Getting the Most Out of AI Takes Real Work, Say ENR FutureTech Speakers

AI was again a hot topic among the more than 700 construction, architecture and engineering professionals who attended, but deep dives into robotics on construction sites, cloud-enabled workflows, 3D printing of structures and improved stakeholder relationships also generated new insights.  

About "95% of AI pilots fail to deliver value," said Alan Espinoza in an opening keynote address. The founder and CEO of tech firm Reconstructive AI and a veteran construction technology expert for firms that include Jacobs and Universal Creative, he offered hard-won lessons on how to make new technologies work in project delivery. 

"Is this an implementation problem?" he asked. "AI doesn’t fix broken workflows. It, rather, amplifies them ... In construction. Everyone is acting in their own self-interest and destroying the ecosystem they are all working in. The prisoner’s dilemma says that people will act in their self-interest if not incentivized not to."

Espinoza added that many of the transitions from 2D CAD workflows to building information models brought along bad data and communication practices into 3D, cloud-based workflows. "We digitized the mess [with point solutions]" and did not address holistically what designers and contractors were trying to accomplish, he said.

"A strategic framework is what you need to do to start an implementation plan," for AI, he said. "Align incentives, have whiteboard sessions, do anything to make them want to do the work."

The work also does not have to be overly dry and dull. Espinoza noted that one such AI session involved a "Dungeons and Dragons"-themed workflow with a "coordination swamp" and stakeholders cast as warriors and wizards to help the team realize that construction challenges can be broken down into the kinds of surmountable challenges faced by those in role-playing games.

Considering the effectiveness of AI agents, David Letteer, Hensel Phelps director of artificial intelligence, said agentic AI "is the new cloud,” and that adoption is the hardest part. Proper data governance must come first, he said, and autonomy of agents must be earned, like that of any new hire. 

Enrico Bertucci, McCarthy Holdings vice president, said the contractor uses the Glean agent builder and has already deployed about 25 agents to U.S. sites after standardizing a process to approve them before they go to work.

Getting Results from Reality Capture

Trevor Owen, director of reality capture at Rogers O'Brien, showed how its purpose-built reality-capture robots named Rosa and Mac are saving from 10 to 60 hours per day once spent by workers taking photos of contractors' work. 

The four-wheeled, quadruped robots can shoot photographs and laser scans. The highly mobile robots can navigate stairs and recover on their own from trips or falls. Owen optimized their upload and data-sharing process, as well as for robot provider Alpha Z to create faster updates to 3D models and construction documents to accelerate data sharing on the contractor's sites. 

"By documenting site conditions in real time, Mac empowers project teams to make faster and more informed decisions," Owen said.

3D Printing a Walmart Store

Zach Mannheimer, chairman and founder of Alquist 3D, said the company's robotic arm-enabled 3D printing process for stores saved Walmart more than $100,000 on a Huntsville, Ala., Supercenter project—and the company has already signed a deal with the retail giant to print buildings across the U.S. He discussed twists and turns in 3D printing of concrete, and its transformation into commercial construction after initially being developed for homes. "We had to go commercial to make a project scale," he explained.

Mannheimer said the robotic arm system Alquist used by customers today is about one quarter of the cost of a gantry 3D printing system that originally was thought to be the best way to print concrete.