Brief Overview

  • At construction site trailers across the United States, Suffolk Construction's building personnel may soon welcome a new member: an artificial intelligence engineer. This is the content of the company's latest directive.
  • The program, named "Future of Construction," will embed AI engineers at Suffolk's construction sites nationwide to help address pain points during the construction process. The contractor announced this news last week.
  • As part of the program, AI engineers will attend project meetings and iterate on solutions across three core areas: design, schedule, and process. The announcement was made on June 9. Suffolk CEO John Fish stated that rising costs and growing labor shortages are among the factors driving the program.

In-Depth Analysis

Suffolk says the "Future of Construction" program builds on the company's ongoing investments in data and general technology. More than a decade ago, the company invested over $100 million in data, technology infrastructure, and innovation capabilities.

"We believe that 'Future of Construction' and our use of artificial intelligence and data will fundamentally change this trajectory and redefine how America builds for generations to come," Fish said in a press release.

According to Suffolk, the program has so far produced AI-assisted design review tools that identify drawing conflicts and coordination gaps before construction begins, as well as AI-driven procurement and delivery tracking systems that help teams gain insight into supply chain risks and lead times, among other improvements.

Suffolk also mentioned a multi-billion-dollar project in the Midwest where the "Future of Construction" program helped the contractor build and pilot an AI-driven billing process for monthly payment applications. The system is designed to reduce delays caused by missing documents, approval bottlenecks, and repeated review comments.

Overall, the company's investment in data has helped generate a wealth of opportunities across its business. Its clean data lake (a collection of data) contains approximately 293 terabytes of structured construction data, equivalent to about 75 billion pages of PDF files.

"Future of Construction connects data, technology, and operational expertise, enabling our project teams to make smarter decisions, reduce risk, and deliver projects with greater predictability," Suffolk Chief Technology Officer Jit Kee Chin said in the announcement.

In fact, the company has built a reputation centered on innovation and technology. Its well-known technology accelerator BOOST concluded its sixth cohort of startup member companies in December. The company is also committed to bringing new technology solutions to the field, such as those from external companies like Arrowsight, as well as internally developed solutions like steel tracking.

This initiative also aligns with a broader trend of construction companies bringing development work in-house. For example, New York-based Turner Construction has questioned whether it is worthwhile to hire external companies to develop solutions when contractors can build them themselves.