'AI Is Taking Over Construction Coordination Work, Not Skilled Jobs': Powerplay CEO Artificial intelligence is transforming India's construction sector by improving project coordination and procurement planning as well as repetitive tasks such as data entry. However, as in other sectors, concerns remain about AI's potential impact on jobs and its wider applications across the construction sector. Iesh Dixit, Co-Founder & CEO at Powerplay said, "AI will change the work in construction faster than it changes the number of people in it, and the honest answer on jobs depends on whether you look at the next two years or the next ten. The gains show up first in the back office of a contracting business. For one railway contractor we work with, the quantity and procurement planning that used to take weeks on a 60 km project now takes about a day, with material wastage down by 10 to 12 percent. Another contractor had someone spending most of their day comparing material prices; with those comparisons now on one screen in minutes, that time has moved to sharper buying and stronger vendor relationships. And the same railway contractor that once spent around 25 days a month at site tracking the project now hardly visits - that coordination now happens on a screen. We call this the AI workforce at Powerplay-a set of agents that take over the coordination work that used to fill a skilled person's day. The jobs that shrink first are the repetitive ones-data entry, manual takeoffs and chasing updates and the railway contractor told us it now needs less manpower on data entry and has moved that effort into improving its processes. Site engineers, supervisors and skilled trades stay in demand because the industry is short of them. The longer-term value moves to judgement, and the people who learn to supervise agents will carry more responsibility than before. The real risks are accuracy, data quality and trust, which is why a human stays in the loop. The agents prepare and recommend; engineers and lenders make the final call. Adoption should move at the pace at which each output can be verified." Sakshi Bajaj is a seasoned Associate Editor with over 15 years of experience in broadcast journalism. She has anchored, scripted, produced shows and w... View More