Welcome to Red Army Radio! Today, Francis sits down with Tyler Craig, AI Program Manager at Tomlinson. In this episode, the conversation takes a deep dive into the evolving role of artificial intelligence in construction and how Tomlinson is leading the charge. Tyler shares his unconventional journey into tech, the company’s early adoption of AI, and how it's transforming workflows across the business.

From the risks of lagging behind to the practical applications of AI—from site safety to contract analysis—this episode offers a comprehensive look at how AI is reshaping one of the most traditional industries. Tune in to hear about what's possible now, what’s on the horizon, and how employees can be part of this exciting shift.

Episode Highlights:

• Tyler shares his unconventional career path and how he ended up at Tomlinson.
• How Tomlinson supported his formal training in computer science while working full time.
• The company’s early and strategic implementation of ChatGPT and other AI tools.
• Five key AI focus areas in construction: computer vision, NLP, robotics, generative AI, and machine learning.
• Real use cases including jobsite safety monitoring, automated tender analysis, and digital twins.
• The growing importance of data maturity and governance.
• The balance between innovation and risk in an industry slow to adopt tech.
• The ethical and creative implications of AI in arts, media, and the workplace.
• Why employee ideas and engagement are vital to building effective AI solutions.

Key Takeaways:

"This company will help grow people that recognize they want to grow and prove it."

"We immediately created an app in Teams so everyone could get on ChatGPT—seven months before copilot existed."

"If we push an AI tool out into the field and it's adding steps to their day, then we failed."

"We're now dealing with large amounts of data leaving the source system... and every large language model to date has been jailbroken."

"We don't want to just push stuff out. We want to hear from people and co-create use cases."

"I don’t want to get to a place where we’re hanging an AI-generated Mona Lisa in our house and pretending it’s the same."

"Try it at home. Ask what you can cook with what's in your fridge. You’ll learn how these systems work."