Construction
An investor can require order in contractors' data before it starts requiring AI
The AI Business Center Foundation (AIBC) is a think tank and advisory partner that helps the boards of construction, industrial and technical-services companies adopt artificial intelligence so that it delivers measurable results and builds competitive advantage. We help investors and project managers decide what data and reports to require from contractors.
A contractor’s report is no longer a formality. It has become the basis for capital decisions
A private investor, a fund, a project manager or a local authority makes decisions about money on the basis of reports from many contractors. Each of them reports in a different format, with different names and at a different level of detail. The investor’s team spends its time reconciling data instead of making decisions.
How cost and risk arise
- progress and cost reports that cannot be compiled without manual work,
- changes and claims assessed on inconsistent data,
- the investor’s reporting requirements, including environmental ones, met by contractors in different ways,
- knowledge of how the organisation runs its investments that depends on a few project managers.
AI tools on the investor’s side will not fix data that arrives in different formats. What fixes it is a requirement that the investor sets for contractors, and a vocabulary that both sides use.
Some technical descriptions and tender documents are now drafted with the help of AI assistants, which suggest parameters the model treats as the default and name specific manufacturers as the model, with the addition “or equivalent”. For the investor and the contracting authority, this creates a risk of incorrect standards and of clauses that narrow the choice of contractors and suppliers. Checking such a draft before the procedure is published is worth building into internal procedures. We describe the phenomenon in the analysis Specifications drafted by language models.
The first step
One recurring report from contractors. We agree a vocabulary of items, changes and statuses, describe the reconciliation process and formulate requirements for future contracts or tender documents. We measure the time taken to prepare the report for the board before and after.
What the Foundation does
- Semantic transformation, that is, organising a company’s names, processes and data so that people, language models and board reports understand them the same way: a reporting vocabulary shared by the investor and the contractors.
- AI value report for the board: measures, owners and data sources for the investor’s report.
- Compliance and ESG: requirements for contractors concerning data, AI uses and environmental reporting.
- Grants and funding: funding for modernisation and digitalisation, including for local authorities.
Frequently asked questions
Should an investor require contractors to use AI?
It is better to require a result and a data format than a particular technology: consistent reporting, a shared vocabulary of items and changes, access to data in an agreed format. Requirements of this kind let each contractor choose its own tools and let the investor compare contractors.
Do you help local authorities?
Yes. Supporting local authorities in modernising infrastructure with new technologies is one of the Foundation's statutory objectives. We work with investment departments on requirements, reporting and project funding.
Where should an investor's organisation start?
With one report that the investor's team receives from contractors every month and has to reconcile by hand. We describe it, agree the vocabulary and the requirements, and then check how long it takes to prepare before and after.
Let’s start with an assessment
Let’s talk about the report that the investor’s team currently reconciles by hand.