Blueprints AI turns sketches into permit-ready construction sets in minutes

Blueprints AI, a Los Angeles startup founded by architect Al Dram and data scientist Coco Cao, is unveiling its second version this week at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco. The conference opens tomorrow and runs through October 15. The company was selected for the 2026 Startup Battlefield 200 cohort.

The new release generates a full plan set — architecture, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and interior design — from a text description or a hand-drawn sketch. Version one, already sold on a monthly subscription of $3,200 to $8,500 (roughly 11,800 to 31,400 shekels) with custom enterprise pricing, produces architectural construction documents. Version two adds editing: a single design change automatically updates the entire project and checks it against local building codes. Early customers are already using it; public access opens this week. A third version, in development, will add structural analysis and electrical panel design.

Twenty years from thesis to product

Dram wrote his architecture thesis nearly two decades ago on software that would produce planning documents for educational buildings. The technology did not exist then, so he followed a conventional academic and professional path: bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture at the University of Tehran, two years of PhD studies in digital design at the European Graduate School in Switzerland, founding an architecture practice in 2018 and adding a construction arm in 2021 after obtaining a general contractor license. When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, he realized the old idea had become feasible. Within six months he shaped the concept, and in 2025 incorporated the company in Santa Monica with Cao, whom he had met at an AI conference.

Models trained on real approved plan sets

Blueprints AI's models were trained on eight years of approved plan sets produced by Dram's firm, which remains active. The founders say the technology does not replace licensed architects. Professionals still review and sign the documents before permit submission; judgment stays human. Dram argues that architects today spend roughly 80% of their time on technical drafting and only 20% on actual design, and he wants to invert that ratio. Cao, originally from Hong Kong and serving as chief commercial officer, leads marketing and sales strategy. The company targets two audiences: professional architecture and engineering firms, and other players in the construction chain who need fast, code-compliant plans.