(Part of our series on How Builders Can Leverage AI to Supercharge Their Business Educational Series)
If you’re in construction, you’ve heard the buzz about Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The real question: “What exactly can I do right now so it actually helps my business and doesn’t just add another tool I don’t use?”
On November 11, at the Arizona Builders Alliance (ABA), Computer Dimensions hosted a live session: “How Builders Can Leverage AI to Supercharge Their Business.”
It was a full house of superintendents, project managers, estimators, and operations leaders all coming in with curiosity (and a little skepticism). Two hours later, they left excited. Not just because they learned what AI could do, but because they built something tangible: their own custom AI assistants.
What changed?
They saw firsthand that AI isn’t about replacing people, it’s about empowering them. They discovered that with the right structure and guidance, anyone can build their own digital teammate with surprisingly little effort.
From Buzzword to Blueprint
Before you can use it, you have to talk the talk. Here are a few terms every builder should understand:
One of the most popular topics from the class was the concept of Custom GPTs: custom-built AI models that act like specialized virtual employees for your business. If ChatGPT is a generalist, a Custom GPT is your specialist. It’s trained on your company’s voice, documentation, and workflow. It can learn your process, understand your terminology, and even mimic your communication style.
You don’t need to code or spend thousands on a software developer. In less than 30 minutes, you can create your own GPT and teach it how to work the way you do.
How Builders Are Already Using Custom GPTs
Here are just a few of the examples we built or discussed during the session:
- Estimating Assistant: Upload your spec sections, bid forms, or vendor templates. The assistant helps summarize scopes, flag missing information, or prefill vendor RFQ requests.
- Project Manager Assistant: Trained on your company’s submittal log or meeting note templates, it can write polished agendas, change order letters, and client updates, without losing your voice or accuracy.
- Safety GPT: Feed it your safety manual and forms, and it can instantly generate toolbox talks, create incident documentation, or rewrite safety bulletins in plain English for field distribution.
- Marketing & BD Assistant: Provide it with past project summaries and it can draft case studies, website copy, or LinkedIn posts consistent with your brand tone and builder identity.
These aren’t abstract ideas, they’re tools teams are building right now with nothing more than ChatGPT Plus and a clear goal.
Behind the Scenes: How It Works
Custom GPTs are built using what’s called contextual training.
In short: you teach it what to care about. When you set up your assistant, you feed it key context: project types, roles, tone, and industry specifics. Then you upload your own files (PDFs, spreadsheets, policies, or manuals). The GPT doesn’t just memorize, it learns patterns.
- When you ask it to write a daily field report, it formats it like your reports.
- When you ask it to summarize a scope, it uses your language, not tech jargon.
That’s why it resonated so deeply with builders. Because it doesn’t replace experience, it amplifies it.
The Real Power: Company Knowledge at Your Fingertips
Most construction companies already have a wealth of knowledge spread across binders, shared drives, emails, and people’s heads. The problem is accessibility. A Custom GPT gives that knowledge a home and a voice. It becomes the digital version of your most experienced employee, one who never takes a day off and can instantly answer questions like:
- “How do we format an RFI for this client?”
- “What’s the company policy for documenting near-miss incidents?”
- “Can you summarize this 40-page spec section for me in plain English?”
Suddenly, your knowledge base is not only organized, it’s usable.
Three Lessons from Builders Who Tried It
From the conversations during and after the ABA event, three key lessons emerged:
- Recognize Start with one pain point. Don’t try to build “the everything assistant.” Pick one repetitive process like scope takeoffs, client emails, or closeout documentation and automate that first.
- Feed it clean, consistent data. The quality of the output depends on the clarity of the input. Builders who uploaded consistent templates and well-written documents saw dramatically better results than those with scattered or outdated files.
- Iterate and refine. The first version isn’t perfect and that’s okay. Builders found that after a few tweaks to the GPT’s instructions or uploaded files, it became exponentially smarter and more aligned with their needs.
How to Build Your Own Custom GPT
Here’s the simple framework we taught at the event:
- Define its purpose. Example: “You are a virtual assistant for a commercial construction company that helps with estimating, documentation, and client communication.”
- Upload your data. Add example documents, templates, or FAQs that represent how your company operates.
- Set your tone and boundaries. Tell your GPT how to respond: professional, concise, builder-friendly. Include guardrails like “If unsure, ask for clarification rather than assume.”
- Test and refine. Start small. Ask it to write a change order email or summarize a spec section. Adjust the instructions if the output isn’t quite right.
That’s it. You’ve just built your first virtual team member.
One important reminder for everyone of a key truth: AI is powerful, but it’s not perfect. That’s why human oversight is essential. You’re not handing over control, you’re giving your team smarter tools.
What’s Next
As we continue our educational series with the ABA, we’ll be releasing additional resources, including:
- Sample GPT frameworks for builders
- AI Acceptable Use Policy template
- A link to the recording of the full session
Final Thought
Builders don’t adopt technology just because it’s trendy, they adopt it because it works.
And right now, AI is giving our industry something we’ve been asking for: smarter systems, faster insights, and more time to lead.
If you missed the session but want to learn how Custom GPTs can fit into your workflows, reach out. We’re happy to show you how to build your own virtual assistant, built for builders, by builders.
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