Author: Peggy Smedley

Construction projects generate mountains of information, from labor hours and production rates to schedules, costs, delays, and changes. Yet too often, that information remains fragmented or trapped inside individual projects. Construction companies measure what happened, file the reports, and then move on to the next job—without necessarily learning enough to make the next project better. Enter the new Cambridge Framework for Construction Productivity. Developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge Laing O’Rourke Centre using data from more than 25 U.K. construction projects, the framework takes a practical approach to a problem the construction industry has wrestled with for decades:…

Manufacturers have spent the last few years asking whether they should adopt AI (artificial intelligence). That question is largely settled. AI is no longer optional. But now there is a bigger question manufacturers must contend with: Can companies actually make AI work? The danger right now is that many manufacturers are confusing adoption with transformation. Let’s take a closer look at some numbers that tell an interesting story. A 2026 survey of 500 manufacturing technology decision makers in the summer found 60% now describe their organizations as broadly or fully advanced in AI adoption, which is up from 36% earlier…

Construction companies have always been data-rich businesses. Every project generates an enormous amount of information—from project plans and budgets to schedules, change orders, inspections, safety reports, equipment data, material costs, labor hours, weather conditions, and countless other details. But there is a difference between having all that data and actually putting it to work, which is why one of my recent predictions for 2027 that I mentioned on The Peggy Smedley Show is construction companies must begin treating historical data as an asset. Let me explain. Think about what happens when a project ends. The building is complete, the customer takes…

Here at Connected World and The Peggy Smedley Show, we often talk about how to scale AI (artificial intelligence) in manufacturing. We live, eat, and breathe this topic. But if we really look at the numbers, it tells a much different story in 2026. Only 22% of organizations have successfully scaled AI across multiple business units or adopted an AI-first approach, according to a Gartner survey. That number stopped me in my tracks because it tells us something important about where we really are with AI: We have spent years talking about transformation, investing in AI, and experimenting with use…

Here’s something three decades in construction have taught me: there will always be multiple vendors. And there’s never going to be one single vendor that does everything a project team needs. So, that makes the real question more interesting: how do you work with all the data across multiple platforms in a meaningful way? That is the question of this decade. As infrastructure becomes increasingly digital, the ability to move information across systems—and preserve its meaning along the way could become just as important as the tools used to create it. Recently, I had a conversation with Greg Demchak, vice…

The residential construction market is sending a message, and it is one we should pay attention to: We cannot build the future of housing the same way we built the past. The latest numbers from the NAHB (National Assn. of Home Builders) make the challenge clear. New single-family home sales fell 10.5% in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 607,000—the slowest pace since the beginning of the year. Sales were also down 6.3% from a year earlier. NAHB says single-family home building is on track for a second consecutive annual decline in 2026. At the heart of the…

Here at Connected World and The Peggy Smedley Show, we have spent the last few years talking about AI (artificial intelligence), and now there is an AI revolution happening—one that is much more physical, and it is happening on the factory floor. The 2026 Roadmap on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Smart Manufacturing, published by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), makes one thing clear: AI and machine learning are moving deeper into the systems that make, move, measure, and maintain the things we depend on every day. Why? Because manufacturing is not an isolated industry that exists…

For years, construction companies have been told that technology will transform the industry. We have seen it with BIM (building information modeling), drones, reality capture, connected equipment, digital twins, cloud-based project management, and AI (artificial intelligence). Now, we are moving from technology that helps workers do their jobs to technology that can increasingly do parts of the work itself. That is where the idea of the frontier firm comes in, a concept I have written about in the manufacturing space. These organizations embed technology deeply into operations, use realtime data to make decisions, and continuously redesign how work gets done.…

For years, manufacturers have invested billions of dollars in automation, software, sensors, cloud platforms, and now AI (artificial intelligence). Yet many are still asking the same question: Why is digital transformation taking so long? The answer might just be a lack of interoperability. That message came through loud and clear during CESMII’s recent manufacturing leadership discussion, where executives from ExxonMobil, GE Appliances, Toyota, and General Mills agreed on one important point: The future of manufacturing depends on making data move as freely as ideas. Think about it. Every day, manufacturers generate enormous amounts of operational data. Collecting the data is…

The construction industry has always been resilient, but resilience alone is no longer enough. Today, contractors, owners, and project teams are navigating a market defined by uncertainty, rising complexity, and rapidly evolving technology. The companies that will thrive are those that embrace change, which is not an easy feat in the construction industry. Across the industry, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: construction is entering a new era where collaboration and data are just as valuable as concrete and steel. Labor shortages continue to challenge project delivery, material costs remain unpredictable, and demand varies significantly by region and project type.…