Strategies for successful AI adoption in construction

Adopting AI can have a huge impact on construction businesses, increasing productivity, improving profitability, and helping drive better decision making, but for many adopting it seems daunting and unattainable.

Today AI is helping contractors overcome some of the biggest challenges the construction industry faces. Globally, and nationally, the industry has a serious productivity problem, while other industries have modernized and reaped the benefits. 

AI in construction has made huge strides in recent years. On the jobsite, semi-autonomous robots can perform repetitive tasks like Level 5 drywall finishing. In the trailer, AI can aid project managers by automating documentation and providing more accurate information. AI software has made great progress in analyzing photos to understand percentage of completion or identify safety risks. 

In the back office, AI can automate away repetitive processes, improve data accuracy, and aid in forecasting. And, while still in its early stages, AI is helping construction companies become more predictive and proactive through data analytics.

Overcoming industry challenges with AI

Labor productivity growth in the industry has averaged only 1 percent a year for the past 20 years, compared with 2.8 percent across the entire industry, according to the McKinsey Institute. Globally closing that gap would be huge, and individually the impact on your business alone would be game-changing. 

Unfortunately, the consultancy suggests construction has moved at “a glacial pace” towards digitization, resulting in it ranking second-to-last in digitization in the U.S. and last place in Europe. 

This is unfortunate since part of the problem that comes from operating manually is a lack of standards. While much is done the same across organizations, it’s just different enough to create inefficiency and complexities. The good news is that through improvements in AI, and specifically machine learning, this can be overcome.

AI can optimize in areas that would be cumbersome for human teams, and it’s becoming more capable and effective every day. Still, there are a few reasons that many contractors are reluctant to embrace the technology. Let’s look at a couple of the biggest obstacles to AI adoption in construction and how to overcome them.

The need for perfection

A lot of the barriers to AI adoption are, quite frankly, psychological and culture driven. A major one is fundamental to construction: the desire to be perfect. After all, when you’re building a structure that must stand the test of time there’s little room for error.

But in digitization and AI adoption the adage that “perfect is the enemy of good” is true. Most AI tools don’t work right away. In fact, part of their strength is that they learn. A good AI solution will become better focused on your business, its specific processes, needs, and even goals with increased use and refinement.

It’s hard for construction leaders to embrace the mindset needed to accept this. Many come from the field; if you need something done faster, you swing more hammers, throwing more people or equipment at it. AI, on the other hand, brings continuous incremental improvement. Still, even just a 10 percent boost in productivity a year is better than 1 percent (or, worse, a loss).

Don't let perfection get in the way of progress.

Fear of losing jobs

Many in the industry fear AI replacing human employees (or even themselves). This is a natural concern, especially with the propensity of family businesses in the industry and the feeling of responsibility to one’s teams. At the end of the day, whether a contractor uses AI or not, people are its #1 asset.

AI doesn’t replace boots on the ground, it improves what they can do. Even the robotic drywall finisher needs a human to operate it. Software bots need humans to train and oversee them.

In fact, as AI use becomes more commonplace in the industry, leaders who take advantage of it aren’t risking their employee’s jobs but protecting them. And as the labor shortage rages on, we still can’t get good employees fast enough, AI will help those companies using it to do more with the resources they can add.

Strategies for AI adoption

Construction leaders looking to leverage AI to improve their operations may need a mindset change more than anything. Like the old Apple slogan says, “Think different.”

Companies that are successful are ones with an entrepreneurial spirit and a culture of outside-the-box thinking. Part of that entrepreneurial spirit is the willingness to fail. Like inventor Thomas Edison famously said when inventing the light bulb, "I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 things that do not work."

An easy attitude for an inventor to take, but construction companies are supposed to succeed, right? To win, to be on time, and to be on budget. Failure isn’t in a lot of contractors’ vocabulary.  Still, to take advantage of AI you must be willing to take chances, to invest money and time in something that might fail at first but will ultimately reap high rewards.

Creating a culture of openness

Success in AI adoption (or any digital transformation) requires that people, processes, and technology work together in tandem. Technology alone won’t improve processes, without the right people and a culture of openness digital transformations fail.

Again, building a culture of openness—one willing to try new things and risk failure—doesn’t happen overnight, especially in construction. It requires acceptance from the top, after all, no one is going to take a chance with something new if they think it will get them fired. It also requires advocates within the teams involved, and people excited about the possibilities that AI technologies bring.

Find those that want to be involved and get them involved. Crowdsource from within the company to uncover these AI enthusiasts. Fortunately, being forward-thinking in your adoption of technology aids in hiring digital-savvy talent, and your own digital transformation can become a recruitment tool.

Start small. Show big results

Don’t feel like you must boil the ocean. Start with something small, automating away repetitive tasks like deduplicating data entry across systems, then build until AI is helping provide the information and insights to help make better decisions.

Take an iterative, agile approach, improving the AI tools you’re using and the business continuously and simultaneously. The more people see how AI helps them do their job, and the result it has on their performance and that of the company, the more AI is used, the more productivity improvements, and so on.

Make no mistake, these incremental improvements will be necessary to compete in the Age of AI. In the next five to 10 years, AI will be part of every construction project in some form or fashion.

While some contractors successfully operate the same as they have for decades, the is there’s a reason most family businesses fail in the third or fourth generation. They haven’t evolved, or they refuse to change with the times. The times ahead will see AI helping the construction industry improved productivity, complete projects faster, and make them more affordable. What era will your business be operating in?

If you’re interested in adopting AI in your workplace, talk with our team about what Briq can do for your business.