The 12 steps to AI heaven: CIOB AI Playbook shows the way

The 12-step strategy takes a common sense and practical approach, acknowledging the known issues with AI:

The Playbook also includes a chapter written by Vicki Reynolds, chief technology officer at Catalyst, that highlights the importance of data quality in the deployment of AI. She flags six key areas:

David Philp, chair of the CIOB’s Digital and Innovation Advisory Panel, was one of the Playbook’s authors. Upon its launch, he said: “Forms of AI are now prevalent in all walks of life and business, and the construction industry is in the age of AI, whether we recognise it or not. Understanding AI in the context of our sector is vitally important to help determine and shape how it might usher in new opportunities.

 “AI can immensely support project and construction management, analysing large volumes of project data across the value chain, spotting potential safety risks through computer vision, and offering insights for smarter decision-making. It can also support the automation of repetitive tasks, such as everyday data entry, form filling, and report generation, all of which can dominate a construction manager’s day, so it’s there to be embraced.”

After the launch, BIMplus caught up with Philp.

David Philp: The relationship between AI and other aspects of digital construction, especially digital twins – that’s a powerful pairing. AI enhances digital capabilities. We’ve got huge amounts of data now in digital twins, but we need to give that data context so it can support decision-making.

Also, the speed at which AI is developing offers huge innovation opportunities, especially for SMEs.

But we need to be mindful of AI: it’s not the silver bullet. There are various ethical and legal matters to consider, especially EDI. And there’s the black box of decision-making: you put a query in [to the AI], but how does it come to an answer? Is it ethical? How was the AI trained?

But make no mistake, AI and machine learning are really going to reshape our industry. We have to employ this technology to solve the wicked challenges we face – the changes brought on by the Building Safety Act, ageing assets that are often failing, and the hyper object of climate change.

100%. At last data is being seen to have strategic value in the built environment. We’re in an age where we’re so reliant on computer-readable data, and we need to continuously improve the data quality: that’s really important to ensure the success of AI and machine learning and other aspects like digital twins.

Good-quality data has got to be the foundation of accurate decision-making.

Organisations need to consider data literacy as a key tenet of what they’re doing as well.

Organisations should take a proportionate approach, but having one individual – a bit like some approach BIM – can create a bottleneck. Our recommendation is to form a working group within your organisation focused on developing an AI strategy. That working group should be made up of as many different actors or actresses as possible: not just those in legal and IT, but those at the coalface using the data to make decisions day to day.

You need to understand where you are on your data journey, and you need to be inquisitive.

Download the AI Playbook.

Download the use case template.

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