TAMPA, Fla. (WFTS) — Artificial intelligence is shaking up nearly every industry, and while some workers worry about being replaced, Tampa’s painters and construction crews say it’s helping them move faster than ever before.
Instead of taking jobs away, they say AI is giving them back time.
Watch full report from Jada Williams
“I’d have to literally go from wall to wall to wall and across and so on and so forth, like that. It’s a bad color. Hold on. Let me adjust that. I used to literally have to go like that,” explained Callahan Reynolds, estimating and sales manager at Reynolds Painting Group. “Now like you’re able to just go like this, and it’ll load, and then it’ll take everything off just like that. So now I’m able to just go and see all my wall if I’m just go here and then go my wall perimeters. I have all my walls taken off automatically, just like that.”
Callahan Reynolds, the Estimating and Sales Manager at Reynolds Painting Group, utilizes Togal.AI. This artificial intelligence software automates takeoffs —the painstaking process of measuring every wall, ceiling, and floor area from construction blueprints.
What used to take hours, days, or even months, depending on the job, now takes seconds.
Reynolds remembers one entire floor of a project that would have taken him an hour by hand. With Togal.AI, the process took about 15 seconds.
"A decently large project such as Aqua would probably take, like, two weeks, really, to takeoff before using a software like Togal.AI. Now with Togal, I was probably able to take that project off in a day or two, if that," he said.
Reynolds has been working with the program for just over two and a half years.
For him, it’s proof that construction, often seen as slow to adopt new tools, is finally stepping into the spotlight.
“Technology is a tool. Tools are made to be used, so unless you’re not using your tools, you’re gonna get left behind,” Reynolds said. “Something like AI is as revolutionary as like the internet coming around. That was before my time, but I’m lucky enough to be able to part of this revolution where AI is gonna really take everything to the next level.”
At Coastal Construction’s Aqua Condos site in Westshore, workers see the same benefits.
“When we’re taking a look at the plans and trying to order all the material, the biggest driver of construction is getting material procured to the job site,” said Rami Shiblaq, an assistant project manager. “So if we can use AI from the start to analyze the plans and understand the quantities and how much we need of things, what size, what dimensions, we can get that all right in the beginning, minimize the mistakes from the start, then it can get us moving on ordering that material much faster.”
Coastal Construction says within the first year of using Togal.Ai, they were able to save 10,000 hours work, equalling out to about $1 million in savings.
Shiblaq said the company’s estimating team saves time too. “It takes them a long time to look through a whole set of hundreds of sheets of drawings. So when you can have a system do that for you, it’ll cut down the time of analyzing everything by a lot.”
For Fernando Alay, an intern at Reynolds Painting Group and a USF student studying AI, seeing how far AI can stretch into different mediums has been surprising.
“Honestly, I knew that the AI was going to get into the world, but I didn’t know it was going to get it in this way,” he added. “It helps in everything and everything that you can think of. I’ve never thought it was going to be into construction or into pre-construction.”
While some worry that AI could eliminate jobs, Reynolds said it’s really about keeping up with the times.
“You’re always kind of pushed back with resistance. One of the biggest things is like, oh, you know, it’s gonna take my job,” he said. “And that’s one of those things that’s like, backward thinking, because it’s a tool. It’s like the internet.”
Industry experts note that fewer errors and faster timelines can ultimately reduce overall project costs. For consumers in Tampa’s hot housing market, that could mean savings in the long run.
For these crews, the message is clear: AI is not the enemy. It’s just the next tool in the toolbox.
Share Your Story with Jada
Jada Williams is focused on the issues that matter most to people in Hillsborough County. From downtown Tampa to Apollo Beach, Jada works to bring you updates and solutions on everything from crime to infrastructure. Reach out to Jada below with your concerns for your neighborhood.
.
“It's been a little stressful. I don't know when I'll be able to do it.”
The Tampa Bay 28 I-Team is hearing from Floridians who want a COVID vaccine but still can’t find a pharmacy giving out the shot.
