With the rise of artificial intelligence, robotics and more technology across the construction industry, companies are creating roles for not only specific technology assets, but also the innovation of those assets, the sweeping adoption of entire tech stacks and overall integration of technology within the company.
Connico—a consulting firm that specializes in cost estimating, scheduling, project management and project controls for aviation, federal and energy infrastructure—is one of those companies. Its newest role—director of digital transformation—is focused specifically on evaluating emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence and large language models, overseeing their implementation and ensuring those tools are fully integrated into day-to-day workflows across the business.
While the role is new to Connico, the person filling it is not new to the type of work it involves. Mihail Risteski has been in the construction industry for nearly two decades and has been a trusted client advisor with Connico for four years, previously serving as senior scheduler. “One of my passions,” he says, “has always been technology or at least systems that improve how we do things.” Before the creation of his current director role, Connico’s leadership offered Risteski the opportunity to lead an innovation group exploring tools available in the construction technology market. Soon after, the team realized they needed somebody to lead the tech venture full time. Six months ago, unsurprisingly, Risteski was asked to step into the director of digital transformation role. What did surprise him about the role, though, was how hands-on it is from a strategy and adoption standpoint. As director of digital transformation, Risteski is not just selecting tools, but driving real usage across teams, building internal buy-in and tying it back to business performance.
He sat down with Construction Executive to provide perspective on what AI adoption actually looks like inside a firm that’s actively building the function.
It’s becoming a trend among the C-suite, especially in construction, for roles to be created specifically for technology. How do companies find the right people to fill these new roles?
It depends on the situation. When Connico set out to fill this role, one of the biggest considerations was our culture. Our vision is that Connico is the best place to work, and we are a very people-focused company. We needed someone who would understand Connico’s culture, our people and how they work, while being able to scale and push forward any technologies that we wanted to implement. That’s why we focused on finding somebody internally.
What do your day-to-day responsibilities look like in this new role?
Every day is different. Some days, we are ramping up and looking ahead at what we want to achieve with certain products. We’ve also realized that AI is not a one-and-done tool. AI evolves quickly with new use cases every week that we have to keep up with. We are continually upskilling our team to keep pace with AI and other emerging technologies. We are very thoughtful and deliberate about making sure that everyone receives the support they need. At the same time, we are constantly considering what is 10 steps ahead and how we prepare our team to take those steps.
How has adoption and use of technology in construction changed as long as you’ve been in the role?
We weigh AI decisions by usefulness. Is it a shiny new tool or is it actually something beneficial? I think the answer is both. Technology itself is just a tool; its value depends on how it’s utilized in an institution. With AI, many companies offering these solutions are very clear about what their models do well and where they fall short.
We’ve seen that some uses that sound promising in theory may not be practical once the technology is applied to complex information that requires context and professional judgment. At the same time, more exploratory applications can uncover value in ways people did not initially anticipate. The same technology, applied to different circumstances, can produce two completely different outcomes. That is why it is important to begin with the problem you are trying to solve rather than adopting AI simply because it is available.
It is often cited in construction that people are usually skeptical of or slow to adopt technology, but it is also cited that once they do, they’re all in—and wish they would’ve been all in sooner. How do people, especially in director roles like yourself, continue to enforce that buy-in?
We have a wide range of generations among employees, from people nearing retirement to those who just graduated from college. Those who have worked in the industry for 15-20 years know their processes and can accomplish things very quickly and with high accuracy. When we introduce a new tool, the concern is not necessarily about their ability to use it. It is reinforcing the trust we have with them and showing how the technology will support their expertise and strengthen the value they bring.
When we decided to implement AI, we used a structured approach with training and sharing sessions. The sharing sessions were probably the biggest surprise for everybody because our newer team members became the teachers—they were showing what they had created or how they were using a tool. Suddenly, many who serve as advanced technical mentors were learning from their mentees. At the same time, the mentees understood that you cannot just push enthusiasm for AI and get good results. They needed their mentors’ expertise to provide structured feedback and create a useful and beneficial collaboration. That strategy helped reinforce buy-in because each generation brought something essential to the process.
Not only is construction technology getting better, but the way people use it is evolving. How have you seen return on investment improve?
The return on investment is definitely not immediate. When we adopted AI at Connico, one of the first things we discussed was that it would not replace anyone in the company. AI can be a great tool, but it’s not a solution for everything. When you give AI to someone with 15 years of experience, who understands the site, materials, labor and all of the conditions surrounding a project, it can reduce data management from hours to minutes. That allows our people to focus on what matters the most—delivering any solution that the owner needs. The return on investment is that our people become better, faster, more accurate and they’re able to deliver a better final product to our owners.
Are you seeing any trends in the workforce realm where certain roles may be created or roles may disappear because of technology?
I don’t think that roles will be disappearing, at least not to the degree that people fear. What it means to be an estimator, scheduler or someone who works in construction will change, but those roles have been evolving—albeit slowly—for years. We are just adding another tool to our tool belt that helps us execute a little better.
There’s something that gets lost whenever we have conversations about AI. Connico provides estimating, scheduling, project management and project controls, but nobody hires us to provide a 150-page spreadsheet of numbers. They really pay for certainty in the face of unknown, to have somebody who is an experienced professional, who can sit across from an owner and say, ‘This is what we know; this is what we don’t know; if we proceed in this way, these are some of the challenges that we actually see.’
AI processes data fast, but to prioritize the quality completion of the project is a human skill. AI allows everyone on a project to operate with greater attention to detail, accuracy and better analysis and guidance. We all lose ourselves in data sometimes, but I think that the AI train is the one thing that is going to bring us back to where we really need to be. Human expertise is going to be amplified by AI. People will be able to spend more time working on what only humans can do and what machines can’t. That’s how we see responsible AI adoption.
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