The construction industry stands alone among major economic sectors in having grown less productive over the past seven decades. By some measures, construction efficiency today mirrors that of 1948, a remarkable regression that has persisted even as every other industry has been transformed by technology, process innovation, and data-driven management.
The reasons are well understood, if not yet solved: projects have grown more technically complex, owner expectations have intensified, supply chains have become more fragile and globalized, and skilled labor is increasingly scarce. The result is a sector under mounting pressure from every direction, schedule, cost, quality, and risk.
This panel brings together practitioners at the intersection of construction law and in-house corporate strategy to examine how the industry’s legal and operational communities are responding. The discussion will focus on the specific inefficiencies that generate the most friction, from contract administration and claims management to procurement, documentation, and dispute avoidance, and the technological tools that in-house counsel and their outside advisors are beginning to deploy to address them.
Topics to be explored include:
- Why construction has resisted the productivity gains that transformed other industries, and what structural features of the sector make change so difficult.
- How in-house counsel are repositioning themselves from reactive problem-solvers to proactive risk managers through technology adoption.
- Practical applications of AI, contract management platforms, and data analytics across the project lifecycle.
- The legal and risk management implications of technology adoption, including data ownership, AI-generated advice, and liability allocation.
- What outside counsel needs to understand about the in-house technology environment to serve construction clients more effectively.