AI That Actually Works: Strategic vs. Tactical Tools for Public Works Project Managers
If you're using technology to manage public works construction projects, by now you've probably heard or read plenty about Artificial Intelligence. It's everywhere.
Maybe you've wondered if it's just another tech trend that'll pass you by, OR maybe there's something real here that could actually help with the mountains of paperwork, compliance headaches, and coordination challenges you deal with every day.
The good news? AI isn't as complicated as it sounds, and it's already being used successfully on projects just like yours. The key is understanding that there are two, distinct ways that AI can help you: ONE- Strategic applications that transform how you think about your projects, and TWO- Tactical applications that handle routine tasks that are most likely eating-up your time.
Stay tuned! In this 4-part series of articles, we'll dive deeper into exactly how these AI tools work in practice, with specific examples where project managers are using them to deliver better results with less stress.
Whether it’s dealing with documentation chaos, compliance anxiety, or simply trying to do more with the same staff, there are AI applications that can help – and they're more accessible than you might think.
Strategic AI: The Big Picture Tools
Think of strategic AI as your super-powered project advisor – systems that can instantly access and analyze information across all your projects to help you make better decisions.
AI That Reads Everything
Imagine having an assistant who has read every specification you've ever worked with, every change order from the last five years, and every regulation that applies to your projects. When you need to know if a contractor's proposed substitute material has caused problems before, or what the standard language should be for a specific type of work, this system gives you answers in seconds instead of hours of searching through files.
This isn't science fiction – it's happening now. These systems can search through thousands of documents simultaneously, pulling relevant information from past projects to inform current decisions. When you're writing an RFI response or reviewing a submittal, the system can instantly surface similar situations from your project history and show you what worked (and what didn't).
AI Advisory Systems
These tools go beyond just finding information – they analyze patterns across all your projects to spot trends you might miss. Maybe certain types of change orders consistently appear on bridge projects, or specific contractors tend to have the same documentation issues. AI can help identify patterns and enable you to proactively address problems before they happen.
For compliance-heavy work like public works construction, this is particularly valuable. A well-trained system can flag when documentation patterns suggest potential audit issues, or when project timelines are trending toward the kind of delays that create problems months later.
Strategic Benefits You'll Actually Notice
- Faster, better decisions: Instead of relying on memory or spending hours searching files, you have instant access to your institutional knowledge
- Proactive problem-solving: Spot issues before they become expensive problems
- Consistent quality: Ensure every project manager on your team has access to the same high-level insights, regardless of their experience level
🔧 UNDER THE HOOD 🔧
Strategic AI Technologies
- Large Language Models (LLMs): These are the "reading and writing" engines behind strategic AI. Think of them as extremely sophisticated text analysis systems that can understand context, meaning, and relationships in documents just like a human would – but they can process thousands of pages instantly.
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG): This combines the reasoning power of LLMs with your specific project data. Instead of giving you generic answers, RAG systems pull information from your actual specifications, change orders, and project histories to provide responses tailored to your work.
Why this matters: This is how AI can truly "read everything" you've ever worked on and give you contextual, relevant answers instead of generic advice. When evaluating vendors, ask specifically about their RAG capabilities – it's the difference between getting Wikipedia-style responses and getting answers based on your actual project experience.
Tactical AI: The Daily Operations Tools
While strategic AI helps you think better, tactical AI actually does work for you. These are systems that handle routine tasks, monitor ongoing work, and catch problems in real-time.
AI That Takes Action
These systems work like having an extremely organized assistant who never forgets anything. They can automatically generate progress reports, send reminders when submittals are due, update project schedules based on field reports, and even draft routine correspondence.
When a contractor submits a change order, the system can automatically flag any missing information and route it to the right people for approval. At the end of each week, AI can analyze all your open correspondence – RFIs, submittals, change orders, and inspector reports – and generate a summary report highlighting what needs your attention, which items are approaching deadlines, and any patterns that might indicate emerging issues.
AI That Sees Problems
Computer vision AI can analyze photos and videos from your project sites to automatically identify and catalog infrastructure assets. Upload photos of current site conditions, and the system can scan the images to identify and document assets like manhole covers, curbs, signage, utilities, and pavement conditions.
These systems are particularly useful for existing conditions documentation and project closeout records. They don't replace your field inspections, but they give you an automated way to catalog what's actually out there without manually typing up every asset.
Tactical Benefits That Save Time
- Automated routine work: Reports, notifications, and standard documents get handled without your intervention
- Real-time monitoring: Problems get flagged immediately instead of discovered weeks later
- Consistent documentation: Every photo, report, and update follows the same standards
🔧 UNDER THE HOOD 🔧
Tactical AI Technologies
- Computer Vision: AI systems that analyze photos and videos to identify objects, patterns, and problems. They're trained to recognize everything from proper concrete placement to safety violations, essentially giving you an extra set of expert eyes on every project.
- Agentic AI: These are systems that can take multiple sequential actions automatically based on triggers you set. When a submittal comes in, agentic AI can automatically check it against specifications, populate review forms, flag missing items, and route it to the right approvers – all without human intervention.
- Workflow Automation: Rules-based systems that handle routine, predictable tasks. While not technically "AI," these work alongside AI systems to ensure consistent processes across all your projects.
Why this matters: Understanding these technologies helps you evaluate whether a vendor is offering real automation or just basic notifications. True tactical AI should be able to handle multi-step processes, not just send you alerts when something happens.
How These Approaches Work Together
The real power comes when strategic and tactical AI work together. The strategic systems help you make better decisions about what needs to be done, while the tactical systems ensure those decisions get implemented consistently across all your projects.
For example, the strategic AI might identify that projects with certain characteristics tend to have submittal delays. The tactical AI can then help you build extra review time into schedules for similar future projects and send earlier reminder notifications to contractors.
What This Means for Your Projects
Both types of AI address the core challenges you face: too much information to process effectively, too many routine tasks that eat up time, and the constant pressure to maintain quality and compliance across multiple projects with limited staff.
Strategic AI helps you leverage everything you've learned from past projects to make current projects run better. Tactical AI handles the repetitive work so your team can focus on the decisions and relationships that actually require human judgment.
The key insight? You don't have to choose between these approaches. The most successful implementations combine using both: Strategic AI to guide overall project management while Tactical AI handles the day-to-day execution.
🔦 Ready to see how AI can work for your projects?
BridgeDoc Insite is integrating many of these capabilities into our construction management platform, helping public works teams standardize processes, ensure compliance, and save time on every project.
BridgeDoc is a document control system for public works construction managers and inspectors that helps public agencies and their consultants effectively navigate their risk with tools such as daily reports, photo records, weekly statements of working days, submittals, and RFI’s.
Check us out our website or click here to schedule a product demo.