Stjepan Mikulic is a speaker at RELEASE [AEC] — the primary tech occasion designed to assist professionals keep on the chopping fringe of innovation and grasp the instruments of the longer term. As expertise, digital options and synthetic intelligence proceed to reshape the AEC sector, a singular occasion like RELEASE [AEC] is extra important than ever. The inaugural version might be held in Paris on November 17, 2025. The occasion is 100% free for AEC practitioners: register right this moment!
A multinational 250-person inside design agency I labored with (let’s name them ‘Designers Inc.’) saved $4.5 million USD by implementing a firm-wide AI answer. Designers Inc. has workplaces all world wide and has adopted my 9-step AI roadmap, which I’ll now define later on this article. It may be utilized by any AEC agency to make sure the success of their very own AI implementation.
However first, slightly background on the implementation plan that I developed… Our story begins when the agency’s CEO returned from a number of tech conferences in early 2024. He was uninterested in answering “We’re trying into it” every time traders requested what the agency was doing about synthetic intelligence. He handed his IT Director a single-line transient: determine AI, quick.
The IT Director’s function, therefore, advanced from managing licenses and securing servers to overseeing the whole agency’s AI implementation. Quickly after he started researching on-line for options, he felt extremely overwhelmed by the variety of AI apps accessible, which discouraged him from making a alternative as a result of quite a few questions and uncertainty related to them.
Fortunately, his analysis led him to take my flagship course, Mastering AI in AEC, which covers over 150 AI use circumstances and teaches superior strategies for implementing AI. The IT Director knew he had struck gold by taking the course and determined to succeed in out on to me to ask for additional assist. In contrast to most companies that imagine ‘they’ll do a full-scale AI implementation with inner expertise’, Designers Inc. realized that they want an AI skilled to information them on their means, to allow them to spend extra time serving their very own shoppers and fewer time on questioning if the AI they’re implementing is the perfect on the market and eliminating some typical downfalls from the get-go.
After assembly the IT Director and the CEO, we agreed that I’d go to their headquarters in Dubai for an ‘AI Implementation Week’, full of AI exploration, coaching, and making a sensible step-by-step plan for Designers Inc. Our purpose was to develop a sensible AI Implementation Plan for all their workplaces. Nonetheless, the fact was about to kick in.
Upon arriving in Dubai, I spotted the agency has the next issues:
In any case, the agency designs shops, eating places, resorts, and extra all world wide, so there isn’t a ‘one-size-fits-all’ AI app (in addition to ChatGPT Staff) that might assist all their groups directly.
On the primary day of our AI Implementation Week, the agency’s employees had dozens of questions on AI implementation, stemming from what they’d heard within the information or seen on social media. These are a few of the questions they have been asking:
Usually rooted in concern and uncertainty, most AEC companies are asking the identical or comparable questions. One of many essential steps we took was having the CEO reassure the employees earlier than my arrival that the purpose of AI implementation was to not substitute anybody, however to make their jobs simpler.
Your First Step Begins Now:
The 9 Steps That Modified Every little thing
Immediately, 6 months after we began working collectively, they full initiatives sooner than ever earlier than.
They’re not working longer hours.
They didn’t rent a military of latest folks.
They don’t add software program to their tech stack based mostly on traits.
They simply realized to work with AI as an alternative of in opposition to it.
However only a few months earlier, they have been drowning in tedious duties, having all of the described issues, and have been feeling overwhelmed by AI.
My agency and I helped Designers Inc. transition to a technology-optimized agency, utilizing our 9-step course of that any AEC agency can comply with:
Step 1: AI Schooling
First, we ran brief and pleasant periods about AI. We advised actual tales about how AI helps save hours on tedious duties. This made everybody really feel much less scared and extra curious. The very fact I beloved most about the entire week is that the CEO led by instance – he sat beside me the whole time, studying as a lot as he may about AI.
Step 2: Tech Stack Evaluation
We didn’t guess. We frolicked watching how groups truly labored. We requested questions like, “The place do you get caught?” and “What slows you down?” The primary train was to map out their present software program and establish methods to optimize present expertise first.
Step 3: Course of Mapping
As a substitute of including AI randomly, we drew every step of their every day work. We recognized areas the place AI can carry out duties extra effectively and ship high-quality outcomes. Our major focus was asking about folks’s complications and time thieves – features which are both annoying to do or that take extra time than they need to.
Step 4: Ache-Level Identification
We didn’t attempt to repair the whole lot directly. We picked a number of duties that irritated folks essentially the most. We requested staff members who have been enthusiastic about AI to check the instruments first. These AI Champions helped educate others and made change simpler. We used the HotBet framework, taught inside my programs, to stipulate fast wins to get the ball rolling.
Step 5: App Testing and Analysis
We let groups take a look at totally different AI instruments to see what actually labored. Quickly, folks stopped asking, “How do I end this job?” and began asking, “How can AI do most of this so I can concentrate on the necessary elements?”
Step 6: AI Implementation Plan
As soon as instruments proved helpful, we modified our outdated methods of working. Duties akin to transcribing suggestions or checking PDFs have turn into automated. Work that used to take days now takes solely hours. We then developed a transparent plan to make the most of AI every day.
Step 7: ROI Evaluation
We checked how a lot time, cash, and energy they saved. Individuals felt happier as a result of they spent extra time designing and fewer time doing tedious work.
Right here’s a easy ROI measurement strategy:
Time-Monitoring Pilots: Have pilot groups log hours spent “earlier than” vs. “after” AI adoption on important duties (Drawing tagging, QA mannequin audits, and many others.)
Software program Value vs. Financial savings: Examine any newly launched AI device’s subscription price vs. labor financial savings or changed license charges.
Prevented Extra time/New Hires: If particular duties that used to require time beyond regulation or new hires at the moment are dealt with sooner, issue that into ROI.
Listed here are the outcomes and math:
10 hours/worker saved × 45 weeks a 12 months = 450 hours saved a 12 months (per worker).
Now, calculate that for 100 staff paid $100 per hour.
That’s $4,500,000 saved in a single 12 months.
Even past the numbers, the staff began doing their finest work and having fun with it.
Step 8: New Tech Stack Proposal
After small groups achieved success, we shared AI instruments with the whole firm and even created a knowledge-sharing hub for the whole agency. As a result of they noticed actual outcomes, everybody wished to make use of the AI instruments, and alter started to unfold sooner.
Step 9: Digital Transformation Continuation
Lastly, we arrange coaching periods and common check-ins to maintain the AI system working easily. This manner, AI didn’t fade away after the primary pleasure. It turned a daily a part of their work.
The journey we’re on is presently 6 months lengthy, however the agency is aware of that the ‘full AI implementation’ might take 2–3 years, relying on their workload and the event of AI.
The bottom line is to get on board early; the earlier you begin, the larger the long-term benefit.
Your First Step Begins Now
Possibly you’re considering, “That’s nice, Stjepan, however my agency is totally different. We’re smaller. We’re not like them. We’re too busy. We don’t have tech folks.”
I’ve heard each excuse. The companies that succeed with AI aren’t those with essentially the most assets. It’s those who take a step again to look at their workflows from a distance and put them again along with AI.
So if I ought to recommend something, it’s to have a look at your subsequent challenge and ask:
What half makes you irritated simply desirous about it?
What course of eats up time however doesn’t require creativity?
What would you do with an additional 10-12 hours every week?
Begin there. Choose one small factor. Attempt one AI device. Ask a “why” query.
That is the way you implement AI the fitting means.
(I’d such as you to please attain out if you happen to want any assist.)
Stjepan
Stjepan Mikulic is a speaker at RELEASE [AEC] — the primary tech occasion designed to assist professionals keep on the chopping fringe of innovation and grasp the instruments of the longer term. As expertise, digital options and synthetic intelligence proceed to reshape the AEC sector, a singular occasion like RELEASE [AEC] is extra important than ever. The inaugural version might be held in Paris on November 17, 2025. The occasion is 100% free for AEC practitioners: register right this moment!
