Acting ethically and “doing the right thing” has been part of Gilbane’s DNA since our company was founded in 1870, and we are proud to be celebrating our third annual Ethics Week from August 5th through the 9th. These more than 150-year-old principles have guided Gilbane in its evolution and will continue to be what the company will use to navigate growth. That growth includes us striving to innovate and find new tools or new ways of doing things to give us a competitive advantage when delivering best-in-class, construction-related services.
One of the most unchartered opportunities we see for that growth is through deploying generative AI.
What is Generative AI
Artificial intelligence, or “AI,” has been around us for years, and we’ve all engaged with it, whether we know it or not, through our personal devices and professional work environments. generative AI (also known as Gen AI) is the new horizon of AI and is a cutting-edge technology powered by large language models (LLM) built using internet-scale data, machine learning, and neural networks that allow humans to use natural language to generate a desired output. This technology has the potential to revolutionize the way we work, from automating routine tasks to unlocking unprecedented predictive capabilities. What makes generative AI special is that it puts data and intelligence in everyone’s hands.
Our Ethical Use of AI
Generative AI is a new frontier—especially for construction. The possibilities of adapting this exciting technology into our processes are promising, with a range of transformative benefits, from optimized project delivery to enterprise disciplines that contribute to delivering the built environment—be it finance, marketing, human resources, delivering on our sustainability goals, and beyond. The use cases are endless.
But so, too, are the potential pitfalls for the unethical use of AI. Our clients trust Gilbane with high-profile and sometimes highly confidential projects. Indeed, often they have chosen Gilbane as their partner because of our commitment to protect their confidential and proprietary information and our reputation for integrity. Our obligation to safeguard such information makes it critical that we thoroughly vet any potential tools that use generative AI to process job-related documents like contracts, change orders, meeting minutes, or drawings. If we don’t understand how the tool’s AI processes our and our client’s data, the potential for misuse or disclosure of confidential and proprietary information increases significantly.
Despite these potential pitfalls, major companies are forging ahead by adding AI to their roadmaps, and with more start-ups appearing every day, our teams can start to feel a “Fear of Missing Out” (or “FOMO”), as they are inundated with queries and all the media noise around this technology.
To avoid FOMO, deploying this technology requires partnership across legal, cybersecurity, data, and analytics teams; a living, breathing, and evolving AI governance policy; and a community of curious people who are continually out-front exploring and learning. At Gilbane, stakeholders across the company, are collaborating to assess tools and use cases through a disciplined and rigorous experimentation framework identifying risks, along with being intentional on how we measure benefits – both qualitative and quantitative.
The guideposts for these stakeholders’ evaluation of tools and systems for ethical use are our Core Values, Employee Code of Ethics, and Supplier Code of Conduct.
Of note, two of our Core Values play an integral role in our adoption of generative AI:
- Dedication to Excellence – We continually strive to provide superior outcomes for our clients while complying with all laws, regulations, and Company standards applicable to the project, job site, or office location, regardless of circumstances.
- Entrepreneurship – We celebrate our entrepreneurial spirit. Through our policies and procedures, we seek to foster a culture of innovation that manages enterprise risk while encouraging creativity.
Through our enhanced pilot program, where we test AI tools, closely review vendors and tools from a cybersecurity perspective, and complete legal analysis to ensure our adoption does not create liabilities, we can balance our entrepreneurial spirit with our dedication to excellence—and most importantly, find the right tools and systems to help our teams do what they do best: build and create.
The Future of Navigating the Use of AI
As an industry, we must avoid relying on the hype and stay focused on our critical pain points and the high-impact solutions that make a difference while aligning with our business strategy priorities.
While generative AI offers seemingly endless opportunities for businesses and individuals alike, it is vital to establish accountability and protocols for use, as AI cannot replicate the human aspects and experiences that play into the informed decisions we make. Ethical use of any AI means that we bring humans into the mix. Further, it is our Core Values, our Supplier Code of Conduct, our Employee Code of Ethics, and our commitment to operating within legal parameters—all of which are based on the basic human principle of “doing what is right”—that allow us to navigate this new frontier of generative AI.
Comments
Alex Gutman
Well written, nicely done team!
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