What can AI do for your construction firm?
Use quality data to drive better decision-making
The best construction firms win new work from the top down – by devising a sound business development strategy and then executing. But they can’t do that until they find a way to automate the more tactical, repetitive tasks draining their time. Here’s how AI can help with that – and a lot more.
Solidify the foundation: Using AI to help improve data quality
Data quality is critical, and Unanet CRM is committed to simplifying its management. Planned AI features like Data Assistant and Data Steward are designed to help maintain high data quality in Unanet CRM, reducing common data errors and retroactively identifying and fixing data quality issues.
Putting data to work: Using AI to improve daily work life
Addressing data quality is the first step. Unanet CRM plans to use AI to improve the daily work-life of users. Planned features include:
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Dialing Assistance
for voice-activated dialing -
Meeting Insights
for timely updates -
Client Insights
for quick business insights -
My Feed
for news and updates -
Relevant Project Finder
to display relevant project experience -
WinSmart
to score pursuits based on past wins and losses with clients
Putting data to work: Using AI to inform strategic decision-making
The most successful construction firms know there is a difference between tactics and strategy. Unanet recognizes this, and for everyday CRM users like business developers and marketers, we are bringing AI to where they work: in Outlook, on their smartphones, and on the Web.
This will help construction firms improve tactical activities related to entering and consuming CRM data, such as managing relationships, opportunities, and submissions.
For executives looking for strategic insights, we recommend pivoting to AI-powered BI tools such as Power BI. Why? Because BI tools are better suited for the type of data projections and analytics required to make forward-looking strategic decisions. These tools should consume data from the firm’s Unanet Data Lake to ensure data security and hygiene standards are properly met and avoid the “Garbage In, Garbage Out” problem.
Many of our customers are already following this strategy with great success. For example, an ENR Top 25 construction firm built multiple Power BI reports using just 10 CRM fields.
Unanet has focused its AI efforts on making sure that construction firms can get their CRM data AI-ready. This helps them make better decisions, improve operational efficiency, and grow their business better than ever.
FAQs about AI in Construction
Using AI can significantly enhance the operational efficiency of a construction firm. Automating manual tasks like updating contact and pursuit data can expedite benefits for users. It’s all about allowing users to access the right information, faster.
AI can also assist users through traditionally manual processes and offer virtual assistants for timely information and insights, equipping a construction firm’s business developers and marketers to work better and faster.
If construction firms truly want to tap into the power of AI, they’ll need quality data. The first step is having a singular location to store, categorize, and manage that critical data.
Unanet CRM serves as a firm's single source of truth, and its ability to use AI effectively depends largely on the quality of the data it contains.
To help firms ensure that their data is AI-ready, Unanet CRM has incorporated and is planning additional features specifically aimed at improving data quality.
In a word: no. AI is not a threat to human jobs in the construction industry. This is an industry deeply rooted in relationships, where human connections play a vital role.
Look at AI as a tool designed to augment human capabilities and facilitate stronger, deeper relationships through better understanding and utilization of data regarding contacts, clients, and partners.
AI won’t take construction jobs – but it will give a massive advantage to the people within the construction industry who are using it.
Good news for Unanet customers: they already have. Unanet CRM users can utilize the Unanet Data Lake, which is ready for use and offers a reliable data source.
For construction firms, getting started with AI requires them to establish organization-wide AI policies and ensure a trustworthy and secure data source to build and train AI applications.
AI in Unanet today
For construction firms, Unanet CRM currently offers AI-related features pioneered by customer use. Features like Signature Parser and Data Enrichment use machine learning to update CRM databases with contact data from email signatures and match records from public data sources. The Caller ID feature identifies incoming calls from CRM contacts on the Unanet CRM mobile app.
These AI-enhanced and smart technology features allow your staff to work smarter rather than harder. They put vital information – about projects, contacts, or other vital business information – at their fingertips.
What we're imagining for tomorrow
Unanet CRM plans to introduce numerous AI capabilities to enhance data quality and improve daily work-life activities.
Features in the pipeline include Data Assistant, an AI-powered virtual assistant and Data Steward, a virtual data steward that identifies and rectifies data quality issues in the CRM database.
Other planned features include Dialing Assistance, Meeting Insights, Client Insights, My Feed, Relevant Project Finder, and WinSmart.