The owner's question, answered first
Can a general contractor sell its project records to AI?
Usually yes, for the paperwork the firm wrote itself, once the owners' and people's names are taken out. The exceptions are contracts that handed the records to the project owner and software that limits what leaves it.
What is the builder's to license
US copyright vests initially in the author, and for work made for hire the employer is treated as the author; in the UK an employer is the first owner of copyright in work an employee makes in the course of employment, subject to any agreement to the contrary. An RFI log, a change order register or a superintendent's daily report written by the firm's own staff therefore starts as the firm's.
Source: Who owns a contractor's project records
Where a contract moves it
Federal contracts are the clearest case. FAR 52.227-14 gives the government unlimited rights in data first produced in the performance of the contract, and the contractor needs the contracting officer's written permission to assert copyright in most of that data. FAR 52.236-21 lets the government duplicate, use and disclose shop drawings delivered under the contract in any manner and for any purpose.
Source: FAR 52.227-14, Rights in Data, General
What the software allows
10 of the 22 construction software vendors we read keep a pooled or anonymised use of customer data. PlanHub's terms let it exploit de-identified user content and the insights derived from it on a perpetual basis.
Source: Construction project software terms, vendor by vendor
What comes out before anything is shared
Owners' and homeowners' names, subcontractor contacts and anything personal are stripped. What stays is the work: the questions, the answers, the priced changes and the sequence of the job.