IndustryData Is Currency: How AI Will Shape the Future of Decision-Making in Construction

To make tough, timely choices, construction teams tend to rely on gut instinct or use the last project as a jumping-off point. The problem with that approach is that it doesn't account for the thousands of variables or hundreds of decisions that led to a good outcome. Successful projects need hard information about what worked, and what didn't. The future of decision-making in the construction industry involves data, and lots of it.

Every time a worker inputs data into a system, they're recording a decision they made and what happened afterward. By gathering, storing, and sharing data in smart ways, we can learn from those decisions and make better, faster decisions in the future.

Data is currency

Resource management is a critical part of any construction project. Companies live or die by their ability to manage costs across their contracts, balancing spending on essential supplies and labor against razor-thin margins to maximize profits. And any team's ability to predict outcomes and align workflows comes down to the vast experience captured in their data. That makes data the most important currency a construction team can spend, because every decision you make - and how much money you're able to shave off of your expense sheet - runs downstream from that information. Companies with the most comprehensive data sets will have a distinct advantage over competitors that don't. This advantage comes from having everything in one spot, which eliminates the back-and-forth between disconnected systems that otherwise slows decision-making.

Construction leaders already implicitly understand the need for amassing a body of historical project data. Four out of five stakeholders agree that having access to a wealth of data is critical to improving the quality of their projects while reducing financial risks, and most believe they could save an average of up to 13% on total spending if they captured and integrated data more efficiently.

However, there is a difference between having the data and knowing how to act on it, and currently, there is a vast disconnect between the two. 76% of civil and infrastructure builders say they are not realizing the full potential benefit of their data, while 43% of all stakeholders say they would make better decisions about their projects if they had greater access to real-time and historic performance data.

Construction teams need tools that can surface the right information to the right people at the right time - and the industry is on the verge of major breakthroughs that will make that happen.

Automating decision-making with AI

All of the data you've collected is a knowledge base designed to help you answer one critical question about the decisions you make: Why?

Why did this project take an extra week to complete? Why did the team experience additional safety hazards on the jobsite? Why do costs seem to be increasing over time? The platforms of the future are the key to finding answers to those questions and making better decisions in the future. They will be able to close that gap between knowledge and action, aligning first-party data with the tools and processes organizations use and making it accessible to project managers, supervisors, and the workers on the ground.

Further evolutions of these platforms will lean on AI, predictive analytics, and automation to act as a silent team member, pitching in to help where needed. AI processes will run in the background, handling routine tasks, managing quality checks, and suggesting next best actions so workers can spend their time focusing on more complex or important challenges.

As you lean on AI to complete these essential daily tasks, it'll get better at interpreting context and make better decisions for you. For example, as you reject submittals with missing information, the AI tool will recognize that pattern and begin to do that for you. If you're consistently delaying concrete pours due to rain, AI will begin to automatically recommend times with more favorable conditions. You'll start by double-checking its suggestions, until eventually you can hand off these simple yet time-consuming tasks outright.

The goal of these tools is not to replace the experienced worker, but to augment their skills. What AI does is transform the decision-making process into a hybrid of computer-based analytics and human expertise and insight. With these tools, leaders will be able to make decisions faster, manage risk more effectively, and anticipate costs and other previously unforeseen factors before they arise, ultimately helping them complete more projects on time, under budget, and with minimal waste.

Bringing data and decisions to the jobsite

Technology can capture, store, and retrieve data, but it needs humans to give it context. A key enabler of this will be usability - tech needs to be intuitive and accessible to the workforce on-site, not just in back offices. If tools don't work for the people in the field, adoption won't happen, and decision-making won't improve. That's why intuitive tools supported by effective training will be essential to empowering frontline teams to make smarter, faster decisions in real-time.

These solutions can't exist in silos; they must be interconnected within an organization's ecosystem. 40% of construction businesses continue to rely on standard productivity and communication tools, and one in four still use paper-based records or non-digital processes as a core part of their workflows. Any solution that doesn't account for these legacy systems or processes won't have the full picture, meaning any suggestions or decisions it makes won't be as accurate as they could be.

Connecting multiple data sources into one comprehensive platform eliminates fragmentation and saves time on every project. It will also allow decision-making to happen closer to the work itself - on-site, where problems arise - rather than at a distance, reducing the lag between problem identification and resolution. Unlike fragmented point solutions, comprehensive platforms provide the connected workflows needed to turn data into faster, better decisions. Are you using integrated systems that automatically capture insights and reduce manual coordination? Your answer to that question may determine the success of your business in the years to come.