AI, Agents & the Future of Construction with Chad Cannon, Founder of CardinalEA.ai

"The wave is here." Chad Cannon, Founder + CEO of CardinalEA.ai, on where construction leaders should start with AI and agents. A lot of leaders are waiting for AI to settle down before they jump in. Chad's answer: "I hate to tell you, but in the next decade, this wave's not calming." In this episode of Behind the Barricade, I turn the tables on Chad. He's the brainchild behind this podcast and has been helping us grow it and build it, and he's usually the one interviewing me. This time I interview him on AI and its impact on business, and what we should be thinking about, or at least exploring, as construction experts. In this conversation: Why waiting out the wave is a bad bet, and why he says to pick one process in your business to automate with AI and start there How to find your AI champion and run a half-day team experiment If your processes aren't written down: chatbots vs. agentic AI What an org chart with humans and AI agents could look like A simple first step: list your "drudgery" tasks and turn them into a job description for an agent Whether construction really is different Where AI helps with design and proposals, and a voice-note timecard tool built for a maintenance crew A simple way for an executive to start: pick a platform, run a couple of projects, and meet weekly to compare notes Whether you run projects, lead a team, or just keep hearing "AI, AI, AI" and want to know where to begin, this one is for you. Chapters 0:00 Jim's welcome: why Chad is the guest 1:07 Why Chad thinks AI is bigger than the printing press 1:59 How Chad got into AI 4:23 Cutting through the AI noise: "this wave's not calming" 8:19 How to choose your one thing 9:37 If your processes aren't written down: chatbot vs. agentic AI 13:48 AI agents on the org chart 17:18 Agents in your team's Slack, and the jobs question 18:53 Step one: your drudgery list and an agent's job description 22:08 Will AI be construction's productivity magic bullet? 23:51 "Construction is different": Jim pushes back 26:45 AI for design and proposals 28:29 Voice notes that fill out the timecards 29:44 Final thoughts: how an executive should start 32:40 The experiment mindset, and how to reach Chad 34:07 Jim's takeaways and sign-off About Chad Cannon: Founder + CEO, https://cardinalea.ai. https://chadwickcannon.com | https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadwickcannon About Jim Christian: Host of Behind the Barricade and Founder + CEO of https://cornerstone-builds.com. | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimchristianco... Mentioned: https://app.viktor.com/signin?ref=WkQrstDX..., the tool Chad uses to work with an AI agent inside Slack or Teams. Behind the Barricade is brought to you by https://cornerstone-builds.com, dedicated to creating a better journey for clients, staff, project partners, and the world. If you liked this episode, please leave a review and share it with someone who's playing around with AI in construction.