Bringing modeling to remodeling: AI and the construction industry

Levi Duncan and a colleague talk in an office as one stands beside a desk with a computer, papers and a calculator while the other sits facing him.

As the founder of a home remodeling company, Levi Duncan knows the importance of spotting opportunity. Case in point?

One of his carpenters still uses a flip phone. Folksy? Yes. Cutting-edge? Not really.

“Technology is just getting started in construction,” Duncan says. “Sure, they’re printing 3D houses, but when you’re at the remodeling level, technology isn’t a big thing. That just means it’s primed to be disrupted.”

It’s why Duncan, who also spent 24 years in the U.S. military before retiring last autumn, has turned to AI to help manage routine tasks and big-picture projects. He credits a data analytics course as part of the Executive MBA program at The Ohio State University Max M. Fisher College of Business as being instrumental.

Levi Duncan, dressed in business casual, chats with a classmate in a tiered classroom while others work on laptops. — *Levi Duncan talks with an Executive MBA classmate. Duncan credits a course in data analytics for sparking an interest in how artificial intelligence can help grow his businesses.*

“I’m sitting in class thinking ‘How do I take what I’m learning and make it into something that can disrupt my industry,’” he says. “From there, I started getting myself and my staff familiar with tools like ChatGPT to see how beneficial it can be.”

Turns out, pretty beneficial.

“If we have issues or questions, we can use ChatGPT to pull up a municipality’s code and give us all the references we need before submitting a permit request,” Duncan says. “Same for estimating and design work. There’s a learning curve for design software, but there’s no learning curve for ‘Show me cabinets in green with this and that to come up with a simple idea.’”

Duncan’s embrace of AI has created even broader impact. He used it to transform a historic building into The Springfield Metropolis, a two-block redevelopment project in downtown Springfield, Ohio, that houses a growing mix of businesses and nonprofit service agencies.

“I turned to AI to help create synergy based on the latest census and demographics data we have for Springfield,” Duncan says. “Before, I would have had to have others open doors for me to learn about real estate ― and there’s value in that. But with AI, I can accelerate my ability to analyze information and get that expert advice 100 times faster with just the click of a keyboard.”