AI in Construction: Adapt Now or Fall Behind

AI is already changing construction. The real question is whether your company is keeping up or quietly falling behind.

In this episode of Bridging the Gap, Todd Weyandt sits down with Shel Waggener, Chief Customer Officer at Lumber and former construction company president, to break down what AI adoption actually looks like inside a contractor’s business today.

This is not a future-focused conversation. It is a practical look at how AI is already showing up in the back office, in the field, and across workforce management. Shel shares why AI cannot be treated like just another tool, how “agentic AI” is eliminating administrative work, and what it really takes to build AI into your operations as a core capability.

The biggest shift is not technology. It is mindset. Contractors must move from doing the work to orchestrating it.

If you are not actively building AI into your workflows, your competitors will.

You'll Learn

• Why AI in construction is happening faster than most leaders realize
• What “agentic AI” actually means in real workflows
• The most practical back office use cases you can deploy today
• How field data, computer vision, and site capture reduce rework
• Why AI should be treated as a workforce multiplier, not a threat
• How to create feedback loops to scale AI across your company

Meet Our Guest

Shel Waggener is the Chief Customer Officer at Lumber, where he helps construction companies reimagine their back offices for the AI era. A former President of American Asphalt, Shel brings real operator experience to the conversation, combining deep knowledge of construction workflows with expertise in cloud, automation, and enterprise systems. His work focuses on helping contractors adopt practical AI solutions that drive efficiency, accuracy, and growth.

Todd Takes

• Innovation requires pushing past the industry’s natural resistance to change
• AI success depends on exposing and scaling ideas across your teams
• The future belongs to contractors who think like conductors, not just doers

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