Portal Unleashes AI Proposals in Full Beta
With the AI Proposal Builder, dealers can dictate the project scope from the jobsite or record audio or video content from a walkthrough.
Adobe Stock image by Marko
CHICAGO – Integrator-focused proposal software and product/pricing database provider Portal.io today launched the AI Proposal Builder, which allows security and AV integrators to create complete proposals in seconds.
As artificial intelligence increasingly becomes a meaningless buzzword, many professionals are growing weary of companies using it to promote minor features that offer little real world value, says Kirk Chisholm, founder of Portal, in the company announcement.
“Honestly, most AI news today is just fluff,” he says. “It’s dressed-up automation with no real impact to dealers’ business. We saw an opportunity to leverage AI to build something we’ve envisioned since I started Portal over 12 years ago: build a proposal for dealers based on the information they gather during the project discovery and walkthrough process.
“This is not just another AI feature; it dramatically improves how dealers approach the proposal process,” says Chisholm.
How Portal AI Proposal Builder Works
With the AI Proposal Builder, dealers can dictate the full scope of the project from the jobsite or record detailed audio or video content from a project walkthrough. The AI Proposal Builder then generates a proposal outline, including the scope of work, areas with full descriptions and tasks with parts and labor budgets – in seconds.
The proposal outline can be reviewed with the customer in real time in order to help qualify them and start setting budget expectations. Once ready, the dealer can click a button to convert the detailed proposal outline in a full proposal in Portal.
They can then refine and adjust each area as needed, giving dealers full control over the quoting process.
The AI Proposal Builder “cuts proposal time and speeds up the process, allowing dealers to get a complete proposal in the hands of customers much faster,” according to the company announcement.
Portal’s AI Proposal Builder was first unveiled at CEDIA 2024, to rave reviews from dealers and industry leaders.
“We showed the builder to many dealers leading up to CEDIA and they were so amazed that we decided to set up cameras to record live reactions at our booth,” says Kirk.
CE Pro Editor-in-Chief Arlen Schweiger also recognized it as one of the standout solutions from CEDIA Expo 2024, noting, “The folks at Portal designed an incredibly integrator-friendly product that will boost efficiencies and help dealers deliver more comprehensive proposals that are much simpler to put together.”
Since the initial limited beta launch in September, hundreds of dealers have adopted the AI Proposal Builder, providing invaluable feedback that has helped Portal continue to optimize the tool.
“We’re excited to see this feature grow and evolve with customer feedback and advancements in AI technology,” says Kirk. “This is just version 1. This is the worst version you’ll ever see and it’s blowing people’s minds.”
As part of the launch, Portal has made available a public demo version of the AI Proposal Builder, and you don’t even need a Portal account to experience it.
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