Use this article when you need to load a lot of shop setup at once — substrates, presses, finishing, products — and want the AI to do the typing. After this you will know what AI Configurator is, where it lives in the product, what it stages for review, and what it does not touch.
What AI Configurator is
AI Configurator is a chat-first import tool inside Estimate Setup. You open it from the AI Configurator entry in Estimate Setup and either describe your equipment and substrates in natural language or drop in files — spreadsheets, exports from your old MIS, PDF catalogues. The AI reads the input, extracts structured rows, and proposes them as new substrate, press, finishing, and product entries.
Every change AI Configurator proposes lands in Pending Changes first. Nothing goes live until an operator opens Pending Changes and chooses Apply Changes. That review step is the point of the tool: AI Configurator is fast at the typing, the operator is the one who approves what becomes the shop's real setup.
AI Configurator is the recommended entry point for a brand-new shop, a major catalogue refresh, or any time you would otherwise be filling dozens of rows by hand in the Estimate Setup tables.
A worked example
Northgate Press is rolling out a new uncoated paper line and has 200 new substrate rows in a supplier spreadsheet — weight, sheet size, price per ton, coating, brand. The buyer wants those rows in the shop's substrates table this afternoon.
An operator opens AI Configurator and drops the spreadsheet into the chat. The AI extracts the 200 rows, normalises sheet sizes to the names that Northgate Press already uses (RA1, SRA1), maps each row's coating to the right substrate type, and proposes 200 new substrate entries.
The proposals land in Pending Changes with a count next to the sidebar entry. The operator opens the queue, scans the rows, fixes two that got the wrong brand assignment, and clicks Apply Changes. The 200 new substrates appear in the substrates table and are immediately available to the next quote.
The same flow handles press lineups, finishing machines, and product categories. The operator can mix natural-language descriptions ("we just bought an HP Indigo, digital sheet-fed, EUR 350/hour labour rate") with files in the same session.
What this affects
Estimate Setup tables — Substrates, Print Machines, Finishing, Products, and Categories receive new or updated rows when AI Configurator proposals are approved.
Pending Changes — every AI Configurator output stages into Pending Changes with a count badge. Nothing is live until Apply Changes runs.
Time to first quote — a shop that would otherwise take days of manual data entry can be quoting on real equipment the same day.
What this does not affect
Quote calculations — Calculate, the price breakdown math, machine selection logic, and routing decisions are not part of AI Configurator. Those run at quote time against whatever is currently live in the shop's setup, regardless of how the rows got there.
Price formulas and pricing rules — make-ready, run cost, substrate cost-per-sheet, markup buckets, and pricing-rule conditions are computed by the estimation engine when the operator clicks Calculate on a quote. AI Configurator only writes setup rows; it does not change formulas.
Live setup before Apply Changes — a proposal sitting in Pending Changes is not yet part of the shop's setup. Quotes calculated while the queue is unreviewed see the old rows, not the proposed ones.
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