AI-Driven Problem Solving

How to use AI to see around corners, mitigate risks before they become disasters, and keep your projects running smoothly.

This article is for the Project or Operations Manager who is tired of constant firefighting. We'll show you how AI can become your proactive partner, helping you identify and solve problems before they escalate.

Key Takeaways:

• See Risks Before They Emerge: AI can analyze project notes, historical data, and communications to flag potential risks and uncertainties that might otherwise go unnoticed.

• From Reactive to Proactive: Instead of just reacting to delays, use AI to anticipate them. It can analyze deviations from your plan and suggest corrective actions before a project goes off the rails.

• Data-Driven Solutions: When problems do arise, AI can analyze the situation and suggest solutions based on what has worked on similar projects in the past, empowering you to make smarter decisions under pressure.

The Big Picture: Your Early Warning System

As a PM, you develop a sixth sense for when a project is about to have problems. But you can't see everything, and sometimes challenges escalate before you have a chance to intervene. You're stuck in a cycle of reactive problem-solving.

Think of AI as a powerful extension of your intuition—an early warning system for your projects. It can constantly scan all your project data—daily logs, photos, emails, schedules—looking for the subtle signs of trouble.

It might notice that the word "unexpected" has appeared three times in the notes for a specific job, or that material costs are trending 15% higher than budgeted. It doesn't wait for you to ask; it brings these potential risks to your attention, allowing you to move from firefighting to proactive risk management.

Putting AI-Driven Problem Solving to Work

The goal is to address challenges when they are small and manageable, not when they have become full-blown crises.

• Proactive Risk Assessment: Before a project even begins, you can feed the scope of work into an AI and ask it to identify potential risks based on historical data. It might respond, "Projects of this type in older buildings have a 40% chance of discovering hidden asbestos. Recommend including testing in the initial phase."

• Flagging Deviations: The AI monitors the project plan in real-time. It notices that the demolition phase is taking 20% longer than scheduled. It sends you an alert, not just stating the delay, but suggesting, "This will impact the start date for the electrical subcontractor. Do you want to automatically notify them of a potential one-day delay?"

• Suggesting Corrective Actions: You're facing a material shortage. You can describe the problem to an AI, which can then analyze past projects to suggest alternative suppliers or different materials that have been used successfully in similar situations, complete with potential cost and schedule impacts.

"Our AI flagged a recurring issue with a specific type of fitting failing during pressure tests. We were treating them as one-off problems. The AI saw the pattern across dozens of jobs, and we were able to switch suppliers, saving us thousands in callbacks."

🔧 Under the Hood: For the Tech-Minded

When you're exploring these capabilities, two key terms to understand are Anomaly Detection and Predictive Analytics.

• Anomaly Detection: This is an AI technique used to identify data points that don't conform to an expected pattern. In restoration, an "anomaly" could be anything from a sudden spike in labor hours, a piece of equipment being used for much longer than usual, or a photo that shows an unusual type of damage. The AI learns what "normal" looks like from your past project data and then flags any outliers. This is the core technology behind most automated risk-flagging systems.

• Predictive Analytics: This goes a step beyond just identifying current problems. Predictive models use historical data to forecast future outcomes. A predictive model could analyze the first two days of a water damage project—initial moisture readings, equipment used, etc.—and generate a forecast for the total project duration and cost. More importantly, it can run "what-if" scenarios. For example, "What is the likely impact on the project timeline if we add two more air movers today?" This gives you the power to make decisions based on future probabilities, not just past performance.

💡 Prompt Corner: Your Starting Point

Use the "Mad Libs" prompts below in a tool like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Microsoft Copilot to get started. Just replace the text in [brackets] with your own details!

Prompt for a Pre-Project Risk Assessment:

"Act as a senior risk analyst for a restoration company. I am about to start a new project with the following characteristics:

• Project Type: [e.g., Fire damage restoration]

• Property Type: [e.g., 1960s-era commercial building]

• Known Complexities: [e.g., Occupied by a tenant, tight deadline]
  Based on these factors, list the top 5 potential risks I should plan for. For each risk, suggest one specific mitigation strategy."

Prompt for Solving a Current Problem:

"I am a Project Manager facing a challenge. On the [Project Name] job, we have encountered [Describe the problem, e.g., 'unexpected structural damage after removing drywall']. Our original plan was to [Describe the original plan]. We have [List available resources, e.g., 'an in-house framing crew and a budget of $5,000 for this phase']. Based on this situation, suggest three possible corrective action plans, and list the pros and cons of each."

Your Turn: Experiment and Share

Think about the last project that had a major, unexpected problem. Write down the problem and, in hindsight, what the very first sign of that problem was. Was it a comment in a daily note? A photo that didn't look right? A small but unusual expense?

This exercise trains your brain to think like an anomaly detection system. By learning to spot the small signals that precede big problems, you're building the most critical skill for proactive risk management.

If you've developed a good method for spotting trouble early, reach out and share it! Your "sixth sense" could help another PM prevent a future disaster.