Firms that ignore AI will look slower, more expensive, and harder to work with.
Hey – I’m an older guy and not always the most tech savvy myself. But if you’re running an AEC firm and still waiting for AI to “settle down,” you’re wasting time. Nobody knows exactly where this will go. That’s not a reason to sit still. It’s a reason to start small and learn faster than everyone else.
You don’t need an AI strategy statement. You need action. Here’s where to begin:
- Start inside the firm, not on client work. Don’t begin with design. Begin with the busywork everyone complains about but keeps doing anyway. Proposals, meeting notes, job descriptions, marketing copy, internal reports. Let AI handle first drafts and administrative lift. People quickly stop fearing tools that give them time back.
- Build a small pilot group. Don’t assign AI to IT and hope for results. Pull together a designer, a PM, someone from marketing, someone from finance, and at least one skeptic. Give them permission to test real uses for 90 days and report what actually saved time. Experiments matter more than perfection.
- Target repetition, not expertise. AI is good at organizing, rewriting, and summarizing. It’s not good at judgment. Use it where talented professionals are wasting energy on mechanical tasks. If senior staff are formatting documents instead of thinking, you’ve got a management problem AI can help fix.
- Train people or expect failure. Licenses don’t change behavior. Show people how to use it in real work situations. Give them prompts they can actually use. The barrier isn’t intelligence. It’s hesitation. Right now your younger staff are experimenting while senior people are quietly avoiding it. That gap will grow if you ignore it.
- Set rules early. You can’t just say “go experiment.” Define what data can be shared, what stays internal, and where human review is mandatory. AI can assist work but responsibility still sits with licensed professionals. Clear guardrails reduce anxiety and bad decisions.
- Measure something real. If you don’t measure results, AI becomes a toy. Track proposal turnaround time, staff utilization, WIP writeoffs, and how long routine deliverables take. When people see hours saved and margins improve, skepticism fades fast.
- Bring clients into the conversation. Some clients are already ahead of you. Ask whether faster iterations, quicker summaries, or better scenario comparisons would help them. Don’t oversell it. Competence beats hype every time.
- Treat this as a culture issue. Technology isn’t the hard part. Culture is. Firms that punish experimentation won’t adopt AI no matter how much money they spend. Leadership has to say that trying things is expected, and occasional failure is acceptable. The advantage will go to firms that learn faster, not firms that plan longer.
AI won’t replace AEC firms. But firms that ignore it will look slower, more expensive, and harder to work with. You don’t need a grand rollout. Just start doing something.
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Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com. |