AI Citizen Development in Construction? | EP29

Construction delays cost money. An accidental utility strike during excavation can derail project timelines. Daily safety conversations that become checkbox exercises put crews at risk. These are problems construction teams have dealt with for years — but until recently, the people closest to them had no way to build their own solutions. AI changed that. In this episode, Joseph Schultz, VP of mission critical at JE Dunn Construction, explains how his team's citizen development program gives field workers — people with no coding background — the ability to build AI-powered tools that address the specific problems they face every day. A superintendent built a dig permit app that ensures no crew breaks ground without the right information. AI now listens to daily safety conversations and flags when a crew is going through the motions instead of genuinely assessing risk. This isn't a story about one company. It's a model for any organization where the people doing the work know exactly what's broken — and just need the tools to fix it. See how other organizations are putting AI into practice: The Sherlock Company automates creative content at scale: https://www.insight.com/en_US/content-and-resources/case-studies/the-sherlock-company-automates-creative-content-at-scale-with-vertex-ai-and-sada-services.html Insight's own AI playbook for internal transformation: https://www.insight.com/en_US/content-and-resources/case-studies/case-study-the-ai-playbook-ai-transformation.html Ready to move from AI hype to AI problem-solving? Request a Prism workshop because you'll get a prioritized AI roadmap in less than two weeks — no months of discovery, no generic advice: https://www.insight.com/en_US/what-we-do/methodology/insight-prism.html Subscribe for more conversations with the leaders putting technology to work. #AIinConstruction #CitizenDevelopment #DataCenterConstruction #InsightOn #ConstructionTech Chapters (5–12) 00:00 — Welcome and episode introduction 01:20 — Meet Joseph Schultz of JE Dunn Construction 02:46 — What JE Dunn does and the hyperscaler relationship 04:00 — How generative AI enhances construction communication 05:01 — AI reducing meetings and improving field engagement 07:10 — Finding blind spots before they become problems 07:41 — Limitations of AI in construction 09:13 — What citizen development looks like on a job site 10:50 — The dig permit app that prevents utility strikes 13:06 — AI for job safety analysis and crew conversations 16:18 — More time on people and less on documentation 17:28 — Advice for leaders starting with AI in physical industries