Automating quotes with AI: how does it work?

What does an AI agent do on a quote?

It takes the slow part of the job, the part that needs no judgment call: reading, searching, copying, calculating. In practice:

• It reads the request, whether it comes in by email, as an attachment or through a form, and pulls out quantities, deadlines, constraints and anything missing.
• It finds the quotes you wrote for similar requests, and what was actually billed in the end.
• It drafts the line items from your rate sheet and your usual terms.
• It writes the quote as a Word document, or prepares it for your quoting tool if that tool is connected.
• It flags what looks off: a missing quantity, a very tight deadline, a price far from what you've charged before.

Why start from quotes you already wrote?

A good quote usually looks a lot like one you've already sent. That knowledge sits in your files, and in the heads of the people who have been pricing jobs for years.

The agent reads your past quotes where they already live, in SharePoint, OneDrive or Dropbox, in read-only mode. It connects them by client, project and team. When it suggests a price, it cites the quote it came from, so you can check.

What stays with your team?

Anything that commits the company: the margin, a discount, whether to bid at all, the tone of the cover email. The quote the agent prepares is a draft.

A person reviews it, edits it and sends it. Nothing reaches your customer without that sign-off.

What if our rates live in a spreadsheet, a system, or nowhere?

That's the first thing our engineers look at. A rate sheet saved in your folders can be read as is. Business software or a quoting tool gets a custom connection.

Sometimes part of the pricing is written down nowhere and decided case by case. The agent then works from your past quotes, and says so in its draft.

Which companies get the most out of it?

Companies that price a steady stream of requests that are similar without being identical: construction, maintenance, engineering, service work, consulting.

Picture a company that gets twenty or so quote requests a week. For each one, someone digs up an old quote, copies the prices over and checks the timelines. The agent does that digging and drafts the line items, and the person pricing the job starts from there.

Who builds the agent, and how does it work?

Saména's engineers, Télécom Paris graduates who specialize in artificial intelligence. They start by looking at how you price jobs today: where requests come from, where your rates are, who approves. They tell you whether an agent is worth it there, then build it on your tools.

It takes one call, then access to your tools, granted in two clicks with no password to share. Two weeks after the call, a first agent is running. After that, a dedicated contact keeps it current: new rates, a new product line, another team that wants in.

Where do your prices and quotes go?

Your files stay where they are, and Saména doesn't keep any of them. What the agent builds from them is encrypted with a key unique to your company, on servers in France, and can be deleted on request.

You choose the model that reads your data: Claude, models from OpenAI, or Mistral if you prefer a French model. It runs in Europe and keeps none of your data.

Frequently asked

Can the AI send quotes on its own?

No. The agent drafts the quote, and someone on your team reviews it, adjusts it and sends it. Nothing goes out without a person signing off.

Do we need to organize our old quotes first?

No. The agent reads them where they already live, in SharePoint, OneDrive or Dropbox. You don't have to sort or reformat anything.

What about requests that come in by email?

Your email gets a custom connection. The agent reads the request where it lands and drafts the quote from it.

Can we use it from ChatGPT or Copilot?

Yes. Your agents live in the Saména app, and you can also reach them from Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot.

How much does it cost?

A one-time setup fee based on the volume of your documents, then a monthly subscription for the whole company, with unlimited users, priced on the agents we build. We go over pricing on the free 30-minute discovery call, with no commitment.