From Blueprint to Build: How OFA Group’s AI Is Revolutionizing Architecture Planning
In today’s fast-paced construction and design landscape, the pressure to build more quickly, affordably, and sustainably is higher than ever. OFA Group is responding to this demand through our innovative solutions – QikBIM and PlanAId.
We recently launched QikBIM, our groundbreaking AI-powered platform designed to transform architectural planning from the ground up. It is currently open for global trial enrollment for architecture firms, marking the transition from development to real-world use.
We are also advancing the development of PlanAId, an AI-driven planning assistant that automates zoning, compliance checks, and feasibility analysis to further streamline early-stage project planning. PlanAId is expected to begin beta testing by the end of October, marking a key milestone toward its broader release.
Rethinking the Foundations of Planning
For years, architectural planning has been slowed by the need to coordinate across multiple disciplines, including mechanical, plumbing, fire safety, and zoning, each requiring manual review and feedback. Every time a new specialist provides input, it can lead to additional design revisions, conflicts, and delays in getting approvals. This fragmented, back-and-forth process not only consumes valuable time but also increases costs and creates opportunities for errors that ripple through an entire project.
OFA recognized that these challenges were not just inconveniences, but systemic inefficiencies holding the industry back. What if all those steps could be unified, automated, and streamlined into a single process? That question became the foundation for QikBIM.
The vision behind the platform is to reduce this friction from early-stage planning, enabling architects and developers to move from concept to build-ready with unprecedented speed and confidence.
QikBIM centralizes and automates much of that input to get it right the first time. By converting 2D architectural drawings into comprehensive 3D BIM models across five disciplines, including Architectural, Structural, Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing, the platform dramatically accelerates modeling timelines. What once took months of consultant coordination can now be completed in hours, while also eliminating many of the expensive external consulting fees typically required.
By embedding zoning, safety, and compliance considerations into the design phase itself, QikBIM helps eliminate the stop-and-go cycles that have long defined traditional planning.
A Smarter, More Streamlined Workflow
While QikBIM focuses on automating the modeling and design translation process, OFA’s complementary platform, PlanAId, addresses a different, but equally critical part of the workflow: compliance and regulatory verification.
Unlike current tools that focus on visuals and basic coordination, PlanAId will serve as an intelligent project planning and compliance engine, designed to help developers, engineers, and architects streamline early-stage feasibility and design processes.
Where traditional software often stops at visualization, PlanAId goes further by integrating AI-driven zoning breakdowns, code interpretation, and automated compliance checks to help users make informed decisions before design work even begins.
Here’s how the tool works:
Site and Zoning Integration: Users input property information, and PlanAId automatically compiles local zoning data, building requirements, and site constraints.
Automated Zoning Breakdown: The AI interprets zoning and building data level by level, ensuring full alignment with local regulations.
Proactive Code Checks: It automatically identifies compliance issues, such as a staircase not meeting code, and flags them for correction early in the process.
Regulatory Verification: Once a project passes all checks, PlanAId produces outputs aligned with permitting requirements, helping reduce approval time and rework.
The goal of PlanAId is to make early-stage project planning faster, more data-driven, and more accurate, saving significant time and resources while supporting more sustainable and compliant development outcomes.
By identifying design conflicts and regulatory concerns before the plans leave the architect’s desk, QikBIM and PlanAId together create a seamless pipeline from feasibility to permit-ready plans.
Paving the Way for Greener, Smarter Builds
Sustainability is another core consideration in OFA’s AI ecosystem. Both QikBIM and PlanAId incorporate tools that evaluate material choices and energy usage factors at the planning stage, encouraging more sustainable designs before construction begins.
Time savings translate into cost savings as well, especially when architects charge by the hour and the permitting process delays groundbreaking. The sooner a project moves from blueprint to approval, the more efficient the overall build becomes.
Preparing the Industry for What’s Next
To date, AI in architecture has mostly been limited to aesthetics, renders for interiors, generating marketing visuals, and conceptual design. OFA’s AI suite goes far beyond that, tackling the technical, regulatory, and logistical hurdles that often slow real-world development.
With QikBIM now launched and global trial enrollment underway, and PlanAId quickly approaching the beta-testing stage, OFA is engaging permitting offices, architects, and engineering firms in pilot programs to demonstrate their real-world impact. We are confident that these tools will advance the industry and serve as catalysts for more cost-effective, efficient, and streamlined architectural planning.
OFA Group