Building smarter businesses through AI and leadership
By Dr. Willis H. Thomas
JA Business Correspondent
Chicago: Chicago Build 2026 was held October 28-29 at the McCormick Place. This construction and design show featured more than 450 speakers and nearly 350 exhibitors. It attracted more than 30,000 construction-related businesses and industry professionals. Among these are architects, contractors, developers, engineers, homebuilders, and suppliers.
Educational sessions, professional workshops, product demonstrations, and networking brought together people responsible for designing, financing, building, and maintaining the places where communities live and work.
Chicago Build 2026 provided a setting for exploring new products and making industry connections. New exhibition zones focused on artificial intelligence and digital construction, fire safety and security, and heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration.
Insightful conversations about artificial intelligence, workforce development, and leadership were held.
During an exclusive interview with Robert Armbrister, he encourages leaders to develop firsthand familiarity with AI tools. Armbrister is President and CEO of SPARK Business Works. SPARK provides custom software development, web design, and growth marketing services. It helps businesses build practical and innovative solutions increasing efficiency and delivering return on investment.
Armbrister offered a practical starting point for construction firms considering artificial intelligence. He described a customer providing excavating services whose office employee was spending more than half her workweek entering trucking tickets. SPARK helped reduce the time spent on this task by establishing a process in which a driver texts a photograph of a ticket, then AI reads the information, matches it to the job, enters it into the system, and texts the driver when something does not add up.
Armbrister emphasized that when using AI reliable information must come first. He said that providing context, explaining the task, and allowing the system to ask questions can help leaders understand where the technology is useful and where closer review is needed. He stressed the need to measure performance before introducing a new process.
Armbrister also noted the importance of preserving the knowledge of experienced employees. AI can be used to capture that experience and strengthen both workforce development and the information available to AI tools. Written procedures, short instructional videos, job aids, mentoring, and project reviews can help translate individual expertise into shared organizational capability.
Ryan Smith, a corporate accounts director at the University of Michigan’s Business School, emphasizes leadership development. He notes construction projects require people to coordinate teams, communicate changing conditions, resolve disagreements, and make decisions under pressure. He said leadership development strengthens a construction company’s ability to build lasting capacity and carry out projects consistently by investing in reliable processes, useful technology, and a workforce equipped to learn, lead, and grow.
