AI use is exploding and evolving. It’s been a hot topic at construction industry events for the past couple of years, and you’ve heard how it will transform construction HR. But if you’re wondering when it’s going to revolutionize your specific work, you’re not alone.
Using AI to write emails or get quick answers to questions might save you minutes a day, but it’s not delivering on the promises those presentations made, like acting as an assistant that does all your busy work so you can actually leave work on time on a Friday. Arcoro wanted to find out why.
Arcoro conducted an online survey of professionals working within the construction industry to research how they’re using AI. The group surveyed included individuals involved in human resources, people operations, finance, operations, technology, and organizational leadership.
Respondents represented construction organizations of varying sizes, from companies with fewer than 50 employees to enterprises with more than 1,000 employees. Respondents were asked about their use of artificial intelligence, their organization's current level of AI adoption within HR, and related attitudes, practices, and opportunities.
Here’s what we found.
The good news is you’re not worried AI is going to take your job. Only 5% of Arcoro’s AI survey respondents fear AI will reduce headcount. In fact, 50% of respondents believe AI will allow you to focus more on strategic work, but the results show that’s not happening… yet. AI isn’t giving you time to focus on strategic work because you must start from scratch nearly every time you use it instead of automating the tasks that actually eat up your week.
One of the biggest findings from the survey is that 72% of respondents use AI weekly, but only 8% work at organizations that have standardized its use across HR. The tasks eating up your week, like entering the same data across multiple disconnected systems, are not one AI is currently touching for anyone surveyed. Long story short, you’re using AI in HR for mundane tasks (writing/editing job descriptions and writing emails), but you have little idea how any of your coworkers are using it. There is no company plan for AI. That’s a problem, because you’re missing out on the real heavy lifting that AI can do with everyone aligned, like analyzing the data that helps you hire more, have safer jobsites, and decrease costs.
There is a real risk that comes from not having a company-wide strategy. Without a written policy, sensitive workforce data, like Social Security numbers, wage details, and immigration status documents, can end up inside AI tools with no audit trail and no guarantee it is not being used to train someone else’s model. Forty-eight percent of respondents already named data privacy as their top concern, and that instinct is correct.
The time is right to look at your software providers. Seventy-nine percent of respondents want AI built directly into the HR software they already use, not to manage another standalone technology, but only 5% have that today. The construction HR teams that get intentional now, before integrated AI becomes platform standard, will be the super users the moment it arrives. None of this requires an enterprise budget or a data science expert. It requires treating AI as infrastructure instead of a personal productivity hack, and that is a shift in intention, not technology.
Arcoro’s report walks through what the survey data shows, where the real opportunity lives, and closes with eight clear steps that transform basic AI use into something that can transform how everyone in your company works, so you’re actually saving hours, not just minutes. With strategic AI use, you’ll have the time to develop succession plans, new benefits packages, and creative hiring strategies, and still get out the door on Fridays on time. It is not difficult; it just takes intention.
Start your journey to revolutionize your AI use. Download the entire research report.