Can you license change orders and RFIs to AI companies?
A request for information is a question asked by the people doing the work. A change order is the signed outcome when the answer changes the scope. Together they trace how a plan met reality, who was asked, what it cost and who agreed. That chain is exactly what an AI company cannot find in finished documents.
What the two records hold
| The question | An RFI states what is unclear or impossible in the documents, often with a sketch or photo. |
| The response | The designer or owner answers, sometimes after a delay that itself costs money. |
| The pricing | A change order sets out cost and time, with the back-and-forth that produced the figure. |
| The approval | Who signed, in what order and after which objections. |
| The effect | The later record that shows whether the change solved the problem or caused another. |
Who keeps them
General contractors and specialty subcontractors, architects and engineers, and manufacturers who run engineering change requests keep the same pattern under different names. In a factory the equivalent is a request to alter a part after a design is released.
What makes a set more useful
Completeness. A set with the question, the answer, the price and the sign-off tied together tells the whole story, while a folder of signed change orders alone tells only the end. Years of projects in one system help, and so do disputes, because a settled argument shows how reasoning ended up on paper.
What has to be cleared or removed
| Attached drawings | The drawings belong to the designer or owner. Attachments are dropped unless there is a right to license them. |
| Pricing under confidentiality terms | Subcontractor and supplier prices are screened against contract terms. |
| Names and project identifiers | People, addresses and project numbers are replaced with stable stand-ins. |
An example, invented for illustration
An architecture and engineering firm has nine years of RFIs and the matching change orders in a project platform, plus the emails that led up to them. The useful package ties each question to its answer, its price and its signature. Projects for owners who keep all documents are screened out, and the rest go forward.
Questions owners ask about this
Do we have to include the attached drawings?
No, and usually we leave them out. The question and answer text carries most of the value, and the drawings raise a separate rights question.
Is an RFI log in a spreadsheet enough?
Only if the log links to the full text. A list of numbers and dates with no content has little to license.
What about change orders that ended in a dispute?
They can be the most valuable and the most sensitive. Anything involving a claim or litigation needs counsel review before it is considered.
Keep reading
Related kinds of records
- Quotes and estimates: A price and the argument behind it, with margins and current prices kept out unless the owner says.
- Project and task history: Jira, Asana, Linear, Monday, Trello, ClickUp and Airtable comments and status changes, not task titles.
Industries that keep these records
- Construction companies: RFIs, change orders and site logs; the floor counts the office, and owners hold the plans.