Aug 11, 2026 · 21 min · 11 segments
How is artificial intelligence reshaping the construction industry? In this engaging episode, we are joined by Kathryn Schneider of Forvis Mazars, Michelle Savage of XBRL US, and Christopher Greene of…
Kathryn SchneiderGuest
Christopher GreeneGuest
Michelle SavageGuest
Kat ShamapandeHost
Mark McCallumHost
Yeah, it's pretty interesting because I think there's a sense of fear of missing out, right? Like they're falling behind because, again, there's a lot of noise out there and it is somewhat of a wild, wild west scenario.
When you look at just overall some stats, about 1% of contractors have actually adopted AI throughout their organization and their life cycle, but 80% are kind of test driving it, right? Kind of dipping that toe in the water and figuring out what's going to work.
And there's certain areas in construction, pre-con, estimating they're a little bit more ripe, business development, for kind of test driving that stuff.
And other areas that we are working towards is kind of like the finance, right? Some of those things are a little bit more mindful of the systems they already have in place and the data and trying to figure out how to leverage AI as well.
But automation's a big play in that world, especially in finance too, so getting engaged there as well.
Yeah, safety, especially, I know we talked about it earlier, but regarding like just images and, you know, so sight images, a lot of...
have drones or they have someone that physically walks the site every day or just cameras attached, fixed cameras, and then feeding all that back information and then training that AI model to say, hey, look for things that might be a, you know, a safety hazard or a PPE risk or things of that nature.
It's interesting because I think too then it opens up some privacy issues, right, and understanding kind of what that looks like, and then also just sometimes there's just so much data that it's ingesting, and try to figure out how to keep it organized and try to action on it, because it's great you have all this data, but what are you going to do about it, you know, kind of thing, yeah.
You know, you always hear that construction really hasn't made much in the way of productivity gains in what, 70 years or so? And now we have this technology that offers a future where that's going to be a reality.
At the same time, we're a country that has such desperate needs in infrastructure, and the cost is growing exponentially.
I mean, Chris, how do you see AI playing a role in making sure that we can achieve these infrastructure projects more efficiently?
Construction has typically been seen as a laggard in the digitization adoption as far as industries.
I think we've all seen that McKinsey report that showed construction as far as digitization at the very bottom, I think right around farming and agriculture.
Yeah, it's pretty interesting because I think there's a sense of fear of missing out, right? Like they're falling behind because, again, there's a lot of noise out there and it is somewhat of a wild, wild west scenario.
When you look at just overall some stats, about 1% of contractors have actually adopted AI throughout their organization and their life cycle, but 80% are kind of test driving it, right? Kind of dipping that toe in the water and figuring out what's going to work.
And there's certain areas in construction, pre-con, estimating they're a little bit more ripe, business development, for kind of test driving that stuff.
And other areas that we are working towards is kind of like the finance, right? Some of those things are a little bit more mindful of the systems they already have in place and the data and trying to figure out how to leverage AI as well.
But automation's a big play in that world, especially in finance too, so getting engaged there as well.
Yeah, safety, especially, I know we talked about it earlier, but regarding like just images and, you know, so sight images, a lot of...
have drones or they have someone that physically walks the site every day or just cameras attached, fixed cameras, and then feeding all that back information and then training that AI model to say, hey, look for things that might be a, you know, a safety hazard or a PPE risk or things of that nature.
It's interesting because I think too then it opens up some privacy issues, right, and understanding kind of what that looks like, and then also just sometimes there's just so much data that it's ingesting, and try to figure out how to keep it organized and try to action on it, because it's great you have all this data, but what are you going to do about it, you know, kind of thing, yeah.
You know, you always hear that construction really hasn't made much in the way of productivity gains in what, 70 years or so? And now we have this technology that offers a future where that's going to be a reality.
At the same time, we're a country that has such desperate needs in infrastructure, and the cost is growing exponentially.
I mean, Chris, how do you see AI playing a role in making sure that we can achieve these infrastructure projects more efficiently?
Construction has typically been seen as a laggard in the digitization adoption as far as industries.
I think we've all seen that McKinsey report that showed construction as far as digitization at the very bottom, I think right around farming and agriculture.
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