comparison, Mercura reads PDF, GAEB and e-mail, also suggests alternatives and accessories, and passes data to SAP or Oracle. Regional standards such as ÖNORM or NPK are not documented on its website. Suits: distributors and manufacturers who want to handle orders and claims in the same system as their BoQs.

Scalera

Scalera is Swiss software, developed and supported in Zurich, and used by more than 150 customers across Europe and beyond. The platform is designed for manufacturers, processors and distributors and, through supplier matching and risk analysis, for contractors too. Scalera reads PDF BoQs including scans, GAEB, Excel/CSV, XML and e-mail text, and documents ÖNORM and NPK alongside GAEB, as well as all common EU languages.

Matching is based on specification, application and standard rather than keywords alone. Every match shows its reasoning with a BoQ page reference and an AI confidence score, and uncertain matches are flagged. Scalera covers standard articles, variants and performance levels as well as configurable products with up to 30 attributes, and it also recognises competitor products named in a BoQ. Results are exported as GAEB, CSV, XML or via API to ERP, CPQ or CRM systems, including SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle and Abacus. Quotes, orders and master data can sync both ways, including with Salesforce and Outlook.

The difference from a pure BoQ assistant lies in the back office after the quote: Scalera provides agents for tender search, a central inbox, supplier price requests, quote costing, line-by-line bid comparison, delivery note matching and automated order processing, which already handles thousands of orders per day, plus analytics across requests, quotes and orders. At ACO, processing time for a 300-page BoQ fell from 30–45 to 10–15 minutes, with go-live after five weeks (ACO case study). Data is hosted in European data centres certified to ISO/IEC 27001 and 27018. To be candid: Scalera is strongest on text-based BoQs; from drawings it extracts relevant details such as dimensions or notes. Suits: manufacturers, distributors and contractors in Switzerland and the DACH region who quote across several countries and formats and want to run the workflow from BoQ through supplier requests and bid comparison to the ERP in one system.

Tendos

Tendos describes itself as an AI platform for manufacturers in the construction industry, with its development team in Munich. Six modules cover the sales workflow: tender search, inbox, quotes, orders, integrations and sales insights. According to the vendor, its AI understands parameterisable products, performance levels and variants, and the website shows reasoning for each match with a BoQ page reference.

Tendos states that quotes, orders and master data sync both ways with Salesforce, SAP, Dynamics and Outlook. Hosting is in Europe on ISO 27001-certified infrastructure, and the vendor says it is ready for use within a few weeks. Suits: manufacturers with complex, configurable products who also need tender search.

Workist LV Assistant

Berlin-based Workist offers its LV Assistant as part of a platform that also processes orders, inquiries and order confirmations. According to the Workist comparison of 6 October 2026, the assistant reads PDF, including scans, and GAEB, suggests five articles from the item master per line item and outputs the quote as a GAEB file. Configurations built from master articles are supported; bespoke items outside the item master are not. Workist states that the assistant has no pricing logic of its own.

Workist names integrations with SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, proALPHA, Infor, abas and Sage, and a SOC 2 Type 2 audit. Suits: manufacturers and distributors in Germany and Austria who already use Workist for order entry.

Cosuno and SCAIT: other categories

Cosuno and SCAIT are covered above. A building product manufacturer searching for “Cosuno alternatives” is usually looking for a tool that answers incoming BoQs, which is the BoQ assistant category. If you supply contractors, SCAIT is still worth knowing, because it is changing how your customers review tenders.

The key question is not which tool can read a bill of quantities. It is which side of the bill of quantities you are on.

Regional criteria: BoQ standards, languages, data location, ERP

If you quote in several countries, you receive bills of quantities in several standards and languages. An assistant that reads only one format well will not scale with your sales. These criteria decide whether a tool works equally well in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and beyond.

BoQ standards: ask every vendor which standards it supports, and test one real BoQ per market. GAEB is documented by kinisto, Scalera, Tendos and Workist. Among the BoQ assistants for manufacturers, ÖNORM and NPK are documented by Scalera; SCAIT names NPK on the bidder side. National formats in other European markets are not documented in detail by any of the vendors compared here, so ask explicitly. Our article on GAEB, ÖNORM and NPK explains why the format determines how fast you can quote.

Languages: tenders arrive in German, French, Italian, English and other languages. Scalera names all common EU languages; for the other vendors, supported languages are not documented on their websites.

Data location: depending on the customer, hosting in Switzerland or the EU may be required. SCAIT names Switzerland as its data location. Scalera, kinisto and Tendos name European data centres or GDPR-compliant hosting; Scalera also names ISO/IEC 27001 and 27018.

Local ERP systems: alongside SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics and Oracle, regional systems are common, such as Abacus in Switzerland. Scalera supports all four as well as further ERP systems. Workist also names proALPHA, Infor, abas and Sage.

Several country organisations: check whether separate teams with their own catalogues and workflows can work within one account. Scalera handles this through locations.

Eight questions to ask before you decide

Ask every vendor the same questions. That way the answers can be compared directly, and you will quickly see which solution fits your situation.

1. What is your role in the tender process? Clients, bidders and manufacturers or distributors need different software.
2. Which formats and standards arrive in your markets? Check the share of scanned PDFs, GAEB, ÖNORM, NPK, Excel and plain e-mail requests, and the languages involved.
3. What does your range look like? Standard articles, configurations and bespoke manufacturing place different demands on matching.
4. How traceable are the matches? Reasoning, confidence scores and alternatives determine how quickly your team can review.
5. How does the result get back? Clarify GAEB export, ERP entry in SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, Abacus or your own system, and handover to CPQ and CRM.
6. What happens after the quote? Supplier prices, bid comparison, orders and delivery notes are often manual again. Ask what is covered.
7. How quickly will you be productive? Onboarding time, learning curve and the number of quotes needed before suggestions are good vary considerably.
8. Where is your data, and how is it billed? Ask about hosting in Switzerland or the EU, certifications, AI training on your data and the pricing model by volume or location.

Then test with three real BoQs from the last month, ideally from different markets: a GAEB or ÖNORM BoQ, a scanned PDF and an e-mail request. Record beforehand how long your team currently needs for a typical BoQ. Vendors cite time savings of 50 to 85 per cent; according to the Workist comparison, there are no independent studies on this. What counts is the net time saved in your own operation. Our guide to automating proposals shows how to build the business case.

Frequently asked questions about AI assistants for bills of quantities

What is an AI assistant for bills of quantities?

An AI assistant for bills of quantities reads incoming tender BoQs as PDF, GAEB, Excel or e-mail, identifies the relevant line items and suggests matching products from your own catalogue. Your team reviews the suggestions and passes the quote to the ERP or returns it as a GAEB file. Unlike tendering software used by designers to write BoQs, it works on the side of manufacturers and distributors.

What is the difference between kinisto, SCAIT and Cosuno?

The three vendors serve three different roles. kinisto helps manufacturers and distributors answer bills of quantities with their own products. SCAIT helps Swiss contractors prepare bids with go/no-go decisions, contract analysis and BoQ plausibility checks. Cosuno is a platform on which clients tender and award construction work. Status: 26 October 2026, according to the vendors' websites.

What are the alternatives to Cosuno for building product manufacturers?

If you are a manufacturer who wants to answer incoming bills of quantities automatically, BoQ assistants with product matching are the relevant category, for example kinisto, Mercura, Scalera, Tendos or the Workist LV Assistant. Cosuno is designed for clients and the award of construction work. You can still use Cosuno as a channel for incoming requests.

How do Scalera and kinisto differ?

Both target manufacturers and distributors, read PDF, GAEB and e-mails, learn from completed quotes and return quotes as GAEB files. Scalera additionally documents ÖNORM and NPK, all common EU languages, an AI confidence score per match, further agents for tender search, supplier requests, bid comparison and order processing, and analytics. Scalera also supports contractors with supplier matching and risk analysis, and connects to ERP systems including SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle and Abacus. kinisto documents user-configured keywords, request management and native connectors for SAP and Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Which AI assistants handle GAEB, ÖNORM and NPK bills of quantities?

GAEB is named on the websites of kinisto, Scalera, Tendos and the Workist LV Assistant. Among the BoQ assistants for manufacturers and distributors, ÖNORM and NPK are documented by Scalera. SCAIT names NPK but works for contractors preparing bids. For the other vendors, ÖNORM and NPK are not documented (status: 26 October 2026). Test each market with a real BoQ.

How much does an AI assistant for bills of quantities cost?

Most vendors do not publish fixed prices. Volume-based licences are common, for example by number of requests or locations; kinisto, for instance, sells quotas based on request volume. Scalera's pricing is also tailored to volume and number of locations and is available on request. Cosuno offers subcontractors a free basic account.

Key takeaways

• Clarify your role first: tendering (Cosuno), bidding (SCAIT for tender analysis, Scalera for supplier matching and risk analysis) or answering BoQs with your own range (kinisto, Mercura, Scalera, Tendos, Workist).
• Among BoQ assistants, formats and regional standards, product logic, traceability and the route back into the ERP make the difference.
• If you quote in several countries, check GAEB, ÖNORM and NPK, languages, data location and local ERP systems such as Abacus.
• If you want to run the workflow from BoQ through supplier requests and bid comparison to the ERP end to end, check how many of these steps a vendor covers in one platform. Scalera covers them for manufacturers, distributors and contractors.
• Time savings are vendor claims. Test with your own BoQs.

Bring a real bill of quantities: in a demo, we will show you live how Scalera matches it to your catalogue, with reasoning and a confidence score for every item.