AI won’t transform construction until we fix the foundations

Everywhere you look, AI is being hailed as the next big leap for industry. From conference stages to LinkedIn feeds, the promise is clear: faster decisions, greater efficiency, and instant ROI. But there is an uncomfortable truth. AI isn’t failing because the technology isn’t ready – it’s failing because most businesses aren’t.

This reality was front and centre at Digital Construction North, where I recently joined a panel on future skills. While AI dominated the agenda, the real conversation was about readiness. Not whether AI can be used in construction, but whether organisations have the systems, culture, and capabilities to use it well.

Construction has a habit of chasing innovation without building the basics. We’ve seen it time and time again from BIM to digital twins, which all arrived with good intentions, but often without the organisational change to sustain them, and are only now beginning to make the strides they should have decades ago. Without solving our readiness issue, AI is likely to face the same hurdles.

Too many firms are trialling AI before they have consistent data, clear processes, or ownership of knowledge. In this environment, AI doesn’t transform workflows, but accelerates inefficiencies. For example, if estimating data is patchy, AI can only produce confident but crucially, wrong, outputs. While if design information is fragmented, it amplifies coordination issues.

AI adoption isn’t just a tech problem – it’s a maturity problem rooted in business models. How work is structured, where value is created, and how knowledge is retained all determine whether AI can deliver impact. Without clarity, AI risks becoming theatre, through loud pilots that generate attention but little lasting capability.

The real leadership question isn’t “Which AI tool should we buy?” but “Where are decisions slow or inconsistent, and what skills are missing to improve them?”

If that can’t be answered, AI will struggle to add value.

A realistic approach to AI in construction works at two speeds:

1) Digitisation and capability building
Standardising data, defining processes, clarifying responsibilities, and embedding digital ways of working. This is where skills development matters most. Without people who understand data flows and decision logic, AI becomes a black box.

2) AI Deployment and human augmentation
Only once these foundations exist does AI become transformative – automating tasks, predicting risk, and augmenting human expertise. Skipping the first phase doesn’t accelerate the second; it undermines it.

It’s impossible to have a discussion about AI without discussing the skills issue that needs to be baked into foundational change. While AI doesn’t remove the need for people, it does change the skills required. Future value will come from individuals who can think in systems, interpret AI outputs critically, and bridge technical capability with commercial realities. This isn’t about coding; it’s about digital literacy and informed judgment.

We understand that AI’s promise will only be realised through a digital-first strategy that unites people, processes, and technology, and this forms a key part of our ambition: to become the leading engineering and technology company in UK construction.

As part of this, we’re building an engineering-led digital ecosystem designed to deliver smarter, more sustainable projects. That means investing in data architecture for consistency and clarity, process standardisation to enable scalable innovation, all underpinned by developing future skills that empower people and teams to apply AI responsibly.

By aligning adoption with our business model, SES is creating the conditions for this technological shift to augment – not replace – human expertise and build the foundations for genuine transformation.

AI will shape the future of construction and engineering, but it won’t shortcut the hard work of understanding how a business does, and should, operate. The organisations that succeed won’t be those that moved first, they’ll be those that prepared their systems, data, and people around shared strategic goals. By embedding digital thinking into every layer of a business, we won’t just be ready for AI, but to lead the industry into a smarter, more sustainable future.

Dr Ben Jowett is the Head of Digital Transformation at SES Engineering Services, a leading engineering and technology contractor in the UK. With a PhD in mobile BIM technological implementation, Ben specialises in digital strategy, engineering-focused digital systems, and the convergence of digital and physical work processes. He is driving SES’s transformation through systems thinking, cultural change, and the implementation of advanced digital solutions, positioning the business at the forefront of innovation in the construction industry. Ben also serves as External Examiner at Leeds Beckett University on their Doctor of Engineering (DEng) and Doctor of Professional Practice in the Built Environment (DProf) courses at the School of Built Environment, Engineering, and Computing, supporting the bridge between industry and academia.