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The rise of the machines

Talking Points

The construction sector, traditionally slow to adopt new technologies, is increasingly integrating automation and AI, particularly in crane rental operations. Industry leaders like Guillaume Gagnon of GUAY Inc. highlight the potential of AI to enhance safety and efficiency on job sites by utilizing intelligent sensors and telematics for better fleet management. Ryan Long of A.W. Leil Cranes & Equipment emphasizes AI's role in streamlining administrative tasks and improving predictive maintenance. However, concerns about data security and the need for robust IT governance remain critical as companies navigate these advancements.

• The construction sector is embracing AI and automation to address labour shortages and operational costs.
• AI tools can enhance safety by detecting hazards and improving fleet management through telematics.
• Data governance and cybersecurity are essential for safely implementing AI in crane operations.

This story matters as it highlights the evolving landscape of the construction industry, showcasing how technology can improve safety and efficiency while addressing workforce challenges.

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When it comes to the adoption of the latest technologies, the construction sector has historically lagged other industries.

But as the skilled labour pool continues to shrink and the costs associated with implementing automation and AI-powered software into operations decline, the sector has been embracing more of these innovations into its operations, and this includes the crane rental sector.

While some industry members have hesitations about how to implement AI-powered tools into their operations, Guillaume Gagnon, executive vice-president of GUAY Inc., believes these tools have the potential to improve safety on jobsites.

“From a safety perspective, intelligent sensors, cameras, and computer vision could increasingly support operators by detecting proximity risks and hazards on congested jobsite,” Gagnon explains.

“These tools may be especially valuable on tight sites with blind spots, swing-radius conflicts, and dynamic traffic, where early warnings and clearer situational awareness can reduce risk.”

He adds that over time, systems could help reduce cognitive load by prioritizing the most critical warnings, rather than adding constant alarms, so operators receive more actionable decision support when conditions change quickly on site.

“Importantly, the objective is likely to strengthen human judgment with timelier, more consistent information rather than replacing it,” Gagnon notes.

Another area where he sees AI adding value to operations is in fleet management by enhancing monitoring through telematics, by translating machine and jobsite data into simpler reporting and better visibility into utilization and compliance documentation.

As data becomes more structured, Gagnon says AI could support lift preparation as well as help teams validate constraints, anticipate interferences (power lines, nearby structures, other equipment), and improve planning decisions before a crane is mobilized.

“Looking ahead, AI could become a valuable tool for training and day-to-day decision-making across roles,” Gagnon says. “In parallel, AI-driven e-learning platforms might deliver more personalized and adaptive training based on real operating patterns, accelerating skill development while improving consistency across teams.”

Administrative duties

For Ryan Long, president of A.W. Leil Cranes & Equipment, the main advantage of implementing AI into operations currently is finding ways to remove trivial tasks from staff and free up their time for more important duties.

“Our obligations as contractors continue to go up. Every customer has a different supplier portal and safety program where they want us to maintain stats and documentation. I feel like a lot of those things tie up a lot of time. But to me, those seem like the kind of tasks that would be ripe for the picking for AI to grab our information and just auto-populate it into those platforms,” Long says.

Maintenance operations

AI can add value to operations in fleet management by enhancing monitoring through telematics. (Getty Images)

The adoption of AI for improving predictive maintenance procedures is another area of value for companies. As data on breakdowns and incidents grows and improves in quality, Gagnon says predictive maintenance could become more feasible.

“In many fleets, the first step may be anomaly detection and condition-based maintenance before true predictive models become reliable,” he says.

These programs have the potential to assist maintenance teams with some of their regular day-to-day tasks, such as planning repairs and reducing unplanned downtime. This would lead to lowering secondary costs such as project delays or environmental cleanup following incidents like oil leaks, Gagnon notes.

Long adds that the combination of AI and various equipment sensors will be able to provide a “crystal ball” to fleet managers to allow them to cut off issues before they happen, optimizing predictive maintenance operations.

Manufacturing operations

While Long doesn’t believe AI is currently ready to be implemented into cranes on jobsites, he does see it playing a role in the future.

“It’s interesting to see how manufacturers are starting to think about AI and how they might incorporate it into some of their products,” he says.

Liebherr’s Berenike Nordmann believes AI will primarily continue to evolve within the company’s production environment, where AI-based automation and robotics already support quality, efficiency and process stability.

“For crane customers, we expect digital systems to become even more integrated and data-driven, always with the clear objective of providing practical benefits and maintaining the highest safety standards,” Nordmann says.

Digital tools and connected machine data help customers plan lifts more precisely, prepare operations more efficiently, and manage their fleets with greater transparency, Nordmann notes.

As Liebherr continues to develop its crane technologies and digital solutions, the company believes that selected AI-supported functions could complement its digital planning tools in the future, Nordmann says.

“For example, AI could help streamline or preprocess certain 3D data used in lift planning, which may support even smoother workflows in the long term,” she says.

Greater governance and security

As the digital risks in the world continue to increase, companies need to seriously assess how they use AI for confidential and sensitive documents.

“The risk of those files being hijacked, leaked, or corrupted by a faulty AI system, I think is a real risk,” Long says. “AI is more complex than most of us are equipped for. So, unless you have a very robust IT department, many small- to medium-sized businesses are, I would say, at risk. Even though they might not be a juicy target for hackers or cyber criminals, they’re probably a much easier target, just because we don’t have that sort of digital sophistication that others might have.”

To unlock all the potential benefits that AI can offer crane rental companies, the industry may need stronger data governance, disciplined sensor calibration, cybersecurity, and improved integration across mixed fleets and OEM systems, Gagnon says.

“Just as importantly, organizations could need a clear ‘humanin- the-loop’ approach, so AI remains a trusted assistant rather than a source of confusion or liability,” he adds. “Done right, AI has the potential to steadily make crane operations safer, more efficient, and better planned – while helping teams optimize total operating costs.”