Construction trade association creates AI guide for contractors

Artificial intelligence could play a key role in helping construction to address the skills shortage (Image: Adobe Stock)

Including links to AI resources and explanations, the guide details how industry professionals can use artificial intelligence throughout a construction project lifecycle. Tips, notes and insights are broken down across preconstruction, construction and maintenance.

Matt Abeles, ABC vice president of construction technology and innovation, said, “The construction industry is faced with a steep worker shortage of more than half of a million in 2024, and promising technologies like AI can help address this challenge.”

In the ABC AI guide, the group states that AI technology “should not be underestimated.” It touted savings, not just on labour, but in increased efficiency in planning, data management and quality control.

The guide is meant to simplify and make sense of what can be, for many contractors, a novel and intimidating environment.

“The possibilities of AI technology may sound endless, but we must first educate ourselves on the basics, and this resource is a starting point to understand AI and its potential impact on the construction industry,” says the guide’s author and ABC director of construction technology and innovation, Patrick Scarpati.

“The industry has immense opportunities to evaluate how we can better deliver projects, and we can lean on AI in achieving essential goals like upskilling, workforce development, knowledge transfer, supply chain optimization, enhanced safety design and planning and much more.”

Abeles noted that, particularly as the industry looks to engage more young workers, it’s vital that the tools they inevitably will use – like AI – are adopted deliberately and with purpose.

“As younger workers become industry leaders, we must approach AI in construction as beneficial with a balanced view that includes continuous evaluation, developing ethical guidelines and increasing awareness about what AI can and cannot do,” he said.

The guide suggests that any business looking to implement AI strategies for the first time ask themselves important questions about its purpose and longevity.

“Artificial intelligence and the many layers involved in its functions rely heavily on clean and consistent data,” states the guide. “This leans into the transformation of our workforce: Who is managing this data? How are we managing the data? How are we using the data in an effective manner?”