Partner, Daniel A. McFaul, Jr., attended the 2018 CLM Construction Conference in Chicago, where he presented on a national group panel entitled, “Artificial Intelligence and Design Professionals”.
Mr. McFaul addressed various topics involving artificial intelligence and its impact in the field of design professionals including common uses, benefits, privacy concerns, intellectual property concerns, cyber-security and impact on site safety.
From the 2018 CLM Construction Conference website:
Session 1 - National - Artificial Intelligence and Design Professionals
The panel will discuss how changes in how we do business and market and use technology (in particular AI) is changing the means and methods of the work design professionals do; and, how it affects their insurability and the claims against them. The panel will explore how we expect that AI will continue to affect design professionals in the future.
Takeaways:
-The increased use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping how all business is performed. This is particularly true with design professionals and the construction industry. What will the long term impact be as the industry utilizes AI to strive to make projects safer, more precise and more cost efficient? Like all things, the risks must be weighed against the reward.
-While use of AI may ultimately prove to minimize risk within the construction community, insureds must still obtain appropriate policies of insurance to adequately protect themselves from potential claims.
-While AI may speed efficiency and accuracy of project design and implementation, it also brings with it new challenges such as intellectual property rights, privacy rights and cyber-security breaches which must be considered as new avenues of potential claims not typically seen in connection with more traditional construction claims.