The Rise Of AI In Construction

Artificial intelligence isn’t a new concept. In fact, you probably don’t even realize how much it’s already integrated into your daily life. For example, if you’ve ever used Google Maps, you’ve seen AI at work. You’ve probably interacted with a chatbot to confirm or track an order; that’s AI, too. And with 8.4 billion voice assistants like Siri and Alexa in use in 2024, it’s all but guaranteed an AI-backed helper has joined you at home or on the go.

AI already powers our lives in so many ways — it makes sense to start exploring how it can help our businesses become more efficient.

In October, Stratus CEO Jake Olsen joined SMACNA members from across the county for an informative presentation titled “AI for Construction” during the 2024 Annual Convention. Members found his workshop to be eye-opening — so much so that Olsen joined us for an encore presentation during our SMACNA Greater Chicago January 2025 Board Retreat. His session was jam-packed with real-world insights and tools that are helping shape the technology landscape for today’s contractors. 

MICROSOFT® COPILOT

Copilot is Microsoft’s generative AI, and it can be used within Office apps, Windows and more. In the construction industry, this tool can assist with faster document creation and summarization, provide automated review and suggestions for better document quality, and offer custom GPTs for improved contract review and project management.

CHATGPT

ChatGPT has the potential to support your business in a number of ways, from creating company announcements and writing job descriptions, to summarizing lengthy documents and editing for grammar or spelling. It can also analyze large data sets and provide insights.

AUTOMATED MEETING NOTES

Sometimes, you have to step out of a meeting to take a call. But using AI powered notetaking tools can allow you to go back and review all the high points — including what you might have missed. Some popular AI notetakers on the market today include Fireflies.ai and Fathom.

Now, let’s address the elephant in the room: Will AI replace people when we’re already experiencing a shortage of skilled labor? In short, no. Instead, AI has the potential to help this shortage. For example, if a project manager can effectively use AI to help with RFIs, change orders and more routine tasks, their time will be freed up to take on more projects. Also, AI isn’t perfect. It still takes a human’s eyes to review the output and make necessary changes to ensure accurate data.

“I’m not looking to replace people using AI, but now I can take on more volume with the same amount of people and have them focus on other tasks to help expand the company,” said Jeff Lukitsh, President of Westside Mechanical.

At the end of the day, AI can’t build a high-rise or data center (yet, anyway), but it certainly can augment our processes and people in charge to help make our jobs more efficient.