Growing a Commercial Construction Business with Preconstruction Software

General contractors serving the commercial space have had a rough go of it in recent years. Tight credit, high interest rates, fluctuating costs of construction inputs—things have been rough.

But contractors who have been in the market for a while know that change and unpredictability are just part of the business and are coming to see the value of parametric AI-driven preconstruction software.

The value of what, you may be asking?

Parametric AI Preconstruction Software

That is a few $5 words strung together, so let’s define the term. Parametric refers to a system with multiple parameters. While generative AI has seized the popular imagination, parametric AI is more practical because it enables a preconstruction professional to quickly change various parameters of a project to yield predictive analytics about cost, or even revenue potential of the finished product.

In a tool like Zebel, these parameters are also configurable. This, combined with the availability of extensive anonymized project data from across the Zebel customer base, means contractors or developers can quickly establish reliable budget data based on comparable projects. One other parameter that can be defined by users, escalation, provides a formal and auditable approach to adjusting for construction input price changes.

Redefining Preconstruction: How AI and Data Analytics Are Shaping Commercial Development

Parametric AI tools like Zebel will probably become more and more important to contractors and developers for several use cases.

• Predictive Analytics: AI can use predictive analytics to forecast project outcomes based on historical data and current project parameters. This enables stakeholders to anticipate potential challenges, optimize resource allocation, and make data-driven decisions to improve project performance.
• Estimation and Cost Prediction: AI algorithms can analyze historical project data, including materials costs, labor costs, and project timelines, to generate accurate estimates for construction projects. This helps in predicting costs more precisely and avoiding budget overruns.
• Site Selection and Planning: AI can analyze various factors such as demographics, market trends, transportation accessibility, and environmental considerations to identify suitable locations for construction projects. This supports more informed decisions during the preconstruction phase.
• Predictive Analytics: AI can use predictive analytics to forecast project outcomes based on historical data and current project parameters. This enables stakeholders to anticipate potential challenges, optimize resource allocation, and make data-driven decisions to improve project performance.

Intelligent Preconstruction Software Evolution

Zebel got its start in multifamily development and construction, but recent enhancements to the product have made it broadly applicable to most other commercial and institutional project settings.

This is just one phase of the product’s evolution, and Zebel CEO and C-Founder Hamid Hajian.

“There are a number of new enhancements on our roadmap,” Hajian said. “They have as part of the estimating module, an analytics tab so when a user does an estimate they can run a sanity check, with a graph that shows your number versus other companies building similar projects in the area, as well as your own past projects. One area we are thinking about is linking the lumber future prices to figure out if cost of lumber going up or down—leveraging broad economic indicators for broad stroke predictions. This could be turned into suggestions for, for instance, a 5 percent cost escalation for the next two years.”

A significant area of investment according to Hajian will be AI-driven analytics.

“One thing on the roadmap is using AI to analyze data we currently have in the system,” Hajian said. “Now, we are just visualizing the data. A simple place to start will be deciding what the escalation has been in the past—that is one number no two precon managers can agree on. Another is comparing costs across different regions—so precon professionals can more easily see the delta.