4 Easy Steps to Start Using AI Today

It's time to stop procrastinating: The transformative power of artificial intelligence is at hand for construction pros who are already wading in. Those who take small steps today will be doing big things tomorrow.

Hugh Seaton, CEO of The Link and expert creator of Construction Academy's "AI in Construction" course prorgram, recently sat down for an exclusive Ask Me Anything (AMA) webinar where he outlines simple, immediate, and low-risk tips to help AI novices build the capabilities to generate efficiencies, mitigate risk, and maintain standing in a competitive construction atmosphere.

"Start with a goal of learning what AI can’t do, in order to understand what it can do," Hugh says.

"Think of it as a tool that, like any tool, has limits. Users who establish those parameters can take control through contexts and prompts that hone AI to a purposeful edge."

These four simple steps make AI a habit, on the way to leveraging it as a powerful partner in productivity and profit.

Step 1: Use AI for personal tasks.

This foundational step builds real intuition in lower-pressure situations. Very quickly — but with minimal consequences — it helps reveal the limits of what AI can do.

The stakes aren’t as high when AI is being asked to write this weekend’s dinner menu, plan an outing, or teach something about what the kids are doing or are interested in.

“Use AI in your personal life. I tell everyone this. That's where you're going to build real intuition in a much lower-pressure situation," says Hugh. "You're going to learn what it can do, what it can't do, what it doesn't do as well as you hoped, or where you get disappointed.”

Step 2: Use low-pressure tools that allow easy interaction.

Begin with platforms that offer simple, low-risk functions. An off-the-shelf chatbot or entry-level construction-specific project management software offers features such as the ability to chat with data.

Remember this: The software in common use probably has AI baked in. AI is an extension of traditional software, so interactions with a simple form AI opens discoveries into how it differs from familiar software.

Step 3: Use AI as a 'thinking partner.'

AI takes on new dimensions when it’s pushed to do more than answer simple questions or take commands.

Framing questions to expand and sharpen the user’s thinking makes it a counterparty that provokes deeper insights, like a colleague who’s good at poking holes in their co-workers’ arguments.   

"Thinking of AI as a thinking partner is really valuable," emphasizes Hugh. "There's thing you can prompt with like 'Ask me questions until you know how to write this document,' or 'I've got an agenda for a meeting tomorrow, ask me questions that might come up during that meeting."

Try these kinds of prompts to see how AI can provide new perspectives:

• Ask AI questions that build the ability to write an RFI, layer by layer and question by question.
• Give the AI a meeting agenda and ask it to present questions that are likely to be brought up.
• Have the AI do a quick briefing right before a meeting, potentially using documents like spec sections. An AI-generated brief keeps key details front and center, for more accurate recall in the heat of the moment and more productive discussions.

Step 4: Align your processes with AI.

View AI as a general tool — not just new software — and begin identifying the "blockers" or repetitive tasks that can be automated, sped up, or potentially lead to truly new things.

“Where are blockers that AI can specifically help us with? Right now, that has a lot to do with documents. That has a lot to do with especially long documents, especially big docs, big sets of documents – places like that where it's supporting thought, it's supporting judgment, it's supporting decisions," Hugh says.

"That's a good role for AI right now, where it's adding into your process of thinking and speeding things up, maybe giving you a little more breadth in terms of what you have time to go look at.”

Remember that AI is constantly shattering its limits — that AI’s responses are always growing more nuanced and insightful.

Keeping Pace — and Even Getting Ahead

As AI grows, probing its boundaries in low-risk circumstances builds the comfort to interact with AI when the stakes are high — and the rewards for success are higher.  

The key to keeping pace with this rapidly evolving area is learning to navigate the intersection of AI and construction.

Procore’s free AI in Construction course program, taught by Hugh, walks participants through the basics of AI, getting started with generative AI and chatbots, effective prompting, applying AI to construction tasks, and maximizing AI’s scale and consistency while leveraging human judgment and intuition.

“I want you to understand what's going on behind the scenes so you're not just taking some recipe and applying it," says Hugh. "You're actually saying, ‘Here's why that would make sense. And you know what? For this little job, maybe I don't need to do everything. And this other job where I need more, I might do more.’”

“If there's ever been an industry where one change can have 15 different knock-on effects, it's construction, and AI is just not built for that," Hugh says. "So how do we combine these roles for a new type of team?"

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