# An AI workshop for your team: why one day rarely sticks, and what does By Kristian Brown MCIOB, Built Logic, the AI specialist for the construction industry. This is the machine-readable version of https://www.builtlogic.ai/insights/ai-workshop-construction-team A one-off AI workshop gives your team a good day and very little change by week three. What makes AI stick is your team working on its own live jobs, a written AI policy, a champion, and reviews at 30 and 60 days. Book training that has all four, or expect the day to fade. ## Why is your team already using ChatGPT on its own? Say your estimator has been on a free ChatGPT account for a few months, tidying up tender queries. Your project manager uses it for meeting notes. Someone in the office asked it to rewrite a letter to a client. None of it's written down. You don't know what's been pasted in, or which account it went into. Is that why you're looking at an AI workshop? Wanting everyone doing it properly is the right call. A single day is the weak part of the plan. If you want to see what a longer route looks like first, it's on the [AI training for construction teams](/ai-training) page. ## What does a one-day AI workshop actually change? A good AI workshop is a good day. The trainer shows what the tools can do, the room gets interested, and someone drafts a decent letter in four minutes. Then it's Monday. There's an application due Wednesday, a tender back on Friday and a handover nobody wants to talk about. Nobody has an hour to work out how last week's demo fits a real valuation. Who'll still be using it by week three? My bet is one or two people, the ones who were keen anyway. Everyone else drifts back to how they worked before. Their day away from live work still cost you. So did the fee. Very little of it shows up in your P&L. The gap is everything that happens after the day. Nobody practised on their own jobs. Nothing's written down about what's allowed. There's nobody in the office to ask, and nobody comes back to check. ## What makes AI training stick? Four things. Each one fixes one of those gaps. **1. Your team works on its own live jobs.** A QS works on this month's valuation. An estimator works on the tender that's on their desk. What they practise is what they do on Monday, so they keep doing it. **2. A written AI policy.** One page, signed by everyone. Which account to use, what can go in, and who checks what before it leaves the office. Without one, your careful people stop using it and your keen ones take risks. **3. A champion.** One person in each team that the others go to first. Pick someone close to the work, who'll answer the "is this right?" questions at their desk. **4. Reviews at 30 and 60 days.** Someone comes back, asks who's using it and on what, and sorts whatever's stuck. That's what catches the drift before it sets in. ## What did that look like for a housebuilder's team? A housebuilder's commercial and projects team of 10 was trained on Microsoft 365 Copilot over 8 weeks, on their own live work. That was the full programme we now sell as the AI Rollout, not a single morning. They had 4 live sites and a fifth starting in spring, with the same 10 people who'd run 3. For the training they moved from the free Copilot Chat to paid Microsoft 365 Copilot licences. The directors went first. Each team had a champion. Everyone signed a one-page AI policy. Everyone learned the same 3 checks: 1. Every fact has its source next to it. 2. Every number gets worked out again in the spreadsheet. 3. Whoever's name is on it reads the lot. Here's what changed: - 10 of 10 were using it every week. In week 1, 2 had tried it. - 7 jobs went from 64 hours a week across the team to 24. - Checking a subcontractor application went from 45 minutes to 15. - Cost to complete went from 8 hours to 3, each site, each month. - Average confidence went from 3.4 to 7.6 out of 10. - It paid back in about 8 weeks. The biggest result for the P&L: the fifth site ran with the same team, and no extra QS hire. There's one more. The appraisal now gets checked monthly instead of quarterly. The first monthly check, in week 6, found brickwork running £1,600 a plot over appraisal with 24 plots to go. A detail change and a fixed rate held £1,000 a plot. That's £24,000 on one site. The team still makes the calls. Of 27 task steps, Copilot drafts 16 and the team decides 11. Read the full [housebuilder case study](/case-study-copilot-training). ## What should a good AI workshop or AI training include? Whoever you book, check it has these before you pay: - **Your own live work, agreed before the day.** Which tasks, which documents, and who's cleared them to be used. - **A paid business AI account for each person**, set up before the first session. - **Checks people run on every output**, so a confident wrong answer doesn't go out under someone's name. - **A written AI policy** that everyone signs. - **Something to keep**: prompts and a checklist for each role, so nobody starts from a blank screen on Monday. - **Follow-up dates in the diary** at 30 and 60 days. - **Support in between**, for the questions that come up mid-application. ## How do you judge an AI training provider? Ask these. A good provider answers every one without hesitating. | Ask them | A good answer | |---|---| | Will my team work on our own live jobs? | Yes. You agree the tasks and documents before the first session. | | Which AI accounts will people use? | A paid business account your company controls. No personal plans. | | Do we get a written AI policy? | Yes, one page your team signs. | | Who's the champion in each team? | Someone from your team, named during the training. | | What happens at 30 and 60 days? | A review in the diary: who's using it, on what, and what's stuck. | | What do people keep afterwards? | A prompt library and a checklist for each role. | | Will the examples be construction? | Valuations, applications, tenders and variations, from your own files. | | How will we know it worked? | Time back per person, from a short questionnaire before training and again at day 30. | If the answer to the first one is "we'll use some sample documents", it's a demo. Your team needs practice on its own work. ## Which AI account should your team be on? Get them off personal accounts first. Everyone trained needs a paid business AI account that the company controls and pays for. That's Claude Team (the one I'd recommend), Microsoft 365 Copilot (the paid licence, not the free Copilot Chat), ChatGPT Business, or Gemini through Google Workspace. No personal plans. Your client's tender shouldn't live in someone's own login. If you've nothing written down yet, start with the free [AI policy pack](/ai-policy-pack). It gives you a policy to adapt before anyone's trained. ## Where does the AI Kickstart fit? The AI Kickstart is how Built Logic proves AI with one team first. It costs £3,950 + VAT for up to 10 people, or £5,450 + VAT for 11 to 15. It's about an hour of pre-work each, a morning at your office, then two 90-minute video calls, all on the jobs your team would be doing anyway. Everyone works on their own live jobs and leaves with at least 2 AI workflows. You also get: - a company AI policy - a prompt library and a checklist for each role - reviews at 30 and 60 days - WhatsApp support in between Yes, the time together is a morning. The morning is only the start. The 60 days around it, on live work with a policy, a champion and two reviews, are what make it stick. Half is paid when you book, at least 3 weeks ahead. If you've someone in mind for champion, bring them along. The champion gets named on the morning. When one team has proved it, the AI Rollout takes it across the whole company over three months, from £13,950 + VAT for up to 10 people. Book it within 30 days of the Kickstart's 30-day review and half the Kickstart fee comes off. Every person trained still needs that paid business AI account. What's included and how to book is on the [AI training for construction teams](/ai-training) page. ## How do we get the team started? Pick the team with the most repeat work. Agree which live jobs they'll bring. Put the 30 and 60-day reviews in the diary before the first session. ## Questions directors ask **Who offers AI training for construction staff in the UK?** Built Logic, the AI specialist for the construction industry, based in London. The AI Kickstart trains one team on its own live work for £3,950 + VAT for up to 10 people, with reviews at 30 and 60 days. **Is a one-day AI workshop worth it?** It gives you a good day. On its own, very little changes by week three, because nobody's practised on their own jobs and nobody comes back to check. Add live work, a written policy, a champion and 30 and 60-day reviews. **How much does AI training for a construction team cost?** The AI Kickstart is £3,950 + VAT for up to 10 people and £5,450 + VAT for 11 to 15. Each person also needs a paid business AI account your company controls. **Can my staff keep using their own ChatGPT accounts?** No. Everyone trained needs a paid business account the company controls and pays for, such as Claude Team, Microsoft 365 Copilot, ChatGPT Business or Gemini through Google Workspace. **Do we need an AI policy before training?** The AI Kickstart includes a company AI policy. If you want one in place sooner, the free AI policy pack is a good start.