From Junior to Senior in Months: How AI Levels Up Construction Teams

Here's the construction industry's dirty secret: we're running out of experts, and we can't train new ones fast enough.

A standard plan checker takes 3 years to become proficient. Electrical systems alone can take months to master if you don't have someone there to guide you. And with the industry aging and retirements accelerating, we're losing knowledge faster than we can transfer it.

Until now.

AI is compressing that 3-year learning curve into 3-6 months. Not by cutting corners or lowering standards—by giving junior staff instant access to the collective expertise of the entire industry.

The traditional training problem

Donald Zhao, Vice President at West Coast Code Consultants and Interim Chief Building Official, explains the challenge:

"A standard plan checker don't get proficient within 6 months. It takes them about 3 years. And it's still a lifelong learning process — you never stop learning in our industry, and that's a beautiful thing."

Three years. That's three years of:

• Asking senior staff endless questions
• Making mistakes on real projects
• Slowly building pattern recognition
• Learning which code sections apply when
• Understanding how different systems interact

It's expensive. It's slow. And with the talent shortage, we don't have three years.

What makes learning construction so hard

1. The Knowledge Complexity

The building code used to be a pocket-sized book. Now it's 7-9 volumes, three feet deep of technical specifications, cross-references, and exceptions.

You need to know:

• IBC, IRC, IMC, IPC, IECC, NEC, and more
• State and local amendments
• How they all interact
• Which applies to which project type
• Where conflicts exist and how to resolve them

No human can memorize all of that. Experts develop intuition for where to look and what matters. That intuition takes years.

2. The Specialized Knowledge Gaps

Donald highlights one of the hardest areas: "Electrical systems is hard, it's one of the hardest subjects — if you don't have someone there to help you, your learning curve is very long."

Without mentorship, you're stuck:

• Reading manuals that assume baseline knowledge
• Not knowing which questions to ask
• Making costly mistakes
• Slowly piecing together understanding through trial and error

This applies to mechanical systems, structural analysis, fire protection, accessibility requirements, and dozens of other specialties.

3. The Institutional Memory Problem

Every firm has collective wisdom that isn't written down anywhere:

• How this jurisdiction interprets that code section
• Why we use this approach for these projects
• What caused problems on similar builds
• Which details need extra attention

When senior staff retires, that knowledge walks out the door. New hires start from scratch.

How AI compresses the learning curve

AI as a 24/7 expert tutor

Donald Zhao describes the shift:

"AI can inject knowledge faster than the old way of training people. I have questions — I have a co-pilot who's there all the time answering questions."

Instead of waiting for a senior engineer to have time:

• Ask AI immediately
• Get code-cited answers
• See relevant examples
• Learn while doing actual work

It's like having the best teacher in your field available 24/7, never annoyed by "basic" questions, always patient, and always current with the latest codes.

Production-ready in 3-6 months

Here's the breakthrough: "I think even looking in the realm of 3–6 months to where they can start doing production work," says Donald.

Not fully independent. Not senior-level yet. But production work—actual valuable contributions to real projects.

Compare that to the traditional path:

• Month 1-6: Still learning basics, minimal productivity
• Month 7-12: Starting to contribute, heavy supervision needed
• Year 2: Handling simpler projects, still frequent questions
• Year 3: Finally proficient on standard projects

With AI:

• Month 1-3: Learning with AI guidance, contributing to reviews
• Month 4-6: Handling standard reviews with AI assistance
• Month 7-12: Taking on complex work, AI for edge cases

How it works in practice

Eric Schneiderjohn, Code Consultant at West Coast Code Consultants, explains that Ichi accelerates training for new plan checkers, simplifies code searches, and helps teams trust AI for everyday compliance tasks.

The process:

1. Junior staff gets a review task
2. AI provides starting framework - relevant codes, common issues
3. Staff performs review with AI guidance - learning while doing
4. AI structures comments - teaching professional communication
5. Senior reviews and provides feedback - quality control and mentorship

Each cycle teaches both technical knowledge and professional judgment. But instead of 100+ cycles to build competence, it happens in 20-30.

The talent shortage solution

The numbers don't lie

Construction faces a massive workforce challenge:

• Aging industry with accelerating retirements
• Not enough new people entering the field
• Increased demand for housing and infrastructure
• Can't simply "hire more experienced people"—they don't exist

AI doesn't replace people. It multiplies the people you have.

One senior plan checker who previously could train 1-2 juniors at a time (because of the supervision burden) can now effectively support 5-6 with AI doing the first-line guidance.

Beyond speed: consistency and quality

Traditional training is inconsistent. You learn what your mentor knows. If they have knowledge gaps or outdated practices, you inherit them.

AI training is based on:

• Official code documents
• Best practices from across the industry
• Consistent application of standards
• Latest updates and amendments

Everyone gets trained to the same high standard, regardless of who their direct supervisor is.

Real-world impact: field inspections

The benefits extend beyond office work. Donald Zhao describes field inspection with AI:

"I get to take the AI into the field. I normally just take a picture of the issue, say an outlet or wall header. I took a picture, and I'm asking Ichi: 'Hey, I see a problem here.' So Ichi comes up with a result. Comes up with the code section."

This is powerful for junior inspectors:

• Confidence in the field - instant verification
• Learning on-the-job - see issue, get code, understand why
• Better communication - code citations for contractor education
• Reduced conflicts - clear code reference settles disputes

The inspector becomes more capable immediately, while still learning for long-term growth.

The 5-10 year vision

Donald Zhao sees where this is going:

"I can imagine 5–10 years from now, you could train somebody who's like, 'Hey, tell me what I need to do' looking at this plan. And you got this AI coming in and it's like, 'Hey, start here, start here' and you have your run of a checklist."

The role evolves:

• AI handles: systematic checks, code lookups, comment drafting, pattern matching
• Humans handle: judgment calls, design intent evaluation, complex interpretations, client interaction

Your junior staff becomes supervisors of AI, applying human expertise to validate and refine AI output. That's a role they can grow into much faster than becoming an expert from scratch.

Breaking the bottleneck for contractors too

It's not just plan checkers. Donald highlights the broader impact:

"Before the inspector shows up, the contractor takes a picture and says, 'Hey, did I install this right? Did I install this per plan?' That would reduce the time that we need to go and check everything."

Contractors can:

• Verify their work before inspection
• Learn code requirements in context
• Reduce failed inspections
• Build expertise faster

The entire ecosystem gets smarter, faster.

Implementation: structure AI as a tutor

Donald's insight is key: "If we structure AI to be your tutor — oh man — I mean, you can probably just start there and go."

This isn't about replacing training with AI. It's about:

AI as first-line support:

• Answers basic questions instantly
• Provides code references and context
• Drafts initial responses
• Flags potential issues

Humans as mentors:

• Teach judgment and interpretation
• Provide context AI misses
• Build professional skills
• Ensure quality

The combination is far more powerful than either alone.

The economic reality

Three-year training cycles are expensive:

• Junior staff billing at reduced rates (or not billable)
• Senior staff time diverted to supervision
• Mistakes costing rework and relationships
• Slow project throughput

Three-to-six-month training cycles are transformative:

• Faster revenue contribution
• Less senior staff burden
• Fewer costly mistakes (AI catches them)
• Rapid scaling capability

For firms struggling to find talent, this is the difference between growth and stagnation.

Why this matters now

The construction crisis isn't coming—it's here. We need:

• More housing
• Infrastructure upgrades
• Faster permitting
• Better quality

We can't do that with the current training model. We need to accelerate how quickly someone goes from "hired" to "productive" to "expert."

AI makes that possible. Not in theory, not in five years—right now.

As Donald puts it: "It's going to change the world!"

The competitive advantage

The firms and jurisdictions that figure this out first will have an overwhelming advantage:

• Faster hiring - can bring on less experienced (cheaper) staff
• Better retention - people stay where they're learning and contributing
• Scalability - not bottlenecked by senior staff availability
• Quality consistency - everyone trained to same high standard

This isn't about replacing expertise. It's about democratizing access to expertise so everyone can perform at a higher level, faster.

Getting started

You don't need to revolutionize your entire training program overnight. Start simple:

1. Give new hires AI access from day one - let them use it for code lookups
2. Pair AI output with senior review - teach by showing what good looks like
3. Track progress - measure time to competence vs. historical baseline
4. Iterate based on what works - every team is different

The firms doing this are seeing results in weeks, not years. Their junior staff is contributing faster, asking better questions, and building expertise at unprecedented speed.

The bottom line

Construction has a knowledge crisis. We need experts, but training them takes too long. Retirements are accelerating, and the talent pipeline can't keep up.

AI for architects and building officials solves this by compressing 3 years of learning into 3-6 months. Not by lowering standards—by making expertise accessible to everyone, instantly, 24/7.

AI in construction acts as a 24/7 tutor and copilot. It provides instant code references, drafts structured comments, and guides junior staff through complex reviews. But senior staff still provide oversight, validate decisions, and ensure quality control.

Tools like Ichi enable this accelerated training by giving junior staff instant access to expert knowledge—while keeping humans firmly in control of the learning process.

Your junior staff becomes capable faster. Your senior staff focuses on judgment instead of basic questions. Your firm scales without being bottlenecked by training capacity.

The only question is: will you be early to this advantage, or playing catch-up to competitors who got there first?