Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) in Fort Myers, Florida, served more than 11 million passengers in 2024, making it the busiest year in the airport’s history. As passenger demand continues to grow, the airport is undergoing a $1.1 billion expansion led by general contractor (GC) Suffolk. The GC is applying innovative methods to improve decision-making, productivity, and efficiency throughout the construction process.
Over a decade ago, Suffolk Chairman and CEO John Fish put the company on a path toward being a technological leader in the general construction world. According to a press release from Suffolk, the GC invested “more than $100 million in data, technology infrastructure, and innovation capabilities to position Suffolk for the future.”
At the time, machine learning and other technologies were prevalent. But the technology world took a dramatic turn when ChatGPT was released in late 2022. Suffolk’s investment in technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), enabled it to develop Jobsite of the Future (JOF), an AI-enabled operating model that was announced in spring 2026.
The press release states that JOF is a “first-of-its-kind AI-enabled operating model designed to transform how construction projects are delivered nationwide. ... Jobsite of the Future consists of innovation workspaces located on site at projects, equipped with advanced AI tools and real-time project data managed by AI Engineers. The AI Engineers focus on three core areas where artificial intelligence can have the greatest impact on the built environment: design, schedule, and process.”
A key element of JOF is that AI Engineers are part of active project teams. The aim is to improve decision-making and efficiencies while modernizing the construction process. According to the press release, the engineers “participate in critical project meetings, including schedule updates, requisition reviews, submittal coordination, and shop drawing reviews. Their proximity to operations allows them to identify inefficiencies firsthand and rapidly deploy AI-enabled solutions that improve execution and productivity.”
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Suffolk is already deploying JOF on multiple projects and across multiple sectors, including aviation.
While Suffolk’s extensive aviation experience was a key factor in winning the RSW project, rather than its use of JOF, the technology is now helping the GC deliver the project.
Construction on the project began at the end of 2024 and involves adding the new Concourse E. It will include:
- 14 initial gates and the infrastructure to support 19 gates in the future
- A new Transportation Security Checkpoint
- Expanded retail and food and beverage concessions
- Airside improvements
- Chiller plant building upgrades
- Road and curbside improvements that will reconfigure and expand terminal access roadways Cary Greenwood, Suffolk’s Site AI Engineer on the project, said JOF is intended to “find the best opportunities to deliver value for the clients as well as greater accuracy and increased productivity overall for the company.”
- Owner: Lee County Board of County Commissioners
- General Contractor: Suffolk Construction, Boston, Massachusetts
- Designer: AtkinsRealis, Montreal, Canada
- Engineers: Thornton Tomasetti, New York, New York (terminal expansion); Florida Structural Design, Fort Myers, Florida (Concourse E expansion)
- Other Contractors: Daifuku, Novi, Michigan; Gaylor, Indianapolis, Indiana; Acousti, Orlando, Florida; NR Group, West Palm Beach, Florida; B&I, Fort Myers, Florida Photos courtesy of Suffolk
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“As a Site AI Engineer, I try to translate the construction problems into software problems so that we can then solve those with the team,” Greenwood added.
He and the team are already using JOF on multiple project elements at RSW.
In addition to the applications and prototypes the team is developing on site, JOF is supported by a back office near Boston, Massachusetts, where Suffolk’s AI studio is being developed and AI specialists collaborate to refine and scale solutions across projects throughout the company.
“I work with them directly in order to help kind of productionize and design the overall production tool that would work across the company, mature the software, and prepare it to be deployed through our operations team back onto different sites in the future,” Greenwood said.
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The AI specialists have a background in technology, not construction. Greenwood said the team can overcome this challenge since the goal is maturing the technology and software that is being designed.
“I tend to have more of a deeper dive on the construction side on site, since I’m learning at the same time,” he said. “I try to translate the construction problems into software problems so that we can then solve those with the team.”
Requests for Information (RFI) can often require significant time to prepare and review. On a project with a budget as large as RSW’s, there could be several thousand RFIs over the course of the construction cycle.
Suffolk Assistant Project Manager Dwight Moe handles day-to-day interactions with the subcontractors and trade partners, and is responsible for trade coordination, submittals, and RFIs.
Greenwood and his team helped develop an RFI tool.
“[Prior to implementing the tool], the process of writing up some of the more complex RFIs could take up to a couple of hours to fully verify and put it all together,” Moe said.
After the team started using the tool, Moe said the time it took to prepare the RFIs dropped to as little as 10 to 15 minutes.
“It reads all the contract documents, looks at prior RFIs, sees if there’s any relevance, as well as cost and schedule estimates to the RFI that you’re putting together,” he said.
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“Using our prior project data helps us to then discover the relevant pieces of the past so that we understand project information from the past in order to help us better solve problems that come down the road or different RFI challenges that may come up tomorrow,” Greenwood said.
“Using the RFI data from the data lake allows us to then better contextualize that RFI, which allows it to be resolved by the architect faster, which then allows the RFI not to hold up the project in terms of continuing progress and different activities,” Moe added.
The JOF team has also helped the crew maintain the schedule via VERA, a voice-activated superintendent tool. It allows superintendents to walk the site and track different activities that the subcontractors are working on.
“They can speak directly into the app and transfer that knowledge directly to our schedule,” Moe said. “This helps us to get an idea of just where we stand on parts of the project, which helps us move the process forward and keep up communication across the team.”
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He added that it helps the team maintain the schedule more accurately. The tool enables the team to iterate quickly and update the schedule more frequently than would traditionally be possible.
The JOF team is also helping spot potential bottlenecks and how they will affect work further downstream. The team can track individual activities to identify discrepancies and understand how delays in one area could affect work later on.
“We try to track those individual activities in this manner to keep that update coming back faster, so that we can then maintain these potential connected activities that may be impacted under a scheduled compression,” Greenwood said. “The team can coordinate more effectively around the subs that are focused on those specific activities that are going to have the biggest impact on the schedule down the road because of the visibility they gain from the tool.”
JOF has also helped project controllers complete the requisitions process more quickly.
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“It’s helped them in terms of preparing the GCGR roll-ups each month, and we’re working on an application or a PayApp validation process that helps the controllers validate the specific logic associated in the payroll applications each month,” Greenwood said.
As of this writing, the RSW project remains on budget and on schedule, with Suffolk using JOF to support various aspects of project delivery.
Suffolk is in the early stages of applying JOF and advanced AI tools to its work. The team intends to refine the technology and expand its use across future projects. Suffolk also plans to incorporate AI Engineers into project teams from day one through to final project delivery.
“There’s a lot of legwork involved to create the kind of longevity of quality and value of the delivery,” Greenwood said.
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As Suffolk continues to develop JOF, the RSW expansion demonstrates some of the ways AI-enabled tools can be incorporated into existing construction workflows.
