The biggest AI opportunity in construction 

New Intuit QuickBooks data reveals a striking tension in the construction industry: firms are slower to pay for AI than almost any other sector, but once they do, they're the least likely to stop. The construction businesses that have committed aren't just keeping their subscriptions, they're reporting revenue gains, lower costs, and productivity improvements that show up directly on the P&L.

This report examines what's holding most construction firms back, what the committed ones are actually getting, and where the real financial opportunity sits—with five Monday morning implications your business can act on now.

The numbers behind the divide

Only 7% of construction firms are currently paying for AI. Of those, 90% are still paying a year later. The gap between those two numbers is where the industry is splitting.

What committed firms are getting

The difference between construction firms pulling ahead and those watching from the sidelines isn't the quality of their work. It's the quality of their financial intelligence. The firms that have committed to AI are using it to protect margins, sharpen estimates, and run their back office with less manual effort—and the financial results are following.

This report shows exactly what those firms are doing differently and closes with five concrete actions your construction business can take based on the data.

About this research

This report draws on two Intuit data sources. Survey findings are from an ongoing quarterly survey commissioned by Intuit, reflecting responses from 809 US construction business owners and senior leaders averaged across all quarterly waves from April 2025 through January 2026. Paid AI adoption and continuation figures are drawn from anonymized payment records from more than 4.3 million US businesses on the Intuit platform between 2021 and 2025, including more than 524,000 US construction businesses. Full methodology is available in the report.