Hofman Kozijnen is investing heavily in the digitization and professionalization of its business processes. As a manufacturer of custom window frames for the construction industry, the company processes large volumes of project information, drawings, and requests on a daily basis. To accelerate these information-intensive processes, Hofman Kozijnen collaborated with Alistar to develop the Calculator Agent: an AI solution that automatically collects, organizes, and analyzes project information to support the estimating process. With this solution, Hofman Kozijnen and Alistar are leveraging AI to support further scaling and automation of the estimation process. The collaboration earned Alistar a nomination for the Computable Awards 2026.
Digitization as a Key to Further Growth
To enable further growth, Hofman Kozijnen is actively focusing on automating support processes. The estimating process requires processing large amounts of information from drawings, documents, and project data. By automating repetitive and administrative tasks, employees have more time to focus on substantive checks, technical assessments, and preparing cost estimates. This not only improves efficiency but also enables the organization to scale up more effectively.
AI as an Assistant to the Tradesperson
With this goal in mind, Hofman Kozijnen turned to Alistar, a full-service technology partner. That’s how the ‘Calculator Agent’ project began. Alistar built a platform that automates a significant portion of the process—from incoming email to a structured project folder.
The solution was developed to analyze information from technical drawings using vision AI and to provide relevant data—such as window frame specifications, dimensions, and information about glass and materials—to the estimator in a structured format. This results in a dataset that can be reviewed and further processed by a staff member. This principle is important to Hofman Kozijnen: AI automates where it makes sense, but the expert staff member remains responsible for the final assessment and validation.
“What a quantity surveyor used to have to enter manually from drawings is now ready in the web portal within a few minutes, including an export that can be imported directly into the drafting program,” says Tom. “The estimator opens the portal and finds a well-organized project on a clear Kanban board. Much of the preparatory work that used to have to be done manually is now handled automatically. This allows the estimator to focus more quickly on verification, technical assessment, and the final estimate.”
Innovation Based on Real-World Experience
The Calculator Agent takes a large part of the preparatory work off your hands by automatically organizing and analyzing documents. This allows estimators to get started more quickly with a complete and structured project file and to focus their attention on the technical assessment and estimation. In this way, the solution supports Hofman Kozijnen’s vision of using automation where it adds the most value: not as a replacement for craftsmanship, but as a means to lighten the workload on employees and enable them to work more effectively.
To ensure that the technology would fit well into daily practice, the solution was developed in stages and actively tested by Hofman Kozijnen employees. This close collaboration resulted in a solution that was not only innovative but, above all, practical.
Hofman Kozijnen: Technology Must Contribute to Scalability
“We are constantly exploring ways to further automate our organization and make it scalable. For us, this isn’t about AI simply because it happens to be popular. Technology must demonstrably add value to the process and to our people. The Calculator Agent is a good example of this. We strive to automate repetitive and administrative tasks as much as possible, while knowledge, technical assessment, and final inspection remain the responsibility of our experts. For us, this is not the end goal. We view digitization and AI as important tools for further professionalizing our organization and efficiently supporting our growth.”
We are constantly exploring ways to further automate our organization and make it more scalable. Our focus isn’t on AI simply because it happens to be popular. Technology must demonstrably add value to the process and to our people. The Calculator Agent is a good example of this.
Gerard Hofman, Director of Hofman Kozijnen
According to Tom, what makes this project special isn’t a single technology, but the way everything comes together. “We didn’t build a chatbot or a simple document scanner; we developed a process platform that brings together various AI applications—from recognizing and structuring incoming information to analyzing architectural drawings.”
Computable Awards and Next Steps
The combination of technical expertise and practical knowledge formed the basis for the development of the Calculator Agent. And the result did not go unnoticed even outside Hofman Kozijnen: Alistar has been nominated for the 2026 Computable Awards for this project.
Although the nomination is a nice recognition, Hofman Kozijnen is primarily focused on its practical value. The solution helps streamline processes, support employees, and enable further scaling. As Tom points out: “The nomination is a wonderful recognition, but the most important achievement is what we’ve accomplished together at Hofman Kozijnen.”
The partnership will therefore continue. Alistar and Hofman Kozijnen will continue to work on optimizing and expanding the Calculator Agent and on digitizing additional processes.
