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Bridging The Expertise and Knowledge Gap from A Retiring Generation of Builders: Smartapp’s Vision for AI In the Built Environment

By James Norris, Vice President of Strategy, Smartapp

The goal of AI in construction should be to manage risk better than ever before. This is how we keep our people safe and, frankly, it is how builders make money. Whoever manages risk best wins! Years ago, I heard from a head of construction operations that the goal of a construction company is to make more than 14% profit on the capital backing the construction company.

Basically, make more than you can in the stock market. If not, it makes no sense to be in business as a builder and you might as well go trade stocks or open a kombucha franchise for millennials. I am a millennial, so no offense taken.

The focus of AI needs to be based on value and the problems we as an architecture, engineering and construction industry know we are facing. Let’s start by rehashing some well- known AEC industry problems to understand the real value AI can bring and is bringing to our industry:

KNOWN AEC INDUSTRY CHALLENGES

  • Good workers are hard to find!

In 2024, the industry was short by a half a million construction workers. 

  • Our building experts are retiring!

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 1 in 4 construction workers are older than 55, and retirements will continue to whittle away at the workforce. 

  • We’re running our people ragged!

Workers in the construction industry are more vulnerable to burnout than in any other field. In 2017, the National Association of Home Builders found that only 3% of people aged 18 to 25 wanted to work in construction.

SO WHERE DO WE START WITH THIS AI INITIATIVE AS SOFTWARE COMPANIES OR BUILDERS?

First, building AI into a construction workflow requires expertise in the built world. Our industry is slow to adopt new software that doesn’t instantly show value that is obvious to all parties. That’s why 2D drawings on software mobile apps became multibillion-dollar companies. Everyone wanted updated drawings at their fingertips because it was an obvious solution.

So, if you want AI to solve a construction problem that is truly obvious and can scale to help millions of people, hire people who deeply understand the nuances of the construction problem as well as AI engineers. Some questions to answer on your AI solution journey are:

  • Is it simple?
  • Is it reliable?
  • Is it in real time or time-sensitive?
  • Is it faster than what I am doing now?
  • Does it predict risks well?
  • Does it work with all the data I am capturing, such as schedule, safety, fieldwork and cost?

The more information you have, the better the solution you can implement. These are questions we ask at Smartapp before creating anything, whether it be automated, AI-driven or both.

WHAT IS SMARTAPP DOING WITH AI AND AUTOMATION?

Released in the fall of 2023, the benefits of the Brena.ai AI assistant have already helped on a $100 million project.

PLANNING AND SCHEDULING AI AND AUTOMATION:

  • AI-created lookahead schedules based on past performance, including assigning the trade, potential duration and crew size. Reference the current scheduled work or choose just one scheduled task, and Brena.ai will create a suggested lookahead.
  • Automated and consolidated daily job reports for the trades, the general contractor and the owner.
  • Automated schedule progress updates from the field back into your P6 or MS Pro schedule, removing double-entry of data.

SAVINGS:

  • $720,000 saved in manual labor entry per year.
  • 260 hours saved by automating the construction schedule.
  • 662 hours saved assigning work and verifying completed tasks.
  • 5,800 hours saved on manual entry of daily job reports.

SAFETY AI AND AUTOMATION:

  • AI PPE recognition of jobsite staff.
  • AI multilingual support.
  • AI enterprise-wide repeat offender detection.
  • Automated worker onboarding, I-9 process and certification tracking.

SAVINGS:

  • $1.29 million saved in hours and injury avoidance per 1,000 workers.
  • Approximately 10,000 labor hours saved per 1,000 workers onboarded.
  • 25% reduction in injuries onsite.

CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTATION AI AND AUTOMATION:

  • AI spec extraction to help with means and methods guidance during work installation.
  • AI submittal creation from specs.
  • AI machine vision for locating items in construction progress photos.
  • AI for Livelink, Smartapp’s version of live video or text conference calls with multiparty markup, automatically creating follow-up items and a summary with multilanguage transcripts on the fly.

SAVINGS:

  • 250 hours saved from finding and entering submittal data.
  • Machine vision of photos allows for instant lookup of items.
  • Livelink reduces manual data entry and RFIs by 13.2%.

FINANCE AND PROJECT CONTROLS AI AND AUTOMATION:

  • AI-suggested budget and cost breakdown structure based on past performance.
  • Automated bid award to contract creation process.
  • Automated pay applications and earned value tracking.

SAVINGS:

  • $448,000 in time savings per large project
  • 8 times faster forecasting and pay application processes.
  • 1,050 hours saved per 30 contracts created.

FUTURE DIRECTION

The future of AI is going to be multifaceted and will require guidance and effort from builders and software companies around the globe.

AI initiatives will combine both hardware and software. We live in a physical world using physical tools, especially in construction. So, we think you will see much more fusion and harmony between hardware and software, tracking things like progress and people, identifying safety risks and aiding in the installation of work. We are already seeing this now.

Project schedule durations will be known with approximately 97% accuracy before the project begins, improving risk management.

Predictive analytics will become so good that the best superintendent knowledge at a company will be spread to all superintendents and field workers to make them at least B to A players since they will be informed of issues even before they ever happen.

Cameras and depth sensors guided by AI algorithms will lead to a new era of surveying and reality capture solution offerings.

We could go on forever on the possibilities of how AI will benefit the construction process—some of them are known today while many benefits will reveal themselves in the coming years.