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CAREERTIP: Construction Professionals should start treating AI like a new colleague

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Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t going away and construction professionals need to embrace it and start working with it as if it were a new colleague. Across all industries, including construction, the adoption of AI is rapidly gaining momentum. This is because technology has finally advanced to the point where it can handle the complex and unstructured data involved in construction projects. Experts predict that AI will continue to develop into what they call "composite AI." Construction professionals, however, have some concerns about adopting AI. These concerns include: Regulatory Framework: Construction professionals must ensure that they comply with all applicable laws and regulations. They must also protect themselves, as AI can be programmed with specific guidelines to produce desired outputs. Ethics : There are important legal and ethical issues to consider when using AI. For example, who is liable if something goes wrong? Who is responsible if a disaster occurs as
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PROFILE : My out of SA work experience - Stefan van Emmenis

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Senior Quantity Surveyor Stefan van Emmenis encourages hardhatPROFESSIONALS to carefully explore work opportunites abroad as he shares his experience as a South African  working in Qatar

I have been in Qatar since March 2019, working as a Senior Quantity Surveyor at Quantex Qatar in Doha, State of Qatar. I have been involved in various building projects and my responsibilities include contract preparation, ongoing cost analysis, estimating client requests, and analyzing completed work for payment arrangements. I have also been involved in site visits, procurement strategy, value engineering, and property valuation reports. Furthermore, I have mentored junior staff towards obtaining MRICS qualification.

In my experience I have observed that clients in Qatar prefer to use Lump Sum Contracts whereas in South Africa Re-measurable contracts are utilized. The methods of measurement and the types of Contracts also vary. Qatar is also substantially more formal in the day to day working from dress code (I wear a suit and a tie daily) to email etiquette that is formal, you address the people by their title, a bit like parliament. Consultants get appointed on a pre- and post-contract basis. Many projects have different pre and post contract consultants. Getting quotes and reference prices is very difficult as a consultant, the suppliers only care for you if you are a source of income.

Qatar is still finding its feet in terms of the industry. There was a massive boom for the FIFA World Cup and lots of lessons have been learned and are still being learned but I think that if things were done as in RSA it would be better.

I believe there are many lessons Qatar could learn from the South African industry, for instance they could embrace re-measurable contracts, especially since clients in Qatar love changing their minds, even if it means that there is abortive work. At least with re-measurable contracts the client will not be paying the Lump Sum premium. 

Another lesson that could be learnt from South Africa is to keep updating methods of measurement to keep track with technology. While lots of projects do use RICS standards, almost all projects still refer to Qatar Standard Method of Measurement (QSMM) in many contracts (by default) and it dates back to 1973 and clients do not want it removed despite the advice from consultants.

Stefan van Emmenies is a Bsc Honors in QS graduate. He began his career as a Quantity Surveyor in January 2009 with Turner & Townsend in Pretoria. During his  time there, he was involved in the preparation of contracts, cost analysis, payment certificates for contractors and site visits to assess progress. He also gained experience in procurement strategies and tendering for both principal and sub-contracts. In August 2013, he joined Davis Langdon which later became Aecom in Pretoria as a Senior Quantity Surveyor. In this role, he continued to handle contract preparation, cost analysis, payment arrangement, and procurement strategy. Additionally, he was involved in value engineering, design development, and estimates for client requests. Throughout his career, he has been involved in various projects in South Africa and Qatar. These projects include commercial renovations, housing developments, material handling at coal fired power station construction, laboratory facilities, mixed-use developments, and public park projects.

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