Quantity Surveying x AI: the why

The advancements in generative AI over the last 2-3 years have been phenomenal, with faster and more accurate applications being made available on an almost daily basis. These developments are constantly responding to the reasons businesses or individuals give for not adopting generative AI in their day-to-day working practices. This leaves you wondering when we will reach the tipping point of generative AI being the norm for most businesses in the construction industry.

This first article focuses on the macro picture and why it is important to UK construction and industry, which we will build on in coming articles in this mini-series.

Why is it important?

The construction industry must address its productivity problem.

It doesn’t help that throwing resources at problems tends to be the ‘go-to’ solution to problems in the construction industry. We tend not to overcome problems by asking how something can be done more efficiently. There are a multitude of reasons for this – maybe it makes us feel better because we are taking action and seeing action, maybe we don’t have the time to do anything else, or maybe we lack the skills and knowledge to tackle the problem differently – but it is a chronic issue.

And this definitely is not a labour/site issue. In fact, arguably the biggest challenge lies in the way construction projects are designed, procured and managed. I remember one project, a major government framework with four contractors appointed and another contractor appointed as the framework manager. It was always my thought that the excess resource would actually be a hindrance to making progress rather than help because how many project managers, designers, quantity surveyors, etc., does it take to set up a project, and at what point is too much resource, too much resource?

Ultimately, what this means for UK construction is our lead times are high because, to coin the old phrase, ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’, and, most worryingly, the cost of building in the UK is, in relative terms, higher than in other developed countries.

As an example, the image in Figure 1 shows the cost per mile of high-speed railways in the UK versus Germany, France and China. There are many reasons why we are drastically more expensive, and some of those are outside of the control of the UK construction industry, but you have to wonder how much our productivity problem plays a part in this.

Btw, the eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that this is a 2015 piece of information, so, given the cost issues experienced by HS2 in the period since, you have to wonder what this graph would show if the forecast cost was replaced with the actual cost!

Our infrastructure, most of which was built in the Victorian era, is creaking. You only have to travel on the rail network semi-regularly to experience the delays, overcrowded carriages and extortionate fares. It leaves you to wonder that if our projects were managed and delivered efficiently and without waste, how much further could the UK’s investment stretch?

So, what's all that got to do with AI?

The obvious question is how much time could be saved if generative AI tools were embraced, adopted and used to their capability? Or put another way, how much money is being lost right now because we are not embracing, adopting and using generative AI tools to their capability?

It would be a fascinating piece of research to conduct because the QS in me thinks the saving would be considerable. How much time is wasted either processing data, reacting to inaccurate information or correcting errors caused by double or triple handling of data? For those involved in projects, you will know how frustrating this can be because your performance will be constantly delayed and disrupted (I know, traditional ‘construction claims’ terminology, but it works!) by the dysfunctionality of systems and the inaccuracy of data.

Could you imagine if people involved in projects purely performed their professional function? What could that do to productivity and then project costs? If that were to happen, would we really have a skills shortage, and would there be nearly 43,000 adverts on CV-library in one year?

AI as the saviour?

Yes, it is, and, at the same time, no, it isn’t.

The advent of AI brings capabilities that either most human minds can achieve or capacity that the majority of people do not have. You now have a handy companion which, if used correctly, can keep you up to date and show you how to use applications, navigate information, or analyse data in ways you never thought possible.

The opportunity this brings is the possibility that quantity surveyors can spend all of their work time actually performing quantity surveying work. You might think that, as a quantity surveyor, that is the case at the moment, but if you properly analysed your time, then you would be very surprised about how much time you spend on performing non-value-add tasks. It would not surprise me if this accounted for 50% of your time each week, so, at a very micro level, you could imagine the productivity benefits.

Final reflections

The proposition in this article is that generative AI is the key to unlocking the productivity problem in the UK construction industry.

In some ways the case for using generative AI has already been made, and the increased use of AI is obvious, but we are not implementing it at the same rate as applications are being developed. So, are there too many barriers (the risk is too great), or are the benefits not fully understood (the opportunity is not big enough)?

This will be the subject of next week’s article, so keep an eye out for that, and, in the meantime, enjoy the rest of your week!

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