AI in Construction: Benefits and Opportunities

Rick Bell | Senior Writer | February 10, 2025

Artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionize the construction industry. In the back office, AI can help construction firms create plans and designs, schedule projects, manage suppliers, allocate resources, and monitor costs—faster and more effectively than ever before. At the jobsite, it can help keep workers safe and enhance their productivity, for example, through the use of robotic equipment. In this article, we’ll explore how AI makes these and other benefits possible, explaining why construction firms are increasingly keen on the technology.

What Is AI?

AI is a technology that mimics human intelligence. It analyzes massive amounts of data in real time, using machine learning (ML) to uncover patterns, provide insights, accurately predict outcomes, and recommend ways to boost efficiency. Construction and engineering firms are starting to harness those capabilities to manage projects more efficiently and reduce risk.

Key Takeaways

  • AI is expected to improve every phase of the construction process: preconstruction, construction, and postconstruction maintenance.
  • Construction companies are starting to use AI to reduce costs, make jobsites safer, improve quality control, boost worker productivity, and extend the life of machinery.
  • The industry has been slow to adopt AI, but that’s beginning to change.

AI in Construction Explained

AI can be useful throughout construction projects, including preconstruction and postconstruction maintenance. Companies rely on its processing power and predictive insights to help improve design, build, and maintenance. For example, an AI chatbot might save a firm five minutes in completing a basic task, while AI predictive analytics might help save $5 million by recommending key changes to a project schedule.

Until recently, industry adoption has been halting. One reason: Construction projects are complex, involving numerous partners, specialists, and suppliers, which can complicate the rollout of new technologies. A firm’s readiness to adopt AI depends on its financial ability to deploy new technology, its managerial and worker skills, and its appetite for innovation.

Today, construction and engineering firms are considering using AI to help keep rising costs in check, anticipate supply chain disruptions, help find qualified workers, and boost their productivity.

Benefits of AI in Construction

AI’s potential benefits in construction stem largely from automation, the ability to complete repetitive tasks faster and more accurately, which in turn helps increase efficiency, lower costs, and in some cases improve worker safety. Following are key ways project teams can succeed with AI.

  • Improved safety
    Construction firms use AI to predict safety risk, similar to the way weather reports forecast storms. For instance, an AI algorithm can monitor the health of jobsite equipment, detect problems, and recommend maintenance, with the goal of protecting workers and avoiding project delays. By harnessing computer vision equipment, AI can analyze video from onsite cameras to spot hazardous conditions or unsafe practices, such as failure to wear protective gear or safely operate machines.
  • Enhanced planning and design
    AI can help make project planning both faster and more precise. Example: Through real-time analysis of past and current project portfolios, AI tools can evaluate multiple schedule scenarios, detailing resources and costs to guide decision-making. AI can be used to enhance design iteration in a similar way, quickly producing various designs and their cost estimates. Project teams can request design alternatives based on cost, energy efficiency, a building’s structural strength, and other key criteria. AI-powered 3D models analyze these factors along with mechanical, electrical, and plumbing plans, plus the sequence of project work, to help increase work quality while saving money.
  • Cost reduction
    Compared to AI, traditional methods of estimating and monitoring costing are slow and can’t keep pace with fluctuating expenses. AI tools are fast and precise, leveraging past and current data—for example, project size and contract type—to create on-target estimates that become the foundation for real-time monitoring and midflight adjustments. Such predictive analytics helps teams stay on budget when faced with rising labor, materials, and compliance costs.
  • Increased productivity
    AI-driven improvements in project planning and scheduling, materials procurement, safety, and other areas can boost productivity. For example, AI tools can reduce the time spent on materials selection and quoting, helping get supplies to jobsites so workers can stay on task. AI can also help allocate resources more efficiently, identifying which teams need what machinery and when—another way to adhere to schedules. AI predictive maintenance tools help maintain machinery, reducing the likelihood of downtime or accidents that can affect productivity. New robotic systems with AI can also help. For example, when semiautonomous bulldozers are used to prepare jobsites, workers are freed for other tasks.
  • Quality control
    AI helps maintain quality before construction even begins. AI software can analyze designs and 3D building models to flag potential issues and reduce the likelihood of rework. On the jobsite, AI-powered robots can handle tasks such as bricklaying and welding with greater precision and consistency. AI sensors and cameras, some built into drones, can monitor sites to confirm that work meets quality standards. Construction drones can even use AI software to contrast blueprints with aerial land surveys and identify inconsistencies.
  • Predictive maintenance
    Intelligent sensors in construction equipment or building machinery send real-time data to AI systems to predict maintenance needs. The world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, uses an AI-driven maintenance system to monitor 57 elevators, eight escalators, and other machinery up and down its 163 floors. By detecting even the faintest signs of machine failure—vibrations, pressure, or heat exceeding normal levels—such systems can also predict when jobsite cranes or bulldozers need repairs or replacement, sometimes well ahead of standard maintenance schedules. This proactive approach augments condition-based maintenance, in which machine conditions are tracked for more apparent wear and tear.
  • Energy efficiency
    To help improve the environmental impact of construction and comply with regulations, firms prioritize energy efficiency. Tracking energy usage requires a great deal of data. For example, HVAC systems must account for weather conditions, indoor temperatures, air quality, room size and shape, and any use of solar batteries. AI algorithms can analyze this data in real time to predict energy needs, optimize usage, and cut costs. AI’s speed and power make the difficult more doable, such as connecting renewable energy sources to the electric grid or making energy audits a standard part of design. It’s an important contribution, since the building and construction sector accounts for more than a fifth of global carbon emissions, according to a 2024 United Nations report.
  • Project management optimization
    AI optimizes project management in important ways. First, it can help make scheduling faster and easier. AI algorithms can use project proposal information to build baseline schedules, often in hours rather than days, reducing prep time and letting teams get started on scheduled tasks. AI can also more precisely allocate equipment, labor, and other resources; predict cost overruns based on factors such as project complexity and technical challenges; predict potential delays, such as late materials delivery; and find alternatives if suppliers are unable to come through.
  • Advanced analytics
    Construction owners and contractors can use AI-based data analytics to help improve scheduling, safety, and quality control; predict project delivery; and reduce costs. Based on blueprints or building information models (BIMs), AI-driven tools can more accurately estimate direct costs, such as materials, labor, and equipment, and indirect costs, such as equipment maintenance and insurance.
  • Sustainability
    Construction firms can rely on AI to cut waste and carbon emissions. The use of 3D printers can reduce materials waste by more efficiently making walls, floors, and other structural elements. With information from sensors in existing concrete structures, designers can use AI software to adjust concrete mixes to create longer-lasting structures with lower carbon emissions. Similarly, recycled brick, which requires no kiln firing, emits 90% less carbon than the conventional kind. Though sustainable materials often come with higher price tags, AI tools can predict quantities and costs more accurately to greenlight their use.

Discover 5 ways to harmonize projects, reduce risk, and boost profits.

AI Use Cases in the Construction Industry

Construction firms use AI in all phases of their jobs: preconstruction, construction, and postconstruction maintenance. Faster, more insightful data analysis is the common thread.

  • Preconstruction
    AI can help improve all aspects of project preconstruction: design development, contractor selection, risk analysis, scheduling, permitting, and other activities. AI algorithms can yield more granular feasibility studies, analyzing financial data, market data, and environmental impact to help determine if projects are viable. They can also analyze materials for durability and cost, helping project teams make the best selections.

    In design, AI image recognition can review blueprints and drawings to identify structural elements, such as doors, windows, and walls and estimate their costs. In the past such tasks were manual and error prone, making it hard to generate accurate cost estimates. Project managers should of course double-check any AI estimates. The technology is very good, but it’s not perfect.
  • Construction
    Throughout a project’s construction phase, AI-based predictive analytics lets teams anticipate issues before they cause setbacks—such as snags in the supply chain that might delay materials delivery. Thanks to AI predictive maintenance, teams can better forecast when construction equipment and building systems will require maintenance, reducing downtime and potentially dangerous malfunctions.

    AI-powered drones use aerial photography to inspect work sites and detect unsafe conditions. AI allows teams to track job progress in real time, helping keep projects on schedule and budget. By analyzing BIM models, AI can recommend the most efficient sequence of work to avoid delays and boost productivity. When construction stakeholders use a central project platform, AI can be used to help improve communication and collaboration by furnishing relevant data in real time.
  • Postconstruction (maintenance)
    AI-based predictive maintenance helps construction firms more accurately forecast the health of building machinery and systems. This helps them detect problems, schedule maintenance, and contain the cost of repairs. AI software can monitor building energy usage 24/7—in thermostats, lighting, elevators, you name it—and make real-time recommendations to cut costs and carbon emissions. AI algorithms can also support postmortems to gain insights on completed jobs and improve future projects.

Future of AI in Construction

The AI construction market will reach US$11.85 billion by 2029, a compound annual growth of 24.31%, forecasts Mordor Intelligence. Construction firms expect AI to enhance construction in many different ways: planning and design, project scheduling, resource allocation, worker safety, energy efficiency, sustainability, and more.

For example, as AI features are added to BIM solutions, project teams can take advantage of more detailed visualizations to design, build, and repair more efficiently than ever. Robotics can provide self-operating equipment to make jobsites more productive and safer. Though robots may help plug labor shortages, industry observers think they will augment, not replace, human expertise. Expect to see AI woven into construction applications, allowing managers and workers to do their jobs better without needing AI training.

Maximize AI in Construction with Oracle

Oracle Smart Construction Platform is an integrated suite of project collaboration, scheduling, payment, data analytics, and other industry-oriented applications. Built on a common data environment and incorporating a growing partner ecosystem, it helps owners and delivery teams work together to plan and manage all types of construction projects. Oracle’s construction data and intelligence solutions use predictive AI-based analytics to uncover risks and support timely, informed decisions.

AI in Construction FAQs

How is AI used in the construction industry?
Construction professionals use AI to plan, design, schedule, and manage their many projects—potentially faster, more accurately, and with lower cost and risk.

Will AI take over construction?
No. While AI can make every phase of the project lifecycle more efficient and cost-effective, it won’t replace humans on the jobsite or in the back office. Human experience and judgment will always have a place in the decision-making process, for example, in reviewing AI-generated reports and identifying any errors, inconsistencies, or areas where AI may not have a complete picture of the situation.

How does AI affect construction?
AI will affect virtually every aspect of construction, with the potential to improve the efficiency of projects, help teams predict and navigate around supply chain disruptions, and ultimately make projects less costly and more profitable.

How is AI used in construction estimating?
Constructions firms use AI to help estimate project timelines, resources, and costs faster and more accurately, helping them win bids and protect profit margins.

Learn how with smart applications, construction industry leaders can improve efficiency by combining experience and expertise with quantitative and qualitative insights.

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