Less Pain, More Gain: Construction Giant Ready to Share AI Leap

The Australian construction industry is undergoing a technological revolution that will dictate its future. While artificial intelligence is already enhancing safety monitoring and automating design processes in construction—reportedly improving efficiency by up to 20 per cent—one critical area has remained stubbornly analogue: the administrative backbone that keeps projects moving. Deloitte research shows that just 30 per cent of Australian construction firms are currently using or trialling AI solutions. That’s despite evidence that early adopters achieve higher revenue growth and deliver more projects on time and under budget. Now, a Melbourne builder is proving that AI’s greatest construction impact might not be on site, but in the office. Kapitol Group has turned artificial intelligence toward the industry’s paper trail, launching the first iteration of a proprietary platform called KapGPT and employing its first AI specialist. The platform is already demonstrating significant efficiency gains across multiple administrative processes. In an industry contributing $140 billion to the Australian economy and employing 1.2 million people, such innovations may well prove transformative. ▲ Kapitol Group chief technology officer Julie Wright. “Construction is a really manual, archaic industry,” Kapitol Group chief technology officer Julie Wright tells The Urban Developer . “There’s a lot of ‘we’ve always done it this way’. There’s a lot of different parties at play with their own ways of working.” Kapitol found that up to 80 per cent of processes were manual. It has already identified 75 areas for improvement thanks to the AI program since its inception. “Manual means wasted effort and not providing the value there,” Wright says. “KapGPT was created to drive productivity, to reduce costs. “But really, it makes for a better day at work for our people, taking away the stuff that they just don’t want to do—and really don’t have to do now. And for our clients, it’s all about speeding up processes and reducing errors.” The advantages are already evident. For its tender documentation reviews, KapGPT reduced processing time from three to four days to about two hours for packages containing upwards of 800 documents. But building it for speed isn’t everything: the platform can learn on the go, thanks to built-in safeguards against AI errors. “We’ve built in a confidence tracker,” Wright says. “It will interpret the data, double-check from several different sources and assign a level of confidence. For safety-related matters, we won’t accept anything that’s not 100 per cent confident.” To support the rollout, Kapitol has instituted comprehensive training programs, allocating three hours within each 10-hour training block specifically to AI and technology. Two sessions focus on effective prompting techniques for KapGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot, the third covers general technology updates. The company is developing custom AI applications across departments, with more improvements expected after consultation with graduates and contract administrators. ▲ The app is part of a strategic push to modernise construction processes, which Kapitol is willing to share with developers, Wright says. These applications will integrate with existing Building Information Modelling (BIM) and digital twin capabilities, converging within two years to a centralised data source that can be interpreted by AI for both employee and customer benefit. Kapitol head of marketing and communications Rakhal Ebeli says the gains translate directly into better project outcomes for clients. “They’re not getting less and paying less, they’re literally getting more for their money,” Ebeli tells The Urban Developer . “Where those efficiencies are created, we’re actually finding additional value that we can bake into what we ultimately deliver for our clients.” The AI-driven approach means more accurate and up-to-date documentation, faster responses and reduced errors throughout the project lifecycle, Wright says. With administrative tasks automated, Kapitol’s teams can focus more time on value-adding activities that benefit clients, such as design optimisation to quality control. But Kapitol’s AI initiatives are more than just internal efficiencies. Wright says the company is willing to share its learnings with the wider industry, allowing others to benefit from their pioneering work. The system’s ability to recognise patterns across different projects means solutions developed for one site can be rapidly deployed across others. From faster tender responses and automated compliance checks to streamlined document management and improved accuracy in drawings and specifications, the potential benefits extend across the project lifecycle. ▲ KapGPT is learning on the job— these learnings can be applied to similar cases on job sites across the country, Wright says. The standardisation of processes thanks to AI also means developers can expect more consistent outcomes across projects, reducing variables that can lead to delays and cost overruns. The implications are significant: faster tender responses, reduced errors, and more time for value-adding activities. “We want to change the industry, we want to lead the way,” Wright says. “I’ve seen the complexity of what we do and the sheer amount of manual effort that’s end to end. “People are wasting their time on things that just aren’t adding value to them or our clients. “The most exciting thing is we can remove all that. They benefit as people because they’re doing things that are meaningful, and from a client perspective, they see the flow-on effect.” This technology-driven transformation isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about reimagining what’s possible in construction. “That’s what gets me out of bed in the morning,” Wright says, “that we can make a difference and drive the industry by leading the way and saying we can actually do this differently.” You are currently experiencing The Urban Developer Plus (TUD+), our premium membership for property professionals. 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Less Pain, More Gain: Construction Giant Ready to Share AI Leap

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