b'BRINGING AI TO THE TEAMThe role of artificial intelligence in mechanical contractingMATTHEW BRADFORDF rom the boardroom to the frontline,adapt like humans. One can see how thisAI, notes Hugh Seaton, tech industry back office to the field, artificialadaptive and self-learning capability canveteran and CEO of The Link. Still, he intelligence (AI) has the potential tobe advantageous in the field, equippingoffers, Theres a timescale to all this. You reshape entire industries and their crews with tools and data-driven strategieswont walk onto a jobsite tomorrow and workforces. This is especially true in that enable them to work faster, safer,see any drastic changes because of AI construction, where autonomous technol- more collaboratively and more efficiently.just yet. Within a year, though, you will ogies and smarter systems are finding aIndeed, that is the goal behind theprobably see more products like those home in every trade, mechanical increasing number of AI-enabled productsfrom OpenAI being used in construction contracting included. and services finding their way onto to manage information much more easily The ones and zeroes of AI would taketodays jobsites. and efficiently.more than a page to describe. At itsAI Capabilities For now, the AI revolution is taking essence, the term defines machines orIve been in technology for 30 years,place in the back office, where it is being computer systems that learn, think andand nothing has ever moved as fast asimplemented to give companies the ability 20 www.mcac.ca'