ChatGPT in Construction: A Working Contractor on What Works, What Fails, and What to Do First

[Instrumental music] A couple of things here then which I think is really important, just to summarize so far.

Using it as a strategic sounding board can be useful.

Having it interview you is vital in terms of giving it context, 'cause context is vital.

And then thinking through the particular tactical usages of it, in some places it's going to be strong, in other places it's going to be weak.

Correct.

So what I found to be the strongest use tactically is if you tie it to the strategy.

So for example, let's say you're building out your pre-construction division, estimating, biz dev, whatever that looks like.

The strategy is talk through it.

This is what it needs to look like in three years, five years, 10 years.

Give me feedback.

What do other companies do? What are the roles of each position that are in that tier? Now let's take this and create the SOP for that department.

It'll get you 80% of the way there, which is good.

Yes.

So that's an important number, right? 80%, because that's obviously there's a gap, but it's not a massive gap.

It's not one that's insurmountable then.

Right.

And the reason that's a good number is it's gonna get you 80% of the way there in five minutes instead of 80% of the way there in a day and a half.

And, and giving it the context up front, as much detailed information up front, helps you to get to that 80% figure as opposed to just saying, "Hey, write me an SOP for something general."

I don't know how deep you wanna get into that context, but as you know-

Let's go.

Please.

Yeah, get deep

... you set up your projects in chat, and speaking-- I can only speak to chat.

You can put in the projects the sources that it reads from.

So, for example, if you have a prior SOP with a, a format that you want to use, reference this source, follow this format, spit out SOP X based on SOP Y.

[Instrumental music] A couple of things here then which I think is really important, just to summarize so far.

Using it as a strategic sounding board can be useful.

Having it interview you is vital in terms of giving it context, 'cause context is vital.

And then thinking through the particular tactical usages of it, in some places it's going to be strong, in other places it's going to be weak.

Correct.

So what I found to be the strongest use tactically is if you tie it to the strategy.

So for example, let's say you're building out your pre-construction division, estimating, biz dev, whatever that looks like.

The strategy is talk through it.

This is what it needs to look like in three years, five years, 10 years.

Give me feedback.

What do other companies do? What are the roles of each position that are in that tier? Now let's take this and create the SOP for that department.

It'll get you 80% of the way there, which is good.

Yes.

So that's an important number, right? 80%, because that's obviously there's a gap, but it's not a massive gap.

It's not one that's insurmountable then.

Right.

And the reason that's a good number is it's gonna get you 80% of the way there in five minutes instead of 80% of the way there in a day and a half.

And, and giving it the context up front, as much detailed information up front, helps you to get to that 80% figure as opposed to just saying, "Hey, write me an SOP for something general."

I don't know how deep you wanna get into that context, but as you know-

Let's go.

Please.

Yeah, get deep

... you set up your projects in chat, and speaking-- I can only speak to chat.

You can put in the projects the sources that it reads from.

So, for example, if you have a prior SOP with a, a format that you want to use, reference this source, follow this format, spit out SOP X based on SOP Y.