Construction Briefing spoke with OpenSpace co-founder and CEO Jeevan Kalanithi about whether agentic AI can deliver real value on jobsites — and his answer is a clear yes, with an important condition. For AI to move beyond back-office productivity, it needs to see what is actually happening in the field. OpenSpace is already building agents with that visual capability, giving project teams a new way to manage site progress grounded in real data.
For construction teams already stretched thin, agentic AI represents something genuinely new: technology that doesn’t just answer questions, but takes action on behalf of project teams. OpenSpace has spent years building the visual data infrastructure that makes this possible. By capturing 360-degree imagery from site walks, drones, and mobile devices and mapping it against project drawings, OpenSpace gives AI agents the context they need to do meaningful work. That means an agent can check whether snagging items are actually complete, help generate site diaries automatically, or assist with quality assurance workflows — all grounded in verified visual data from the field, not estimates or manual inputs.
The construction industry’s productivity challenge isn’t going away, and simply hiring more people has not proven to be a sustainable solution. Agentic AI, when built on a foundation of real visual site data, offers a concrete path forward: faster workflows, fewer administrative burdens, and project teams freed up to focus on the judgment calls that matter most. OpenSpace CEO Jeevan Kalanithi describes these agents as “nearly omniscient assistants” that work alongside experienced professionals rather than replacing them. OpenSpace is expanding its early access program for AI agents with visual capabilities.
By: Neil Gerrard
