“What I’m excited about moving forward is that we’re not in the business anymore of convincing people that technology is a productivity enhancer; we’re in the business of partnering with the industry to figure out how we can leverage technology to actually move the industry forward on all fronts,” Courtemanche said at a Groundbreak press conference.

All In on AI

Available next year, Procore agents will leverage AI to automate tasks, reduce manual data entry, and provide insights that allow construction professionals to focus on higher-value tasks. Across Procore’s platform, the company said agents will streamline processes such as managing RFIs, scheduling and submittals, aiming to automate tasks and reduce administrative overhead. The new capabilities will support users and workflows across the full project lifecycle, Procore said.

AI-powered scheduling will integrate directly with contract schedules and field data in Procore’s construction management platform and will flag potential risks, aiming to keep projects on time and within budget, Procore said.

Procore has also expanded the capabilities of its safety agent. The AI-backed safety module will centralize safety tasks with new capabilities like pre-task plans, jobsite hazard analysis, certification tracking, onsite orientations and toolbox talks. Safety will integrate with Procore’s project management suite and contractors' wearable devices used by onsite personnel to promote better safety outcomes.

“The message we’re trying to convey is that when you have a corpus of data like Procore has—across 3 million projects—you actually have the ability to apply generative AI to that data set. It has extremely powerful capabilities. I think the industry is still trying to figure out how that actually is going to work, and we’re demonstrating it by showing them the Procore CoPilot and now Agents, ” Courtemanche said.

CoPilot is a generative AI chatbot developed by Microsoft based on the GPT-4 series of large language models. Procore said CoPilot will allow users to retrieve information from project documents, summarize complex documents and other data query results, and provide data-driven insights based on its retrievals.

Addressing Workforce Issues

Workforce development was a running theme throughout the conference. Asked for his suggestions to address industry’s labor shortage, Courtemanche said that while there are no short-term quick fixes Procore surveyed its customers and learned that they can run well over 40% more construction volume when using the software platform. "Productivity translates to labor and helps them do more with less," he added.

With an influx of young people interested in technology—augmented reality, for example is very attractive, Courtemanche noted—building awareness around new technology will be key to attracting more young people to construction careers.

Procore's partner companies were also at the conference with new products. Sensera Systems announced its own AI-powered updates during the conference. Sensera’s SiteCloud is cloud-hosted, web-based software for viewing, monitoring, and sharing visual data that is captured on the jobsite, and its AI-powered object detection makes jobsite imagery meaningful by increasing the scale at which visual data can be documented, validated and used for actionable intelligence, the company said.

EarthCam, a provider of live worksite camera technology, content, and services introduced AI-backed material analysis Nov. 21. 

EarthCam AI material analysis currently identifies 34 different types of construction materials in real time, the company said. Those include metal studs and insulation, plywood and drywall, Materials are automatically detected, compared to scheduled tasks, added in a visual record to daily reports, and reported via alerts including the Procore Daily Log in Procore's platform. EarthCam AI material analysis will update the delivery log when specific materials arrive on-site, then report when those materials are being installed, EarthCam said.