Where AI fits in commercial construction: Turning decades of project knowledge into better decisions - by Jack Hensey

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming part of the conversation across commercial real estate and construction. But for contractors, the biggest question may not be what AI can do. It may be whether companies have the information infrastructure in place to make AI useful in the first place.

Construction has always been an industry built on experience. Some of the most valuable knowledge within a construction company lives with the people who have spent years managing projects, solving problems, coordinating trades and understanding how a job actually comes together. Historically, much of that knowledge was never formally captured. It lived in people’s heads, notebooks, emails, schedules and individual project files.

This presents both the challenge and the opportunity for AI.

Before construction companies can fully benefit from artificial intelligence, they first need to become better at documenting decisions, processes, project updates and outcomes as the work happens. In many ways, adopting AI is as much a change in organizational habits as it is a change in technology.

At Reidy Contracting Group (RCG), that realization has shaped how we are approaching AI and technology across our business.

Starting With the Data We Already Have

One of the first areas where we saw a practical opportunity was scheduling.

Reidy has nearly two decades of schedules and schedule updates from completed high-end commercial interiors projects. Because scheduling is both highly repetitive and supported by years of consistent historical information, it provided a natural place to begin exploring how AI could assist our teams.

Instead of starting every schedule entirely from scratch, we can use information from past projects to help develop an initial framework based on how similar work has historically been sequenced.

The technology can help bring a schedule approximately 80 to 90% of the way there, but the final decisions remain with our scheduling department, project managers and the people responsible for executing the work. This has greatly reduced the time it takes to build and update our schedules.

That distinction is important.

AI can organize information, recognize patterns and provide a strong starting point. It cannot replace the judgment of the people who understand the project, the client, the building, the trades and the realities of the jobsite.

Building Technology Around the Way Construction Actually Works

Another opportunity AI has created is the ability for RCG to develop tools around our workflows rather than continuously adapting our operations to fit off-the-shelf software.

Construction companies have historically relied on a combination of large software platforms, spreadsheets and individual tracking systems. While commercial software can be incredibly powerful, companies often use only a portion of the features available while adjusting long-established processes to accommodate the platform. 

For a company of Reidy’s size, it is becoming increasingly viable to develop internal software and workflows that reflect how our teams manage projects and information. Instead of asking our people to change successful processes simply because a software platform was designed a certain way, we can begin building technology around those processes. This also helps us combat the rising costs of construction software.

That creates a more practical path toward adoption because the technology supports the work rather than dictating it.

Technology Should Strengthen Relationships, Not Replace Them

This is particularly important in New York’s high-end commercial interiors market.

Projects can involve long-lead custom fabrication, specialty subcontractors, occupied buildings, restricted freight and delivery windows, aggressive schedules and dozens of stakeholders — from clients and owner’s representatives to architects, engineers, subcontractors and suppliers.

In that environment, relationships remain one of the most important parts of successfully delivering a project.

When something unexpected happens, projects move forward because experienced people understand the situation and trusted partners are willing to pick up the phone and solve the problem together.

AI does not replace that relationship. What it can provide is more runway.

If better data allows a team to identify a scheduling conflict, procurement concern or potential coordination issue earlier, there is more time for the people involved to solve it before it becomes a larger project problem.

That is where we see some of the greatest potential.

As data becomes more accurate and accessible, there is also an opportunity for the entire project team and supply chain to work more collaboratively. Instead of every contractor, subcontractor and supplier independently tracking information and periodically comparing updates, the industry may eventually move toward environments where project progress and critical information are shared more continuously.

The technology becomes a way to keep everyone working from the same information.

Learning Across Projects

Perhaps the most significant long-term opportunity is the ability to learn across an entire portfolio of work.

Traditionally, construction companies become better through experience, but much of that learning happens informally or within individual teams. When project information is documented consistently, AI and analytics can help companies look across years of completed projects to understand what repeatedly worked, where challenges occurred and which assumptions proved accurate—or inaccurate.

A completed project then becomes more than a finished job. It becomes another source of intelligence for the next one.

Over time, that creates a feedback loop where every project has the potential to make future projects better informed.

The Goal Is Better Decision-Making

For us, the philosophy behind AI is relatively simple: get the right information in front of the right person at the right time.

Construction will always depend on experienced people who know how to build, manage relationships and make decisions when conditions change.

The opportunity for AI is not to replace those people.

It is to remove the hours they spend searching through schedules, spreadsheets, emails and historical project information for something the organization already knows.

If we can capture that knowledge, learn from it and make it available when someone needs it, technology can allow an already strong construction team to make faster, better-informed decisions.

That, more than automation itself, is where AI can begin to meaningfully change commercial construction.

Jack Hensey is a business operations manager, Reidy Contracting Group, Manhattan, N.Y.