New guide helps construction leaders get on top of shadow AI

Xerini, the AI and data consultancy whose partner Alex Luketa spoke at ProCon Leicestershire's "Implementing AI in the Built Environment" event in September, has published a free guide for construction and civil engineering leaders on shadow AI: staff using ChatGPT and similar tools for work without the firm knowing.

The ONS puts AI use at 13% of construction firms with ten or more staff, the lowest of the industries it reports. Surveys of employees tell a different story. Microsoft found that 71% of UK employees have used unapproved consumer AI tools at work. The guide sets out what that means for firms whose tender documents, drawings, site photos and calculations can end up in personal AI accounts, outside any contract and with no record that it happened.

It covers which information can safely go where, what RICS, ICE, data protection law and insurers now expect, what the EU AI Act means for UK firms, and a 90-day plan for bringing AI use back inside the business. It also answers a question from the floor at the September event about what the EU AI Act means for firms' own data and their clients' data.

Alex Luketa said: "Ask a construction firm whether it uses AI and the official answer is mostly no. Ask its staff and you get a different picture. Banning it rarely works, because the free tool is already open on everyone's screen, so the place to start is finding out what people use and why."

The guide can be downloaded from the Xerini website:
https://xerini.co.uk/blog-shadow-ai.html?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=shadow-ai-guide&utm_content=procon