CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY AI
From estimating to uptime and automation, AI is increasingly embedded into workflows – often without users even realising it, writes ANDY BROWN
A
rtificial Intelligence has been around for some time in different forms, but a good indication of how much its popularity and profile exploded in 2025 is that last year an AI tool (Gemini) was the most popular global search on Google. While AI is firmly at the heart of mainstream culture, in construction it is interesting that those working in the sector tend to say that what they really want is the technology to work away in the background. In crude terms, construction doesn’t really care how things work, as long as they work and can save them the precious commodity of time.
INTERESTED IN OUTCOMES
Speaking to International Construction at ConExpo in Las Vegas, US, Mark Schwartz, senior vice president, AECO Software, Trimble, says, “We have dozens of agents running in our products today. Customers don’t really know that. They don’t have to know that. Some of the bigger customers will ask ‘what are you doing with AI?’ “But most of them just want
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the outcome. Our agents are embedded in the software performing tasks for them. And they don’t know. We’ve done this technologically by linking the agents together into a single interface.” This sentiment is echoed by Scott Young, President of North America, Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE). “I find the customer isn’t necessarily asking about AI,” he says. “They’re actually asking about the outcome, how to get more precise. How do I get more information quicker to help me take decisions? “I really like to talk about AI as an MARK SCHWARTZ, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, AECO SOFTWARE, TRIMBLE IMAGE: TRIMBLE
enabler for us to support our customers in our business and that customer facing portion of the business. There are examples where we’re using AI in our backend support systems. When we’re helping to provide uptime for our customers, we can use AI to help evolve and build out scenarios faster for our equipment as a service contract. “It’s really an enabler to give us more precision, more opportunities, more options. I don’t think they’re looking to say, ‘are you using AI?’ It’s more, how do you get this information and the solution to me faster?” Another important distinction is that AI is not used as a default in all products and services. “At Hexagon, AI is not a bolton feature. It only goes into a product if it meaningfully improves outcomes for the