By Kevin Soohoo, Senior Director of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction at Egnyte
With its complex projects and extensive documentation, the construction industry has long needed innovative solutions to improve document management and collaboration. Harnessing the power of the cloud is a key step in this revolution. The latest innovations in artificial intelligence and the ensuing buzz are proof of this. AI has the potential to streamline cumbersome and error-prone manual workflows, enabling companies to make timely, educated decisions using their most powerful asset—their data.
The Importance of Centralized Quality Data
AI's effectiveness depends on the quality of its training data. If an AI model can access only a fraction of your company’s information because the data is spread across storage units, on-premises servers, hard drives and multiple clouds, its results will be unreliable. Centralizing data in the cloud allows AI to analyze comprehensive datasets, enabling better decision-making quickly. This approach ensures all relevant information is available for accurate insights. Ensuring data accuracy is crucial, as the industry has low risk tolerance. Using unvetted information with generic AI models can lead to severe errors and impede project delivery.
Taking it a step further, controlling the state of the data and who has access to it is crucial in preventing discrepancies that could lead to flawed AI outputs. Implementing robust governance policies ensures that only authorized personnel can access sensitive information to avoid data breaches and misuse. These policies also allow administrators to restrict outdated information from being used, even if that data must be kept to meet record retention requirements.
Egnyte Copilot: Transforming Data Engagement
At Egnyte, we recognize the immense potential of AI in transforming how companies engage with their data. To this end, we created an AI-driven assistant to accelerate and revolutionize this engagement. Egnyte Copilot enables our customers to have AI-powered conversations with their private and trusted data through a simple solution while ensuring that this data remains internally and externally secure regardless of location.
Companies can identify trends and optimize project outcomes by leveraging decades of project data, including images, estimates, specifications, drawings, proposals, contractual agreements and other documents. Egnyte Copilot provides a key feature that empowers users through AI: the ability to designate specific groupings of files as knowledge bases for focused AI answers. These knowledge bases can be configured using company domain-specific prompt libraries to guide the Copilot’s responses.
Practical Applications of Egnyte Copilot in Construction Project Information Management
Project managers can use their project folders to create a knowledge base enabling all stakeholders to easily find documents and files specific to their needs, whether in the office, walking the jobsite and using their phone or sitting at their child’s soccer game. For example, Copilot can assist in object identification within images, enabling project teams to quickly locate and analyze visual data. This capability enhances project oversight and ensures that critical information is readily accessible, resulting in efficiencies at all project phases.
Pre-Construction and Estimators
Estimators can create knowledge bases of relevant documents by project type, such as the seismic code requirements from an existing operational hospital or a new construction of a multifamily structure consisting of 100 units. These knowledge bases include past bids, project budgets and cost estimate analyses. Using these resources, estimators can run queries across thousands of files, extracting valuable insights from previous cost estimates. This functionality allows them to reduce research time, preemptively focus on winning strategies and provide accurate information for future estimates. Furthermore, analyzing historical data allows estimators to identify patterns and trends, contributing to more competitive and accurate cost-estimating strategies.
Operations and Safety
By leveraging Egnyte Copilot, the operations department can establish comprehensive knowledge bases encompassing various operational aspects, such as compliance and safety protocols and project photographs. This feature facilitates easy access to all necessary regulations and safety protocols, enabling prompt identification and resolution of risks across diverse project types and locations.
Centralizing project safety data and leveraging AI for monitoring and analysis empowers companies to address potential project risks proactively and maintain a secure work environment for all project stakeholders and visitors within and around an active site. This approach ensures adherence to high safety and regulatory compliance standards, fostering a culture of safety and compliance throughout the organization.
The Broader Impact of AI in Construction
The buzz around incorporating AI into workflows is part of a broader shift toward data-driven decision-making and enhanced collaboration in the industry. AI’s ability to quickly process and analyze vast amounts of data enables construction companies to operate more efficiently and effectively.
Centralized cloud-based data and AI-enhanced document management foster better collaboration among project teams. With all relevant information accessible in one place, team members can work together more seamlessly, share insights and make informed decisions.
By automating routine and manual tasks, AI frees up valuable time for construction professionals to focus on more strategic and complex activities. For instance, AI can handle document categorization and comparison, data entry and error detection, allowing employees to dedicate their efforts to higher-value tasks. This increase in productivity translates to faster project completion times and improved overall efficiency.
AI’s capability to analyze mountains of project documents provides construction companies with valuable insights that were previously unattainable. These insights can inform various aspects of construction projects, from initial planning and design to execution and post-project evaluation. By leveraging AI-driven data analysis, companies can identify areas for improvement, optimize resource allocation and enhance project outcomes.
The construction industry is poised for a digital transformation driven by the power of the cloud and the latest innovations in AI. By centralizing data and leveraging AI technology, companies can revolutionize their collaboration and document management approach. Egnyte Copilot exemplifies this potential by providing a secure, AI-driven assistant that empowers users to engage meaningfully with their vetted data.
As the construction industry embraces these advancements, the resulting efficiency, productivity and decision-making improvements will drive the industry forward. The future of construction lies in harnessing the power of the cloud and AI to build smarter, more connected and more successful projects.