DNT Construction LLC

Trae Cobern

Enterprise Technology Leader

Trust Begins with Shared Data

Artificial intelligence is the first topic that comes up whenever I talk with peers. Where are you using it? What’s your strategy? How will it change your business?

They’re fair questions. But the most important project my team worked on this past year wasn’t really an AI project at all. It started with an equipment utilization report.

Like many contractors, we already had the data. Our field teams capture production every day from mobile devices. Equipment generates operational data. Finance tracks costs. Information exists across the business. The problem wasn’t collecting more data. It was turning that data into something everyone trusted.

We set out to build a cloud-based reporting platform that would automate operational reports that had traditionally been manual. Equipment utilization and idle equipment reporting were our first priorities because they drive real operational decisions. On paper, the project looked straightforward.

It wasn’t. Before we wrote much code, we found ourselves having conversations that had nothing to do with technology.

What exactly defines utilization? When is equipment considered idle? If two systems report different numbers, which one becomes the source of truth?

Those discussions took longer than the technical work. Looking back, they were also the most important part of the project. Once operations, finance and equipment management agreed on the business definitions, the automation became relatively simple. More importantly, people trusted the results because they had helped define what “right” looked like.

Why Trusted Data Comes Before AI

That experience changed the way I think about AI.

Artificial intelligence can summarize information, identify patterns and accelerate decision-making. I have no doubt it will reshape construction over the next several years. But AI isn’t the foundation. It’s the multiplier.

  AI doesn't resolve conflicting business definitions. It doesn't eliminate the need for people to agree on what the numbers actually mean.  

If your operational data isn’t consistent, AI simply helps you reach conclusions faster. It doesn’t create trust. It doesn’t resolve conflicting business definitions. And it doesn’t eliminate the need for people to agree on what the numbers actually mean.

I’ve never had an operations leader ask me for another dashboard. I’ve had them ask for numbers they don’t have to question. There’s a significant difference.

When the first part of every meeting is spent debating whose spreadsheet is correct, technology hasn’t created much value. When everyone walks into the room already confident in the data, the conversation shifts from reconciling information to making decisions.

That’s where technology starts paying dividends. This experience also reinforced another lesson. The best technology projects are rarely the most exciting ones. They’re the projects that eliminate duplicate data entry. They’re the reports that nobody has to build manually anymore.

They’re the integrations that quietly move information from one system to another without anyone noticing.

One question I ask my team now is simple: Who gets five minutes back?

If a superintendent spends less time entering data, that’s progress. If payroll spends less time correcting information, that’s progress. If an equipment manager can answer a question in minutes instead of hours, that’s progress. Those improvements don’t generate headlines, but they compound over time.

The CIO's Role in the AI Era

The role of the CIO has expanded well beyond managing infrastructure and cybersecurity. Those responsibilities remain critical, but today’s technology leaders also need to understand how work actually moves through the business. Some of the best ideas I’ve worked on didn’t originate in IT. They came from project managers, payroll specialists, equipment managers and field leaders who were simply tired of working around inefficient processes.

Technology doesn’t create operational alignment. It exposes whether alignment already exists.

As construction continues adopting AI, I believe the companies that see the greatest benefit won’t necessarily be the ones with the most sophisticated models. They’ll be the ones that invested in trustworthy data, connected their operations and built confidence in their information before asking AI to do something extraordinary.

AI has the potential to fundamentally change our industry. But before it changes tomorrow, we need to be confident in yesterday’s numbers.