Learn more about how AI can save your company time by streamlining processes and improving efficiency. Think about which of these benefits apply to your day-to-day operations and consider AI implementation.
AWCI’s mission is connecting wall and ceiling industry professionals to innovate, grow and succeed, and artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming part of that success formula. We interviewed five industry experts about how their companies use and benefit from AI. Their insights may help guide your decisions about the next steps for AI implementation in your organization.
Q: What AI tools are you seeing/using/recommending right now for your customers?
A: Scott Banda, co-founder and CEO of Construction Connectivity in Boston, Massachusetts, heads a software company that uses IoT sensors to enable wall and ceiling contractors to remotely monitor their jobsite temperature, humidity, dew point and light level conditions from their mobile devices.
His company employs AI primarily for marketing activities. “We use it to help with content development for public relations and other marketing communications,” he says. “We’re working to integrate AI into our database to assist in mining the data to help spot trends and discover other valuable insights.”
A: Claire Backs is the field marketing manager at Trades at OpenSpace in San Antonio, Texas. OpenSpace offers OpenSpace 360° reality capture technology, which makes it simple and fast to precisely document jobsites, streamline workflows, minimize demo and patch back, and enhance collaboration—all to save time, minimize errors and support efficient project management.
Backs says her organization uses AI in several ways. “AI technology—Spatial AI in particular—is at the heart of our solutions, and our OpenSpace Capture and OpenSpace BIM+ products bring together numerous advanced technologies including computer vision, 3D reconstruction, SLAM, generative AI and machine learning.”
Backs says that, behind the scenes, OpenSpace’s proprietary algorithms make it possible to build technology that assists and automates labor-intensive tasks. “lt’s intuitive and simple for the end user and makes daily work easier,” she explains. “For example, to capture, our customers simply walk the site, recording from a 360° camera, smartphone or drone. Our Spatial AI technology makes sense of the digital images and automatically maps them to the floor plan. The result is a fully documented, 360° view of the jobsite that makes it simple to find, share and coordinate.”
A: Charlotte Bohnett, head of marketing at Siteline in San Francisco, California, describes her company’s product as “the only billing software for trade contractors.” It enables complete visibility into accounts receivable and provides a central hub to manage pay apps across all clients along with anything that could hold up payment, like lien waivers and compliance requirements.
According to Bohnett, “AI offers a wide range of applications that can enhance efficiency, accuracy and decision-making. Within construction finance specifically, AI helps accounting teams to generate pay apps and lien waivers and submit them precisely to GCs’ specifications, including any custom forms.”
Backs also mentioned that visual reporting enables teams to monitor A/R health, streamline collections, run billing projections and forecast cash flow. In addition, it offers change order tracking and A/R task management and integrates with many construction accounting systems and payment portals, eliminating double entry and streamlining processes.
“Siteline rescues teams from manual billing processes managed on spreadsheets,” Bohnett adds. “Our system helps contractors bill six times faster, cut pay app revisions in half and reduce invoice aging by 30%—getting them paid at least three weeks sooner.”
Bohnett says AI offers other benefits too:
Optimized Project Timelines—AI analysis can more accurately predict proposed schedules by considering factors like past performance, seasonality, customer requirements, project complexity and dynamic supply chain conditions.
Effective and Proactive Cost Management—AI models provide granular insights into project cost structures, factoring in variables such as material pricing fluctuations, labor availability and risk factors. This facilitates tighter cost control, early identification of budget overruns and data-driven decision-making to maximize profitability. AI can also predict future cost trends and suggest optimal timing for material purchases or subcontractor engagements.
Increased Productivity and Resource Optimization—By automating repetitive tasks like forecasting, reporting and subcontractor accounting, AI frees up employees to focus on high-value activities like strengthening customer relationships and strategic planning. AI can also optimize workforce scheduling and equipment utilization across multiple projects, maximizing resource efficiency.
Significant Time Savings—AI drives efficiency across various workflows, addressing waste due to labor inefficiencies. AI-powered solutions can streamline time-consuming processes like generating custom GC forms or manually tracking statuses in spreadsheets.
Enhanced Visibility for Data-Driven Decisions—AI surfaces relevant data at the right time, enabling faster and more informed decision-making. For example, AI-powered drones can assess construction progress and generate real-time 3D renderings, providing unparalleled visibility into project status and facilitating proactive course correction. AI can also integrate data from various sources (IoT sensors, financial systems, weather forecasts) to provide comprehensive project insights.
Improved Work-Life Balance—By effectively combining AI capabilities with human expertise, employees can redirect their efforts toward strategic, higher-value projects that drive organizational growth. This synergy between technology and talent leads to enhanced work-life balance and increased job satisfaction within the workforce.
Enhanced Safety and Risk Management—AI can analyze historical safety data, real-time site conditions, near-miss incidents and worker behavior to predict and prevent potential safety hazards. Additionally, AI-powered wearables and computer vision systems can monitor worker safety in real time, notifying supervisors of potential risks or incidents as they occur.
A: Kathy Case, founder of Quantify North America in Dover, Delaware, says her company enables customers to focus on their sales efforts and operations by providing detailed, cost-effective, quantitative takeoffs from contract documents. Deliverables include the original software file (not locked), color-coded plans to identify the scope of work (SOW), a job summary, the specific drawings, specifications and addenda pages for your SOW and a narrative that will indicate the architect name, date of project, any addenda/revisions received and any necessary qualifications or clarifications.
As Case puts it, “We use many technology platforms that already include AI components: estimating software, database systems like Spec-ID, which automates the submittal process and more, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM). Case says that many of these platforms include AI such as ChatGPT or Large Language Models (LLMs) as part of their software.
A: Jerry Freeman, president of Spec-ID, which provides accurate product data with end-to-end integrity for the commercial construction industry in the Chicago area, says his company’s process automation streamlines project efficiency and integrates seamlessly with critical product data workflows for submittals, sampling, closeout documents, safety data sheet submittals and product pricing.
“We use AI technology to capture product data from commercial manufacturer websites to compile a comprehensive database of over 1MM products for submittals, closeouts and pricing. The Spec-ID search engine efficiently finds the product data and the associated PDF documents and creates a job folder that automates sample requests, product pricing and product labels and creates a customized submittal package in less than three minutes.
Technical documents like submittals, closeouts, installation and maintenance technical packages can then be shared via a link or QR code, accessible on any jobsite. Building owners and owner representatives can locate the QR code anywhere on site for immediate access to the products installed, who installed them and product locations on the project.”
Q: What AI tools do you see on the horizon within the next 1–3 years that will impact your customers and the industry?
A: Scott Banda: “Many companies in our space are starting to use AI to handle customer and technical service issues. Marketing is very popular now, but the one we keep hearing the most about is using AI to mine massive amounts of data to discover valuable insights efficiently.”
A: Claire Backs: OpenSpace sees two AI developments on the horizon that will have a major impact on the construction industry. The first is in progress tracking. “We use Spatial AI to automatically pin capture walks to your floor plans.”
Backs says. “While doing so, it also identifies and tracks interesting points across every frame of capture you collect. Today this data is used to inform progress tracking, with AI assisting and people confirming visual progress using the capture data.”
According to Backs, this process will evolve to be automated by AI over the next 1–3 years, as more and more data are segmented, analyzed and classified. “As confidence in the accuracy of that data grows, AI can become a reliable technology for automated progress tracking. The result will be a quantitative map of project activity to project milestones—to assist with verifying work in place, maintaining trade coordination and providing measures of team productivity.”
Backs believes the second development on the horizon is AI assistants powered by generative AI. Generative AI and large language models (LLMs) work by taking huge amounts of data, crunching through it, and learning how to do specific tasks. As she says, “OpenSpace has been used to capture over 40 billion square feet, and we’re applying LLMs to help interpret and provide insight into the jobsite. Over the next 1–3 years, AI assistants built on LLMs will emerge to help project teams make sense of, and get answers from, their amassed reality data.”
A: Charlotte Bohnett: Over at Siteline, Bohnett says AI innovation is moving so fast that it’s challenging to understand what construction tech will look like in 3 years’ time. But, she believes, “if we’re to look at AI in construction currently, then the future will certainly continue the path of optimization in the name of safety, efficiency, visibility and profitability.” Here are a couple of AI innovations she envisions coming soon:
As the amount of paperwork associated with a project becomes more complex, AI that can help surface critical insights buried in these pages will be increasingly valuable to companies. This type of technology can help you identify potential risks, schedule changes and scope adjustments—ultimately enabling companies to complete projects more efficiently and cost-effectively.
Companies have always done forecasting, but AI tools that make it increasingly easier to look at your historical data and see into the future can help your team estimate and manage costs better.
A: Kathy Case: At Quantify, Case mentioned that there is generic technology today that can sort and respond to emails, which is being adopted to meet specific needs for construction. There is also AI that can help create PowerPoint presentations, design brochures, create logos and write speeches/emails. In her opinion, “You will see in the near future AI that helps architects write better specifications specific to each project OR that you can use to verify that the specification meets the industry standards.”
A: Jerry Freeman: “AI is a developing technology that will automate many manual tasks with greater efficiency. SpecID anticipates the opportunity to capture product metadata for any commercial product and make it readily available for many of the features already employed on our platform. We’ve already reduced manual workflows by 85% with greater product accuracy. AI may reduce this even further with expanded capabilities.
We also believe that AI tools will be more intuitive to any generation within a team of associates, making adoption faster with consistent outputs and measurable KPIs (key performance indicators).”
Q: How can businesses in the wall and ceiling industry prepare for AI?
A: Scott Banda: “Start embracing technology of all types. The longer you sit on the sidelines, the greater the probability of being leapfrogged by your progressive competitors.”
A: Claire Backs: “Our advice is to stay focused on solving problems, rather than rushing to implement a new AI tool. Some things to think about are:
Will my teams work better, smarter or faster with this technology?
Companies should explore tools like OpenSpace to address challenges with jobsite documentation or visiting remote sites, for example. Our customers love that they can avoid rework and back charges by having complete coverage of their work completed. They can also reduce their travel costs by 50% by checking jobsite progress remotely.
Is this new technology going to be loved and adopted by my field teams?
Avoid the AI tool that looks cool in a demo but is not practical for use by your field teams. Running a pilot of a new technology before you buy is always a good idea and gives you a chance to validate the technology before committing.”
A: Charlotte Bohnett: “As contractors explore AI solutions, it’s essential to carefully evaluate their unique needs, resources and organizational readiness. A well-planned and strategic implementation can unlock AI’s full potential while ensuring a seamless integration with existing workflows and processes.”
Bohnett offers these tips for making an informed decision:
Define your goals: Clearly articulate the specific challenges or opportunities you want to address with AI and align your search accordingly.
Evaluate data readiness: Assess the quality and availability of your data and data- management practices to ensure they can support your chosen AI solution.
Consider integration needs: Look for solutions that can seamlessly integrate with your existing software and hardware ecosystems, minimizing disruption and maximizing value.
Account for scale: As your company matures, consider solutions that can scale alongside its growing needs and evolving requirements, future-proofing your investment.
Prioritize user experience: Choose solutions with intuitive interfaces and robust training resources to facilitate user adoption and maximize the return on your investment.
Partner with experienced vendors: Work with AI vendors that have a proven track record in the construction industry and can provide ongoing support and guidance.
Implement change-management strategies: Invest in workforce training and communication to address concerns, build trust and ensure a smooth transition to AI-augmented workflows.
Start small: There are many AI solutions on the market today, so it’s important to remain focused on your most pressing needs.
A: Kathy Case: “The best way to prepare for AI is to USE it!!! Start by thinking of a weakness in your company and find AI that will help you. Don’t be afraid of it. There is training all over the internet. The bottom line is that your fear may delay your adoption and harm your business’s competitiveness. In the end, AI doesn’t completely replace people. There needs to be a human in the loop checking AI’s output.”
A: Jerry Freeman: “Businesses today need to use AI technology more frequently for emails, letters, proposal reviews and similar applications already available to them. This will reduce the time required to onramp other business-related AI tools. You should interview software platforms and make two determinations.
One, is your platform a point solution, does it try and do it all, or is it an integrated platform that speaks to other software platforms? Integrated platforms are preferable in the construction industry. They’re nimbler to the needs of the market, they use the most recent technology, they provide superior performance, and they enhance the work processes and workflows with more accuracy and efficiency.”
These are just some examples of how AI can save your company time by streamlining processes and improving efficiency. Think about which of these benefits apply to your day-to-day operations and make an AI implementation plan now! CD
Gene Marks, CPA, is the founder of The Marks Group, and runs a 10-person technology and financial management consulting firm in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. He speaks 50+ times per year to business groups on technology, the economy, public policy and workplace topics and is the author of six books on business management. A former columnist for the New York Times and Washington Post, Gene now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Hill, The Philly Inquirer, Entrepreneur and other national platforms.
