Most conversations about AI in construction focus on what the tools can do. This one focuses on what it actually takes to use them.

Marcus Turner has been building with AI tools in real construction and knowledge-work contexts for years. He is not predicting the future of AI. He is living in the present tense of it.

In this conversation:

• Why domain knowledge is the multiplier and AI only amplifies what you already understand
• What "context engineering" means and why most people are still using AI like a search engine
• How builders can start experimenting today without feeling like they are already behind
• What a personal AI agent stack looks like when someone actually builds one

The industry is not short on AI opinions. It is short on people who have gotten their hands dirty with it. Marcus is one of them.

Most conversations about construction technology focus on what the tools can do. This one focuses on what they actually do — to the people using them.

Rob Sloyer is VP of Innovation and Strategic Services at KAST Construction, a Florida-based multifamily builder with over two decades building at scale. He's been close to BIM since before most companies knew how to spell it — and he's watched enough hype cycles to know that technology without purpose doesn't just fail to help. It actively makes things worse.

In this conversation:

• Why BIM shifted problems earlier in the process instead of eliminating them
• The three-part test for whether a tool actually belongs in the work
• What AI adoption is getting wrong — and why it's hitting the same walls as every wave before it
• The workforce shortage, rework as a safety multiplier, and why the field pushes back

We never have time to do it right, but we always find time to do it again. This conversation is about changing that.

Last week on site, a quality program manager said something I can’t shake:

“The work isn’t done until it’s documented.”

In this first Field Note, I unpack what that actually means — not as paperwork, but as protection.

When documentation is embedded in the act of building, it changes behavior. It protects craftsmanship. It reduces rework. And it shifts QA/QC from a phase at the end to a design decision at the beginning.

This isn’t about binders.
It’s about building work that’s defensible.

Field Notes are short dispatches from the field — observations from job sites and real conversations across the industry.

If you’re in construction, ask yourself:

Is documentation something you assemble later — or something designed into the way you work?

Wired to Build is supported by Avicado — helping owners and project leaders design smarter systems for capital programs.