Construction risk in 2026 will increasingly stem from small operational breakdowns that surface too late to fix cheaply. A tight labor market could only heighten that exposure.
Those are the issues construction technology leaders cited as they pointed to several artificial intelligence tools to protect profits, according to a 2026 outlook webinar from Built By Builders, a construction tech company network.
Choosing the right option starts in the field, said Anna Berger, CEO of Trayd, a construction back office operating system, during the webinar moderated by Construction Dive Reporter Matt Thibault.
“You have to do whatever you can, from a software and experience perspective, to create an environment that’s comfortable,” said Berger. “If teams are producing accurate numbers around labor tracking, equipment and material tracking in the field, what that results to for the back office and finance teams is a true job cost in real time from the field.”
In other words, tools must first fit into workflows efficiently on the jobsite. That includes small usability aspects too, such as multiple language options, which can meaningfully speed up adoption.
“When teams look to invest in software, they need to invest in tools that are centering the worker,” said Berger. “It’s not just about the back office teams, the finance managers, the end users.”
AI in safety
The labor shortage worsens onsite hazards when contractors have to staff projects with less-experienced team members, said Josh Levy, CEO at Document Crunch, an AI risk reduction platform.
Safety programs have evolved over the past decade, but the focus may have swung too far into checkbox compliance that focuses on companies more than workers, said Gabe Guetta, founder and CEO of Salus, a construction safety software provider. AI may help fix that.
For example, field workers don’t necessarily learn through academic processes, the direction many safety programs have turned to via forms and documents. The same tools intended to break complacency can create it instead if they become routine, box-checking exercises, he said.
AI tools can update this process by making safety programs more engaging from the start, said Guetta.
“Safety turned into theater, where all these forms and documents and training got done, and the pendulum swung from protecting a worker to protecting a company,” said Guetta. “Where AI is today, within the next six months to a year, safety will fundamentally change in the way that it’s performed.”
Scaling the workforce
In the back office, construction processes already require teams to interweave multiple document types to avoid compliance and scope traps, said Levy. Inexperienced teams expose knowledge gaps with how these documents should relate to decision-making. Until now, the industry hasn’t done enough to democratize expertise quickly so newer staff can operate at a higher level consistently, he said. That is an area of opportunity.
“Yes we have a labor shortage … ultimately what that means is that construction companies are going to have to figure out a way to scale with either less people or figure out a way to scale their people,” said Levy. “I don’t think we’ve done enough to bring that scalability to the people that are here.”
That strain isn’t limited to just the back office, said Cameron Page, CEO and founder of Clearstory, a change order management platform. Contractors also struggle to hire and retain project engineers and project managers, which could potentially lead to burnout for current workers. That’s an additional problem if workers walk after the company already invested in upskill training, said Page.
“There’s more demands on those team members,” said Page. “Any opportunity for technology on process improvement is going to help scale those companies as we head into this new era where things are probably going to move even faster.”
Opportunity for earlier detection tools
An influx of construction technology tools, however, also creates pressure for firms around what to choose. That lack of stability, both across the construction industry and within individual companies, widens the divide between contractors who eventually learn from data and those who don’t, said Mike Pink, CEO and founder of SmartPM, an automated construction project controls platform.
“The lack of standardization in an environment that’s being flooded with new innovation is challenging to the people that are actually working in construction,” said Pink. “There’s a lot more uncertainty on who’s embracing the systems, who’s using it.”
That’s where visibility into issues that would otherwise stay buried enters, according to the panelists. Earlier detection should be the goal for contractors looking to adopt one of these tools.
For example, change order exposure often sits idle in email along with informal field tickets long before it hits forecasting systems, said Page. Leadership may see a job’s financial projection only after costs enter internal reporting tools.
“That’s one of the big trends to help protect profits in this industry, it’s to get that visibility at a higher level, so you can more proactively triage and dive into the projects that truly need help,” said Page. “You might have 10 great projects, and then that one project that had lack of visibility that goes way over budget could really shoot your numbers for the year.”
Tools should also bring trade contractors into the process as active contributors, which improves early identification of problems, said Chris Callen, CEO of Plot, a jobsite coordination tool.
“A lot of times, [trade contractors] are just the receivers of information,” said Callen. “You’re seeing more and more engagement tools to get those individuals on the trade partners to be involved in a process that they may have not been an active contributor in the past.”
