BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Artificial Intelligence is now part of everyday life, from simple smartphone tasks to complicated construction projects, including Buffalo's $100 million Salvation Army development project on Main Street.
The project is being built directly across from the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. Erie County Salvation Army Director of Operations, Major Annette Lock, said the first phase of the project includes a new shelter for families experiencing homelessness.
"So this shelter is going to be an 80-bed, 32-room shelter that is clean and modern and healthy and full of hope," Lock said.
Frank Ciminelli of Arc Building Partners, which is overseeing construction of "Hope on Main Street," is leaning heavily on technology for this project. The company's internal team is collaborating with Buildots, an AI progress and delay forecasting tool, to bring added efficiency to the site.
WATCH: AI tech keeping Buffalo's $100M Salvation Army development project on track
Jessica Herrala, managing director of Buildots North America, said the goal is clear.
"To help get this project finished on time, preferably, early, and get it delivered to the community," Herrala said. "What the AI is doing is actually tracking every single element that is going into a building."
Buildots uses that data, along with digital images taken each week, to reduce delays and forecast construction issues before they occur.
"The AI starts really jumping up and down in the corner, saying there's a fire coming that you can't see today," she said.
Ciminelli believes Buildots will help reinforce his team's intuition while streamlining the construction process.
"There's so much historic waste in the construction process period, and so anything we can do to kind of weed that out and compress and squeeze it out because we can make those decisions faster, the better off we are going to be," Ciminelli said.
With the Salvation Army being a non-profit, Lock said it's important to maximize every dollar donated. She believes the partnership will do that exactly.
