How AI Could Transform Construction Forever (Pros and Cons Inside)

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ℹ ABOUT THIS EPISODE

What if AI could run your entire construction company—from design to completion—with zero human workers? Wade and Stephen dive deep into this thought-provoking scenario, exploring an AI-generated story about a fully automated construction company. 

They examine the pros and cons of AI in construction, discuss real-world applications available today, and reveal practical lessons you can implement now to improve profitability and cash flow. This eye-opening discussion will challenge your assumptions about the future of construction.

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⌚️ Key moments in this episode:

• 00:20 Exploring AI's Role in Construction
• 01:05 AI's Story: BuildBotics Construction
• 04:16 Debating AI's Capabilities and Limitations
• 14:29 AI in Project Management and Safety
• 22:18 The Future of AI in Urban Development

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Wade Carpenter, CPA, CGMA | CarpenterCPAs.com
Stephen Brown, Bonding Expert | SuretyAnswers.com

Transcript

Wade Carpenter: [00:00:00] Picture this: not a single person on a construction site, just machines and algorithms assembling a skyscraper while the rest of the city sleeps. Is that an ultimate contractor dream or a nightmare waiting to happen? Welcome to the Contractor Success Forum. I'm Wade Carpenter with Carpenter and Company CPAs, alongside Stephen Brown with McDaniel Whitley Bonding and Insurance. And today we're exploring what if Artificial Intelligence was at a point where it could run our construction companies and job sites?

Stephen, lay the groundwork for this. We've been kicking around this for a couple of weeks now, and I think it's gonna be a good thought experiment. What do you think?

Stephen Brown: I hope so. Here's the thing, the first thing you do, both of us subscribe to AI. We use AI from time to time. It's amazing how you can use it for different things. How interesting it is, but outta all the things I subscribe to, my Chat GPT, Open AI, $20 a month is probably one of the more fun things I subscribe to.

It's fascinating and it's also frustrating. [00:01:00] Just giving it the right orders to hone in exactly what you want. But here's what we did, listeners. While we were talking about this episode, we asked AI to just simply write a story about AI completely running a construction company. There's no humans involved.

And it was interesting because the first version of it was really something out of sci-fi. It was very nerdy, very generic, very sci-fi. And then the second version where I asked it to be more human friendly, it was absolutely ridiculous. It was pandering to us humans.

And I told you, I said I don't think we need to read that version of it. I think our listeners need to listen to AI generated version of what an AI run construction company would look like. 100% AI run construction company. 

Wade Carpenter: I think that'd be great. My thought that we were originally kicking around was, hey, you know what if AI was really at this point to where it could actually do some of these things? Would it be good, would it be bad? I [00:02:00] think there's some pros and cons here.

But what I would hope that people would take from this is maybe some lessons. If AI could do this a certain way, maybe that would be a best practice. Are those things that we could be possibly doing today in our construction companies to actually move that ball forward?

Stephen Brown: Yeah. You know,

Wade Carpenter: I do think it's a little farther off. It's not gonna be next year or anything like that, but something's coming here. Things are progressing really quickly. So what are your thoughts?

Stephen Brown: You gotta have some perception of what things might look like in the future. And AI is definitely not the future. It's the present now. So you have to really think about, okay, what would my company look like? What if there were no humans involved in AI? That's what we'll explore.

Before we start the story, Wade, the only thing I wanna preface our listeners is the name of the fictitious construction company AI came up with was called BuildBotics. I didn't particularly care for it, but then again, I'm not altering what AI has written about itself running a construction company.

Actually, Wade, I [00:03:00] came up with a better name for a AI driven construction company. And I don't know if you can see this, but it's called Karate Man Construction "Aye Yah!". What does a karate man say? AI? Anyway, I'm sorry getting off track there, but.

Wade Carpenter: You kicked around a couple of ideas like names of Sky Build and stuff like that. It still reminds me of Skynet and all this stuff from Terminator, but hopefully we're not there yet.

Stephen Brown: Yeah. Let's give a warning to our listeners that this story is written from a computer, okay? Bear with us. Are you ready to start?

Wade Carpenter: Yeah, go ahead and jump in and then we will just talk about, I think we're going to chunk it up and take sections of this where we kick some ideas around.

Stephen Brown: Okay. Alright. In the near future city where technology had evolved beyond imagination, a construction company named BuildBotics stood at the forefront of innovation. This was no ordinary company. Every aspect of its operations [00:04:00] from design to project management was entirely run by Artificial Intelligence.

There were no human workers in the traditional sense. Instead, AI systems performed tasks once handled by Architects, Engineers, Project Managers, and even Laborers.

Wade Carpenter: Let's kick that around a little bit. Your last job, would it have turned out better or worse with zero people? You can say everything would be perfect, but is total automation a dream, a nightmare, or some of both?

I mean, no automation ever drank coffee on a job site and looked up and said, Hey, that beam is off, quarter inch from plum or something like that. Is it really going to know things like that?

Stephen Brown: That's my point. How could AI hang a picture? You could give it all the parameters of being perfectly square or proportioned within a square wall, but then aesthetically you have to look out at the windows and make a decision whether it really looks straight or not.

Then, we're created, human beings, to work, so we've gotta work and we've also gotta work together. [00:05:00] Without community there's no real sense of being. But anyway, maybe that's getting too deep.

Wade Carpenter: No, I don't think so. There are probably a lot of things that AI really can't do. Who's gonna handle these unexpected field conditions? I mean, But can it like smell mold? I mean, no human intuition can a bot feel when a design just doesn't work? I don't know.

Stephen Brown: It seems to me like the more I've been reading about this, it is just that technology is there, but the implementation of it isn't. There's gonna be millions and millions of man hours getting this worked out.

Wade Carpenter: Yeah. Would you ever trust a skyscraper built with zero human eyes? Who's gonna be accountable when AI gets it wrong?

Stephen Brown: First of all, AI is not gonna get it wrong in this story. In this story, AI is perfect, so don't be dissing AI now, Wade.

Wade Carpenter: I know, I know, but who's gonna sue if the software, do you sue the software?

Stephen Brown: Yeah, you're right. It is just not there. Alright, so this is not to terrify our listeners in any way, but let's just [00:06:00] break it down. You ready to go on to the next part?

So the story begins when Eva , and it's interesting way that AI is given different human, weirdly sci-fi human names to every one of its AI division leaders.

So the story begins when Eva, a highly advanced AI program designed for project oversight initiated a new skyscraper project in the heart of a city. Eva's primary responsibility was to oversee the entire process, from receiving the blueprint to coordinating the final touches of construction.

Wade Carpenter: Yeah, as you're starting off a new project, you think about, blueprints to breaking ground. Could permitting jobs actually be here it is, here's all the stuff we send it in, and another AI per inspector's like, okay, yeah, that's fine. Could it be instant and digital? That would sounds great, but could it actually happen?

Stephen Brown: What if the entity where you were building this skyscraper, code enforcement and so forth, was also AI [00:07:00] driven too? The communication is perfect. There's nobody stopping the job, right? For different reasons.

Wade Carpenter: Right. Like your architect. Would they all be built exactly the same way? Would AI come up and say, okay, this is the ideal plan, so everybody's gonna have every house or every building? 

Stephen Brown: You're jumping ahead. That's the next section.

Wade Carpenter: I'm sorry, but like I said, I think about all these things, permitting probably should require some kind of human sign off. 

I keep thinking of these things. What if you had a chef who cooks a perfect steak in theory, but has never actually tasted his own cooking? AI may know a recipe, but does it really know how it tastes or feels or those kind of things? Does that make any sense?

Stephen Brown: And this story, AI does know how the steak taste and feels. It's the perfect steak and it's declared it the perfect steak. So your interpretation of taste don't matter to AI.

Wade Carpenter: But humans have to live in those things and work in those buildings. So...

Stephen Brown: yeah.

Wade Carpenter: Is it just gonna be all [00:08:00] white walls, and do humans really want that?

Stephen Brown: All right, let's keep going because apparently I'm gonna have to play the role of AI showing logic versus your logic. There's so many flaws in thinking about this, but it's so important to think about. What would a construction company look like if it was run a hundred percent, 100% by AI. That's the definition of it.

At the design stage, Ather, I mean, what kind of name is that? At the design stage, Ather the design AI collaborated with the city's government to ensure that the new skyscraper would be both architecturally stunning and energy efficient. Ather utilized vast databases of building codes, historical designs, and aesthetic preferences to create the perfect blueprint.

It scanned the city's landscape considering sunlight patterns, wind flows, and even the emotional impact the different architectural styles might have on the people who live nearby. See, AI is a lot more [00:09:00] sensitive than you thought, Wade.

Wade Carpenter: Obviously there could be some great advantages to some of those considerations that maybe humans can't do.

We're talking about, it's kicking off a project. Getting into procurement, can they really predict shortages before they hit? Or would they say, okay, we gotta have this on the job and run all your cash flow out because we know they don't really take some of those things into consideration. Would they really?

I mean, yeah. They probably could do some things like real time price comparison, those kind of things. Those are good. Like having that relationship with that supplier. I'm just thinking, can you call Joe at ABC Supply and beg for that extra pallet of materials that you need like right now? Hope I'm making sense.

Stephen Brown: No, no, you're jumping right into the next section. Also I might go back and add that I was very interested when it said even the emotional impact that different architectural styles might have on the people who live nearby. So how would AI gauge an emotional impact? Whoever yelled the loudest about something? I think that's ugly. I think [00:10:00] that's beautiful. Who's to say?

Once the design was finalized, Talon, the procurement AI took over. Talon was programmed to efficiently source materials from sustainable suppliers. It could analyze vast amounts of supply chain data in real time, predicting material shortages, fluctuations in price, and even environmental conditions that could affect supply.

Talon could then automatically order the necessary materials and schedule deliveries, ensuring there were no delays due to unexpected shortages or disruptions.

Wade Carpenter: There you go. Unexpected shortage. I mean, you can't predict that stuff.

Stephen Brown: But AI is so perfectly tuned to shipping and rail and every other way that materials come from the factory to you, even the production outfit to the factory that AI can perfectly figure these things out for you.

Wade Carpenter: What about you know, AI, general contractor has AI sub bots that couldn't get their equipment out there on time. Maybe [00:11:00] this Talon, whatever, procurement agent, maybe he never takes a golf day with a vendor. But anyway, would you really always finish under budget and on time?

Stephen Brown: First of all, in this scenario, AI's perfect. None of the robotic laborers involved ever blow a gasket or need to be relieved or anything like that because it's already predicted that, AI's taken care of its own maintenance for itself. It's done billions of pretests on that little bitty gasket to show you how long it can work before that has to be replaced. And then it's figured out how to get rid of that gasket in the future, so you don't have to worry about that sort of thing. AI's making all this happen. And again, we jump right into the next paragraph. Any other comments, Wade?

Wade Carpenter: Just going back to if procurement was truly perfect, how would they predict that Home Depot was ever out of two by fours? I don't know. But go ahead.

Stephen Brown: First of all, you're gonna have to trust Home Depot to tell you whether they have nice straight two by fours that you can go [00:12:00] get because most certainly you can't get it by calling them on the phone and talking to anybody. You just have to go over there and sort through them one at a time.

I'll never forget the first time I went to Home Depot with my dad. We were looking for lumber and we literally went through 40 pieces before Dad found one that was straight enough and perfect enough for him. You're right, Wade, excellent point with Home Depot. Are you ready to talk about the next stage?

Wade Carpenter: Absolutely, go for it.

Stephen Brown: Okay. On the ground, the actual construction was handled by a fleet of Robotic Diggers, Constructo Bots, and Masonry Drones. Masonry drones, I thought that was interesting. Autonomous machines that operated with the precision of a surgical team.

Each machine had its own AI that specialized in specific aspects of construction. From excavating to lifting heavy materials to brick, laying these machines worked around the clock, communicating with each other to ensure tasks [00:13:00] were completed without interruption.

Wade Carpenter: Okay. I think they all --

Stephen Brown: Love

Constructo bots. I mean that's a great--

Wade Carpenter: I don't know what that is, but anyway, I know probably AI could work tirelessly and they're not gonna probably call in sick or ask for overtime. You could probably run them all night, but hydraulic line breaks or something like that and you can't run that excavator. Are they still gonna need somebody to come in there and fix those kind of things? It's the craftsmanship, that kind of stuff. Can it install crown molding or something like that?

That's where I'm coming to the point, where, yeah, I think robotic labor would be great. In the past some of these episodes with a bricklaying bot and they can be a lot faster and probably cheaper overall, but those are very expensive machines to build, they're huge machines. I know they're probably getting better, I feel like a bad guy on this one.

Stephen Brown: No, there's logistics involved to getting your constructive bots to the job site. But as for your comment about installing crown molding, absolutely it can do crown molding because the walls will be perfectly square. The [00:14:00] walls, the ceiling, everything will be perfectly square, so that's easy.

Wade Carpenter: You actually train AI to improvise when the plans don't really match reality?

Stephen Brown: What if instead of molding, you're using a 3D printer to shoot the molding up around the ceiling and the baseboard in the windows? 

Wade Carpenter: Yeah, That sounds great, but could it really do that? If it's a little bit outta square or stuff like that, is it gonna look all cockeyed and all that stuff?

Stephen Brown: It's gonna look perfect, Wade, because AI is doing it. So the next part is Orion the Safety AI. And I'm like, alright, who needs safety if there's no humans? Oh no, my robot fell off of scaffolding.

Wade Carpenter: Workers comp?

Stephen Brown: Yeah, there are no workers. There's no workers' comp. So there's a line of business that I'm out of. I have to hope that AI can't make decisions on bonds. I know a lot of contractors where AI would not approve their bonds right now, but you get them approved somehow. It just, it depends.

 But, okay. So the next part is [00:15:00] Orion, the Safety AI. Do you want me to tell you about Orion?

Wade Carpenter: Go for it.

Stephen Brown: Orion, the safety AI monitored every construction zone continuously scanning for hazards, using sensors, cameras, and real-time data from the machines on site. Orion could instantly identify risk like unstable scaffolding, machinery malfunctions, or unsafe working conditions.

In the event of an emergency, Orion would deploy drones to alert the nearest emergency response unit, ensuring the human workers, if any, it says in parentheses, and nearby zones were never at risk.

Wade Carpenter: Yeah. Are we ever gonna really be there? Because I know we probably talked about before the show about Elon Musk boring company. You gotta think about the public safety as well as if there's actually people on the job site. But if there are still people on the job site and Orion cries wolf too often, are people gonna pay attention to those kind of things? Can it adapt to a unique project where something new that they've never seen before? Does it [00:16:00] break when something new pops up? I don't know.

Stephen Brown: According to the boring company's website, their machine that drills these tunnels, the boring company builds underground tunnels, that's what they do. The machines are literally everything set up where the machines go down and create the tunnel all by themselves, theoretically speaking. They stop every five feet and construct a concrete around itself, producing the shell of the tunnel as it works.

The interesting thing to me is as you look at the pictures of it in place, there's just a lot of humans buzzing around making that happen. I know the intent is to have a machine so perfectly engineered and designed that it will build and create these tunnels around itself. And I think it's fascinating that they had the vision and the ability to start this project.

Right now they say that they've got the cost of building a underground tunnel of around $8 million a mile.

Wade Carpenter: Yeah. Just to clarify too, the Boring Company is Elon Musk's creation, and I [00:17:00] think, we're sort of looking at one of those things that we're assuming he's going to be pushing AI into all that stuff.

Again, going back to your safety systems, if it was always watching, would accidents actually drop to zero? Or, would workers or your worker machines actually get complacent, trusting that the eye in the sky looking out for him is just, he's paying too much attention. So they stop paying attention. I don't know.

Stephen Brown: You know how would AI control a teenager on a job site?

Wade Carpenter: Yeah. A teenager AI bot that's building something, I dunno. 

Stephen Brown: The typical teenage male can go all day and all night energy wise, they're perfect for construction. But then again, scientifically speaking, the two hemispheres of their brains have not joined up until they're 25. I just thought that was fascinating when I read that once.

But nevertheless, I guess AI could give them a shock when they're doing something wrong. And then who would allow you to put that device on them anyway? At what point as a teenager would you [00:18:00] rebel against that robot giving you shocks? Immediately it would be a revolt, and they would absolutely have a revolution where they would destroy all your Constructo Bots right there on the job site.

Wade Carpenter: What about Orion sending you some kind of no accidents trophy every single day? Where are you gonna hang it? I mean, you know.

Stephen Brown: You're right, you're right. Okay. So it's dumb to think about a safety AI bot in this story for AI to write that when there's no humans of course. Because who's gonna get hurt? The robots? The Constructo bots might get hurt? And like you said, maybe the public, maybe AI cares about that. But, nevertheless, you would build certain barricades around your project where the public could never get inside. And if it was, you would be notified immediately and then Securo bots would securely get that person off the job site.

Wade Carpenter: Okay.

Stephen Brown: But nevertheless, I do think there's a lot of good points on this regarding safety. Okay? There's a lot of things and that is monitoring. You gotta know what's going [00:19:00] on. Just simply having cameras, drones, pictures showing you every stage of the construction project is worth its weight in gold. That technology is so easy to implement now. Some of it is AI driven and some isn't. But that's technology that I think we should have. Are you ready?

Wade Carpenter: Yeah, I feel like the bad guy because I always say please and thank you to Chat GPT, just because one day maybe they are gonna hit Skynet and--

Stephen Brown: Yeah, you don't want, you don't want AI to label you an asshole. You 

Wade Carpenter: well, I know. 

Stephen Brown: of you as its friend going forward, so it won't come back and attack you.

Wade Carpenter: It's gonna go back on this YouTube video and say, Wade, you're anti AI, so maybe I'll be a target.

Stephen Brown: Good. I'll be a hero for reading the story and you can be the bad guy, but.

Wade Carpenter: All right. 

Stephen Brown: We'll figure out a game plan that AI won't know about if it does that to you in the future, Wade. I've got your back.

Wade Carpenter: Okay.

Stephen Brown: Alright, Sage, the Project Management AI, was responsible for keeping the entire [00:20:00] operation on track.

Sage analyzed data from every step of the project, ensuring that schedules were adhered to, costs were managed, and deadlines were met. It held the financial and logistical knowledge of thousands of construction projects, using predictive algorithms to address potential delays before they even happen. It communicated regularly with the city council and investors, providing updates and modifying plans in real time based on changing circumstances.

Wade Carpenter: All sounds great. 

Stephen Brown: It even predicted ahead of time when a certain politician was gonna have an issue and try to stop the project, and then provide the necessary funding into that politician's funding mechanism to make that happen. Oh, ooh, ooh. I'm sorry. I didn't say that.

Wade Carpenter: What if your HVAC bot doesn't talk to your plumbing bot and things are not gonna always go as planned. And even if they are perfectly coordinated, things are gonna happen. And as we said, supply chain or whatever. Is HVAC bot gonna really share their tech [00:21:00] with the electrical bot.

Stephen Brown: Absolutely. This is a perfect AI world where everyone communicates perfectly. There are no politicians, there's no code enforcement problems. This is a perfect AI world. So yeah, you've got some very valid points there. But again, I might add that Sage analyzed data from every step of the project, ensuring that schedules were adhered to, costs were managed, and deadlines were met.

So AI's running this company and it's running the project management. It was just showing how that would look like. Project management, Wade, what do you think about AI and project-- 

Wade Carpenter: AI has put a lot of coders outta work. Are these systems so integrated that some IT expert can do construction now? I guess in your world maybe, but--

Stephen Brown: No, I'm playing the part of AI here. Absolutely. Yeah. You don't need anything more than IT to build a construction. You don't even need anything but IT to produce the materials to mine, the materials to bring the raw products in. [00:22:00] Every aspect of that is being controlled by AI.

You're worrying about things that haven't happened. This is in a near future city is the first words of this story. And I think both of us would argue that it is not a near future city in any way, shape or form. But nevertheless, AI is saying it is.

By the time the skyscraper's steel frame had been raised and the glass windows were being installed. Atlas the final AI in the process took over. Atlas was responsible for ensuring the building's integration with the city's infrastructure going smoothly. It coordinated with traffic management systems, telecommunications networks, and even weather forecasting AI to ensure that everything worked in harmony.

Atlas made sure that the building was both a piece of art and fully functioning hub, anticipating future needs for utilities and services.

Wade Carpenter: [00:23:00] A couple of questions here. I guess I would say, how far off does AI think it really is? I mean, are we really at a point where, ai, what if it fails on a building? Who?

Stephen Brown: I asked AI that question.

Wade Carpenter: Okay what did AI say?

Stephen Brown: AI gave me five years, 10 years, and 20 years of where it was along, where this needed to be. And it basically said most of this will be available in 20 years. I'm just telling you what it said. I'm not gonna argue with the supercomputer. But at the same time, I don't see it in the real world.

And if it takes humans to implement it, just the connection between where you are now and where you wanna be has to be communicated to humans, and it certainly can't be done by a computer.

Wade Carpenter: Why not? We're building these things with computers. We're not gonna embed computers in there and maybe the building stops responding so we just reboot our building into safe mode and [00:24:00] things are--

Stephen Brown: Okay. Alright, let's go back to the boring contractor's webpage.

Wade Carpenter: Alright.

Stephen Brown: Somebody created that. Somebody really good, they created the fun of a boring company. They really tried to make the website fun to look at. And when it mentioned the need for tunnels, it mentioned being stuff in traffic is soul suffering.

Who couldn't agree with that if you were stuck in traffic? It absolutely debilitates your soul. So somebody, and I don't think it was AI, but somebody came up with that, describe what it's like being stuck in traffic. And that image popped into my head and I was like, yeah, $8 million a mile.

Yeah, that's totally worth it. I'm all in.

Wade Carpenter: There you go.

Stephen Brown: But you're right about that. Atlas made sure the building was both a piece of art and fully functioning hub, [00:25:00] anticipating future needs for utilities and services. I think that's available now. There are computer systems involved in everything. Like, in our car it tells us when service is due, right? 

Wade Carpenter: Yeah.

Stephen Brown: And every computer system in every elevator and every section that's already there. So you already need the smart hub to be able to make all these systems communicate with each other, and I don't think that's too far away. I'm just trying to get Google Home Hub communicating with my devices and my, my hopes and desires to make my home a smart home.

Some of it's just, just way beyond my ability to put it together, but I'm still gonna give it the good old college try, so to speak.

Wade Carpenter: Yeah, I agree. I mean, there is potentially a lot less risk or fewer delays, maybe some tighter budgets. And overriding some of those human failures we have. But again, [00:26:00] are we gonna risk losing the heart and sole of construction and, a city built with AI?

I mean, you were talking about the art and all that stuff. Does it really know what art is, or is it just gonna say this is the perfect example of a building, so every one's gonna look exactly the same? Who makes the decisions? 

Stephen Brown: Unless AI surveys every citizen of a certain city to gauge what their taste is, and then it comes up with the consensus of, of what that looks like, no one can say. Some of the mo ugliest buildings in the world are considered architectural masterpieces by some, and some of the most beautiful buildings in the world are considered monstrosities when they're built.

But as you absorb them and you reflect on them they bring joy to you, aesthetically. They bring a sense of joy and peace, and that's where the architect is the hero, right?

Wade Carpenter: If you've got an AI architect, I [00:27:00] mean, are they really the hero? I mean, who do you call when the lights go out? Is it gonna be an electrician or some kind of exorcist into your ai? That's, I don't know.

Stephen Brown: The lights will never go out. These are perfectly designed light bulbs and electrical systems, and the electrical grid is perfect.

Moving on. As the project neared completion, the city buzzed with excitement. Not only was BuildBotics AI run company completing the construction of the tallest building in the city skyline, but it was doing so without any human oversight.

The building was designed to be fully self-sustaining, powered by renewable energy sources and equipped with automated systems to maintain its own upkeep. When the final touches were added, the building gleamed under the sun, But what truly amazed the city was the AI driven management system that ran the building after construction was completed.

The system, led by Ather, [00:28:00] continued to oversee the operation of the skyscraper. It adjusted heating, cooling, and lighting systems based on occupancy patterns, and even managed the waste disposal and recycling processes, ensuring that nothing went to waste.

Wade Carpenter: Yeah, great. In theory,

Stephen Brown: Yeah.

Wade Carpenter: Wrapping this one up as far as what should our contractor be focusing on? I mean, should they spend more time in the tech, finding great people or finding the balance? I mean, right now we've done a couple of episodes on, I think we're in a boom time for construction, especially some of those federal construction spending. I mean, are we really heading to a world where maybe the craft of construction means no more than coding?

Stephen Brown: Right. And I would say right now in the construction world, labor is the most important resource. It is. The best and the smartest laborers. They know how to use tech to make the job go more perfectly. And they work smarter, not harder, and they're [00:29:00] learning. So yeah. Could you replace labor? No, but I would say the true assets of a construction company are it's it's labor force and it's ability to keep that labor force happy and productive in their work.

That's an art form that AI can never manage. Humans, right?

Wade Carpenter: Right. And again, like I said, we don't know what's gonna happen. Hopefully our listeners have taken this as a thought experiment. What will it look like ?

What can you be doing to get to that next level? I mean, how would AI do some of these things? Could you maybe implement these things right now?

Stephen Brown: Absolutely. And right now we're at the very end of the story. I'll finish it up and then any comments, how does that sound?

Wade Carpenter: Sounds good.

Stephen Brown: Eva? The project overseer AI was content I don't know how a computer's content, but. Eva, the project overseer AI was content. She had watched over every step of the [00:30:00] construction process and ensured that every task, every detail was handled with the precision of a machine.

No accidents, no delays, and most impressively, no human error Wade BuildBotics wasn't just about construction anymore. It was the future of urban development and a world where AI not only built the city, but also helped run it efficiently and intelligently. And so Wade, the city that once had been shaped by human hands was now transformed, living and breathing thanks to the silent but ever watchful AI that governed it.

The end. It brings a sci-fi tear to your eye, doesn't it?

Wade Carpenter: I don't know about that, but--

Stephen Brown: Computers don't cry. That's the good thing about computers. I Wade, I, I hope, I hope our listeners enjoyed this and I hope that they got some idea of where we're going. Because the more we research ai, we're gonna continue to have [00:31:00] topics in the future about technology and AI and where it's going and how it can help your construction.

Wade Carpenter: And it, it definitely can, and I definitely think there's a lot of lessons we can learn from some of these things. Maybe imagining what, if, what it might look like in the future. And, can you maybe get some of those advantages today and make your construction company a little more profitable?

Maybe work on that cash flow, maybe have some better job costing, those kind of things. I know I'm preaching. But I asked you this before the episode, would AI wait till the day before the bid to call his bonding agent and say, hey, I need a bond, but I don't have my financials together. What, you know, that kind of stuff.

Stephen Brown: Who makes a decision when you're gonna bid a job or not, and what priority you put in that process? 

Wade Carpenter: Well, Stephen,, I appreciate you bringing this to us today and I don't know if you have any other final words of wisdom, but AI big brother out there, i'm really not the bad guy, because I like AI. So don't, don't hunt me down. 

Stephen Brown: [00:32:00] And I cut out my comment about political kickbacks because they don't exist in the real world.

Wade Carpenter: Okay. I think we'll go ahead and bring this one to a close. We appreciate you listening to us this long, and we hope you, if nothing else, think about your future. Think about what it may look like. And how can you capitalize on some of these things today? Are there some things you should be putting in place, whether this is five years off or 10 years off or next year, I don't know. But again, if you have any thoughts on that, we'd love to hear them, drop them in the comments below. Please share, subscribe. It always helps us out. We really appreciate that kind of stuff. We do this every single week, and we will see you on the next show.

Stephen Brown: And if you wanna use Karate Man Construction Company for your company name, just send me a check for $20,000 and it's yours.

Wade Carpenter: Fair enough. Thank you, Stephen.