AI in Construction: 4 Strategies for Contractors
As technology continues to revolutionize the construction industry, Building Information Modeling (BIM) contractors have a unique opportunity to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance project outcomes. Capital projects are complex, involving massive amounts of data and tight schedules. Construction of a single data center, for example, will require the complex management of a large workforce, moving resources, and potential clashes between systems.
Artificial intelligence can make that process — and any construction process — easier.
AI offers a powerful solution to help contractors make more informed decisions, improve efficiency, and minimize risks. Let’s explore four key strategies to leverage AI in construction for BIM contractors.
1. Create Data Repositories to House Project Information
Before contractors can effectively implement AI into your capital projects, they must first build a robust data repository. This repository serves as the foundation for deploying AI capabilities. By collecting, organizing, and storing comprehensive project data, you allow AI to analyze past performance, detect patterns, and offer actionable insights that can reduce work timelines, improve safety, and protect sustainability initiatives.
Building this data library may seem daunting, particularly if a capital project is just beginning. However, it’s never too late to start collecting, and studying, the right data. To move forward with AI, consider two immediate steps:
- Explore AI to understand its potential.
- Strategize with AI to determine how best to integrate it into your workflows.
This approach ensures that you can layer AI onto your data repository to identify trends, uncover inefficiencies, and make informed decisions.
2. Activate Real-Time Decision Making
One of the most powerful ways AI can transform construction projects is through real-time decision making. Through advanced analytics and real-time monitoring, AI can process massive amounts of data almost instantaneously. This empowers BIM contractors to make informed decisions quickly, especially in situations where timing is critical and resource downtime depletes funding.
For example, during the construction phase, AI can monitor project conditions, safety metrics, material usage, and labor efficiency in real-time, allowing contractors to make adjustments on the fly. This not only reduces the likelihood of an error; it also optimizes resource allocation, resulting in significant cost and time savings. Real-time AI-powered decision-making can be the difference between staying on track and encountering delays that cost millions.
3. Connect Knowledge Management to Your Construction Schedule
AI can also play a key role in knowledge management — and knowledge digitalization — linking past project data and lessons learned to your current project schedules. For instance, a week before a team is scheduled to start concrete formwork, AI systems can provide team members with actionable insights related to formwork construction. These insights are not generic best practices but are specific to your team’s experience, reflecting past design details, quality control measures, and recommendations that have worked in similar scenarios.
This AI-driven approach ensures that your team has access to highly relevant, timely knowledge, reducing the risk of errors and improving overall efficiency. As a result, you can significantly improve the quality and speed of project execution by tapping into AI-powered knowledge management systems.
4. Generate New Intelligence on Project Details
AI doesn’t just analyze data — it creates new, actionable intelligence BIM contractors can use to meaningfully improve project outcomes. By examining large datasets from previous projects, AI can offer insights that improve the efficiency of current and future projects. For example, AI can be used to streamline the construction of chain restaurants by optimizing processes, so the tenth build is completed more efficiently than the first.
AI uncovers hidden patterns within construction data, helping you save time, money, and resources. The ability to derive meaningful insights from “sleepy” or underutilized data is one of AI’s greatest strengths. It enables contractors to make informed predictions about the most efficient way to complete tasks, manage resources, and reduce risks across all phases of construction.
Implement or Elevate the Right AI Strategy for Your Project
Deploying AI in construction doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By starting with these strategies — creating data repositories, activating real-time decision-making, connecting knowledge management to your schedule, and generating new intelligence — you can implement AI in a way that adds immediate value to your projects.
Whether you’re just beginning your AI journey or looking to elevate your existing AI strategy, now is the time to consider time-saving technology for your next capital project. By integrating AI into your construction operations, you’ll be well-positioned to improve project efficiency, reduce costs, and drive innovation.
If you’re ready to implement or refine your AI strategy, our team of experts is here to help you every step of the way. Connect with VIATechnik today to learn how you can deploy artificial intelligence, and building information modeling solutions, to streamline your next capital project.
