In this episode, Dr. Dawn examines the newest addition to the construction industry’s toolbox: AI technology. In this episode, we learn that AI is like a double-edged sword: While AI technology certainly threatens jobs in the construction industry, it’s also ushering in a new era of efficiency and safety.

We begin this episode in conversation with Bella McCann, the president of the woman-owned and Washington, D.C.-based construction company, Cann Construction. McCann takes us to a renovation site to provide a look at how new technologies make on-site work more efficient and safer for workers.

We also hear from Jim Urtz, the national apprenticeship director with the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), on what the adoption of AI means for the future of jobs in construction. While Urtz has concerns about the potential of technology to replace people, he also details how AI technology can improve working conditions in a high-risk industry and widen the scope of employment opportunities for younger generations in an industry traditionally viewed as one only for the strongest of men.

The adoption of AI technology in the construction industry encourages us to ask the question: In the work we do, in the things we buy, in the investments we make, what does it profit?  

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