A general contractor's bid is only as complete as the subcontractor coverage behind it. On bid day, a gap between two trades' proposals, a scope no sub carried, becomes the general contractor's cost after award. Catching the gaps before the number goes in is the difference between a clean job and a loss.
Where scope gaps come from
A public project is divided into trade scopes through the specifications, and subcontractors bid the parts they recognize. Between those parts sit items no one claimed: a connection between two systems, a piece of finish work, a piece of demolition, an inclusion one sub assumed another carried. If the general contractor's estimate does not catch the gap, the price is short, and after award the cost lands on the prime.
Why scope gaps survive to bid day
Sub proposals arrive in the final hours before bids are due, in different formats, each citing its own scope. Reconciling them against the full specification under that pressure is where gaps slip through. The more trades and the more addenda, the more places a scope can fall between two proposals unnoticed.
How an AI bid agent catches scope gaps
An AI bid agent reads the specification and the trade divisions and maps the scope each section requires, then checks incoming sub coverage against that map to flag the items no proposal carries. The estimator sees the open scopes before the number is committed, not after award.
You can see how the agent reads and structures a specification in our AI bid agent demo for general contractors. The same reading that scores fit is what maps scope so nothing falls between two sub proposals.