"The wave is here." Chad Cannon, Founder + CEO of CardinalEA.ai, on where construction leaders should start with AI and agents.
A lot of leaders are waiting for AI to settle down before they jump in. Chad's answer: "I hate to tell you, but in the next decade, this wave's not calming."
In this episode of Behind the Barricade, I turn the tables on Chad. He's the brainchild behind this podcast and has been helping us grow it and build it, and he's usually the one interviewing me. This time I interview him on AI and its impact on business, and what we should be thinking about, or at least exploring, as construction experts.
In this conversation:
- Why waiting out the wave is a bad bet, and why he says to pick one process in your business to automate with AI and start there
- How to find your AI champion and run a half-day team experiment
- If your processes aren't written down: chatbots vs. agentic AI
- What an org chart with humans and AI agents could look like
- A simple first step: list your "drudgery" tasks and turn them into a job description for an agent
- Whether construction really is different
- Where AI helps with design and proposals, and a voice-note timecard tool built for a maintenance crew
- A simple way for an executive to start: pick a platform, run a couple of projects, and meet weekly to compare notes
Whether you run projects, lead a team, or just keep hearing "AI, AI, AI" and want to know where to begin, this one is for you.
Chapters
0:00 Jim's welcome: why Chad is the guest
1:07 Why Chad thinks AI is bigger than the printing press
1:59 How Chad got into AI
4:23 Cutting through the AI noise: "this wave's not calming"
8:19 How to choose your one thing
9:37 If your processes aren't written down: chatbot vs. agentic AI
13:48 AI agents on the org chart
17:18 Agents in your team's Slack, and the jobs question
18:53 Step one: your drudgery list and an agent's job description
22:08 Will AI be construction's productivity magic bullet?
23:51 "Construction is different": Jim pushes back
26:45 AI for design and proposals
28:29 Voice notes that fill out the timecards
29:44 Final thoughts: how an executive should start
32:40 The experiment mindset, and how to reach Chad
34:07 Jim's takeaways and sign-off
About Chad Cannon: Founder + CEO, CardinalEA.ai. chadwickcannon.com | LinkedIn
About Jim Christian: Host of Behind the Barricade and Founder + CEO of Cornerstone. | LinkedIn
Mentioned: Viktor, the tool Chad uses to work with an AI agent inside Slack or Teams.
Behind the Barricade is brought to you by Cornerstone, dedicated to creating a better journey for clients, staff, project partners, and the world. If you liked this episode, please leave a review and share it with someone who's playing around with AI in construction.
