Builders are slow to adopt AI despite the perceived profit

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Diving briefs:

• Contractors plan to invest in artificial intelligence, but in reality Adoption rates do not match these aspirationsaccording to a new report from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors on AI under construction.
• London-based RICS uses survey responses from more than 2,200 experts around the world, with 10% of respondents from the Americas using 10%, according to the report.
• According to the survey, approximately 45% of respondents reported that their organizations had no AI implementation, with 34% in the early pilot phase. Furthermore, only 1.5% of respondents reported using AI in multiple processes, but less than 1% of participants reported using AI across the fully embedded organization.

Dive Insights:

These intents are consistent with AI Arms Race The large contractor has been engaged in recent years. The RICS report cites an investment company based in Burlingame, California Zacua Ventures' Contech Investor Survey 2025it has been revealed that 56% of voted investors are planning to put more money into AI compared to the previous year.

But that enthusiasm has not kept up for the majority of contractors, the RICS report finds. In addition to the adoption gap, many companies are still in the early planning stage of AI if they have plans. For example, 45% of respondents said they have limited capabilities in the company and are only investigating how AI is implemented. Almost a third (29%) say the organization currently has no capacity or plan in place.

The lack of actual implementation is in stark contrast to the potential contractors that potential contractors see about AI under construction. At the same time, it highlights the reputation of the industry's existence. The adoption of technology is slow.

For example, RICS examined professional views on how AI can improve various aspects of construction, including progress monitoring, safety management, sustainability, and risk management. Most respondents rated the importance of AI as moderate to high, according to the report. Respondents rated particularly high AI in areas already associated with data-rich processes and predictive decision-making.

The investigation comes when contractors are pushing to adopt technology or get left behind.

Contractors are also affected by adoption fatigue, according to Tanja Kufner, head of ventures and startups at Nemetschek Group, a German software company for construction.

“There are so many point solutions, so many workflows. You have to do so many different logins. I think it's just that crazy,” Kufner told Construction Dive. “I've never seen it in any other industry.”

To address these challenges, RIC recommended a set of immediate, medium and long-term actions that contractors could take.

In the near future, builders will need to expand their internal teams, establish leadership groups across occupations, and identify short-term AI use cases such as scheduling, cost estimates, sustainability and safety, according to RICS.

In the medium term, builders can use benchmarks and user feedback to monitor and evaluate AI performance. This helps to make a point to scale AI, while keeping in mind the risks and environmental costs associated with technology, according to the report.

Contractors can then move to long-term implementation. This means scaling successful use cases across features, projects, or regions and engaging in joint standards development.

Despite the low implementation so far, the AI ​​adoption curve can be increased if builders develop this type of program.

“These trends suggest that the construction industry is reaching a turning point for AI,” the report concluded. “When support infrastructure is developed, processes and practices are established and implementation costs are reduced, and AI adoption can become widely adopted on a relatively short timescale.”