Construction is not an industry known for embracing digital transformation with a fist bump. Even as remote-controlled cranes and other cutting-edge tech appear on site, Skills England still ranks the sector as one of the least digitally mature in the country. So, when Balfour Beatty announces a multimillion\u2011pound investment in an AI assistant, the whole industry pays close attention. But is the UK\u2019s largest contractor simply going with the broader AI flow in UK business? Or is it forging ahead into a digital future?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not just buying a tool \u2013 we\u2019re reshaping how we work\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not just buying a tool \u2013 we\u2019re reshaping how we work,\u201d says Jon Ozanne, chief information officer at Balfour Beatty. In the decade he\u2019s been with the group, he\u2019s seen technology evolve from a back\u2011office afterthought to a \u201cgenuine enabler of better construction\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been a little bit quiet on the extent of our digital transformation,\u201d Ozanne adds. \u201cThree years ago, we decided to be far more assertive in leading a digital and productivity revolution using AI. We felt well\u2011positioned to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In July, Balfour Beatty announced a \u00a37.2m investment in Microsoft Copilot \u2013 an AI assistant built into Office 365 that draws on corporate data to streamline everyday tasks, similar to large language model (LLM) chatbots but in a secure environment.<\/p>\n
The deployment of Copilot is not a vanity project for the contractor. It\u2019s aimed at tackling the industry\u2019s most pressing challenges, including labour shortages, stagnant productivity, and health and safety risks.<\/p>\n
AI investment is also making Balfour Beatty more resilient against cybersecurity threats, a mounting concern for tier ones working on critical national infrastructure projects. Copilot\u2019s enterprise-grade security, granular access controls and privacy-by-design architecture are designed to protect both client and corporate data, while its enhanced security operations help prevent attacks before they materialise.<\/p>\n
\u2018A people play\u2019<\/h3>\n
Ozanne describes the rollout of Copilot as a \u201ccultural shift\u201d. \u201cI don\u2019t think this is a technology play: I think it\u2019s a people play. Technology is great, but you\u2019ve got to drive widespread adoption,\u201d he tells Construction News<\/em>.<\/p>\n
To test the waters, the company ran two pilots with staff from across all business functions, with a focus on high users of the office environment, including document creators and information managers. The first of those pilots, conducted in summer 2024, involved a small number of employees with mixed results. \u201cWe threw 50 licences out to some \u2018evangelists\u2019 without a real structure,\u201d Ozanne explains. \u201cA third of them loved it, a third couldn\u2019t figure it out, and a third didn\u2019t know what that icon on their desktop was. The feedback we received gave us enough confidence that we should do a more structured trial with a bigger cross-section of staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can build a smart agent that takes about 70 per cent of the mundane activity and the human finishes the rest\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A second pilot in January 2025 involved 250 staff. This time, the trial was structured and participants were trained in the basics of Copilot before using the assistant in their daily work. The results showed significant improvement.<\/p>\n
\u201c75 per cent of people said that Copilot improved their work,\u201d says Ozanne. \u201c78 per cent found that it improved their communications and 77 per cent felt that they were exerting less effort. Two-thirds also said that they\u2019d now only take a job with Copilot \u2013 I think maybe they were a bit high on the happy juice.\u201d<\/p>\n
An unexpected benefit emerged for neurodivergent employees, particularly those with dyslexia, who praised the tool\u2019s readability and spelling assistance. The clear appetite for AI convinced senior leadership to green\u2011light the full\u2011scale investment in the spring.<\/p>\n
Ozanne adds: \u201cWe didn\u2019t have to work very hard [to convince the leadership] because our former chief executive [Leo Quinn, who stepped down last September] and the board were very keen for us to explore this tool. Our entire executive team has been coached and mentored with Copilot buddies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smart agents<\/h3>\n
Beyond the company-wide rollout of Copilot, Balfour Beatty is developing a suite of custom-built \u2018smart agents\u2019. These AI\u2011powered assistants act as on\u2011demand experts, pulling data from every corner of the organisation to deliver briefings and actionable insights that help staff work smarter, safer and faster.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feed the agent with various sources of information to help it understand policies, processes and how someone works for it to create an outcome or take an action,\u201d explains Ozanne. \u201cWe can build a smart agent that takes about 70 per cent of the mundane activity and the human finishes the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the agents currently in development is a health and safety assistant \u2013 an area that Balfour Beatty is keen to address with AI. It is fed with huge amounts of historic health and safety reports, safety observations and best practice guidelines to produce the daily safety briefing that supervisors hand to their teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think this is a technology play: I think it\u2019s a people play. Technology is great, but you\u2019ve got to drive widespread adoption\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cIt will provide 80 per cent of the briefing and will point the supervisor towards areas they might consider adding some more content, but we want the supervisor still to own the briefing,\u201d Ozanne continues. \u201cIt has great potential because the agent\u2019s got access to a vast array of data that a human can\u2019t possibly recall on the spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another agent prevents incidents by monitoring live video feeds from heavy\u2011plant cameras and site footage to instantly flag workers who are missing required personal protective equipment or who wander into designated danger zones. \u201cThis ensures that we are not putting people in dangerous positions,\u201d Ozanne adds.<\/p>\n
Tackling roadworker abuse<\/h3>\n
At the Sizewell C nuclear power plant site, where Balfour Beatty is one of the main contractors within the Civil Works Alliance, the company has already deployed a specialised task information delivery plan (TIDP) agent.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, compiling a TIDP \u2013 a document that collates programme schedules, design specifications, works information and package plans \u2013 requires dozens of people and days of manual effort. Instead, this agent automatically aggregates all relevant data from the project\u2019s numerous systems and produces a draft TIDP ready for human review. Supervisors can then add any project\u2011specific notes, validate the content, and sign off the plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt pulls together all information from a programme plan, from the specifications of what you have to build, and the works information\u2026 a task that would normally be done by hundreds of people,\u201d says Ozanne.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think the improvements that are going to happen by using the technology should far outweigh the extra resource consumption that\u2019s going into it\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Balfour Beatty is also developing smart agents to tackle a serious and growing problem in the industry: roadworker abuse. It gathers field incident logs, location data and historical abuse reports to generate a heat\u2011map of abuse hotspots and mitigation recommendations for crews. By visualising risk zones, the tool enables proactive route planning and targeted community\u2011engagement actions.<\/p>\n
However, Ozanne stresses that the agents are not intended to replace humans but rather address the chronic skills shortage affecting the industry. Humans will still be essential for quality, safety and judgement, especially when dealing with nuanced, context\u2011dependent decisions. \u201cIt\u2019s not a trust thing as such but about being subjective and thinking about all the details that perhaps the AI doesn\u2019t know,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
By freeing up staff\u2019s time through automation of repetitive tasks, AI could allow people in on-demand roles to focus on higher-value work, Ozanne believes. Additionally, the implementation of innovative AI solutions might actually help to lure new talent to specialised jobs.<\/p>\n
Sustainability conflict?<\/h3>\n
Responses from generative AI tools such as Copilot feel almost instantaneous, but the speed comes at a cost, with huge amounts of electricity consumed by the data centres powering these operations. Training and running LLMs require thousands of high\u2011performance graphics processing units, each drawing significant power.<\/p>\n
For example, a 13,000-employee organisation (the number of staff that Balfour Beatty employs in the UK) running about 10 queries per person on each working day in a GPT\u20114\u2011class model would have an estimated annual carbon impact of 2.7 tonnes of CO\u2082e under today\u2019s UK electricity mix.<\/p>\n
Although this could appear to be at odds with Balfour Beatty\u2019s commitment to become net zero across Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2050, Ozanne says that the overall sustainability gains from greater efficiency, reduced waste and fewer errors outweigh the additional use of electricity required to power AI.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re mindful of the resource demands that AI brings, but we think the improvements that are going to happen by using the technology should far outweigh the extra resource consumption that\u2019s going into it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He also points out that Microsoft\u2019s data centres are increasingly powered by renewable energy, with a target to be carbon\u2011negative by 2030.<\/p>\n
Ozanne wants Balfour Beatty to share what it has learned from using Copilot and AI so the wider industry can benefit, hoping the technology will help the sector resolve its long\u2011standing productivity and safety challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no point in being an island: we\u2019re all integrated and we share systems and data,\u201d Ozanne concludes. \u201cWe have a responsibility to guide the sector forward and we intend to lead by example.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Construction is not an industry known for embracing digital transformation with a fist bump. Even as remote-controlled cranes and other cutting-edge tech appear on site, Skills England still ranks the sector as one of the least digitally mature in the country. So, when Balfour Beatty announces a multimillion\u2011pound investment in an AI assistant, the whole …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":158858,"featured_media":536063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[570,559,579],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-536055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-long-reads","category-tech"],"yoast_head":"\n
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