Don’t Use ChatGPT to Research Construction Software

We tried it. It’s wildly inaccurate, and there are other problems. What does this mean for contractors and for software vendors?

As we work with construction software vendors, we’re finding a lot of interest in answer engine optimization (AEO). What do people find when they search for software in popular consumer artificial intelligence (AI) tools? Software vendors want to make sure they are found. Buyers want to make sure they’re efficiently getting accurate information to support a mission-critical decision.

One study found half of B2B software buyers start their search with AI chatbots. This may seem alarming, but chatbots are really just notching out web search as the starting point. Twenty years ago,  Google search was already the typical first step in a software consideration cycle, followed by referrals from knowledgeable parties. While software companies had received requests for information (RFIs) to drive long-lists, now they receive RFIs to drive short-lists of a handful of products to be considered.

As AI chatbot use surges, what implication does that have for who is found or the validity of data in an AI-generated answer? In the case of search, an algorithm would identify resources on the web that contained or conformed to a search string, resulting in a search engine results page (SERP). It was contingent on the individual to surf through to each link and determine what those resources actually said. The AI chatbot needs to take disparate information from incomplete sources with no chain of custody and craft a response to a query. If the success of your business is on the line, what could go wrong?

Inaccurate Construction Software Information

As a test, to see what information it would return on some of the construction software products we cover here at Rathmann Insights, we had ChatGPT create tables of construction ERP (enterprise resource planning), construction HCM (human capital management) and project management solutions.

The results were not pretty. I could publish the entire chat log to reveal how much of a dumpster fire the whole experience was, but for example … we asked the chatbot to create a table with columns to indicate which construction software products were available as:

• On-premise solutions—usually delivered through sale of a perpetual license and run on servers at a business location or through a managed services provider

• Hosted solutions—typically the same software offered on-premise but hosted by the software vendor, which gives you one throat to choke for performance issues and offloads some administrative tasks to the software vendor

• Single-tenant solutions—software designed to run in the cloud as a service (software-as-a-service), with a unique instance spun up by the vendor in their environment for each customer organization

• Multi-tenant solutions—software designed to enable one instance of the software to be shared by multiple customer organizations, making for more profitable delivery by the software vendor and an evergreen, always-current environment for customers

Little of this information was correct. For example, InEight, a powerful construction project management application designed for regulated, complex, mission-critical and government work, was characterized by ChatGPT as only an on-premise solution.

This is puzzling because as early as 2022, after my discovery call with InEight Chief Product Officer Brad Barth, I’d published a product deep dive stressing that InEight is a rare construction software product that is flexible enough for multiple deployment methods, and could be delivered as multi-tenant or single-tenant SaaS.

Why do single-tenant SaaS, multi-tenant SaaS, hosted or on-premise matter? One reason is that in some situations, software will need to be in a Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP®)-compliant environment, and some software vendors work with a FedRAMP-authorized partner for hosting or managed services. InEight received FedRAMP Ready status in 2025 , which puts it on the path to full FedRAMP Moderate Authorization for cloud systems that process, store or transmit federal information. InEight and other software vendors may also have the ability to leverage security features of their architecture to reach compliance.

Sometimes too, software must be run in areas with poor or no connectivity, where an on-premise solution is required. And while multi-tenant software, which leverages a single instance of software across multiple customer organizations is flexible and configurable, single-tenant solutions provide more ability to define and execute unique business processes.

Follow The Money and Modernity

Some analysts (according to ChatGPT, but this tracks) talk about a progression from on-premise to multi-tenant SaaS as a maturity journey. But the on-premise solution is actually mature. As in the magazine, Modern Maturity, mature means old. Not modern.

There have been too many disruptions to the way software is developed and delivered in recent years for a “mature” solution to be an ideal solution, and certainly not a modern one. A software product that has been in the market for 20 years has seen its array of functionality expand over decades as features and processes are added to the software. But the underlying infrastructure is showing its age. So what? The software does what you want now? Why be a corksniffing software hipster concerned with modernity?

Multitenant SaaS is more profitable than other forms of software delivery, followed by single-tenant SaaS. There are two components to this enhanced profitability. The first is the subscription pricing, which moves a software vendor away from the lumpy business associated with selling the license outright, along with optional support with access to new versions. Multi-tenant SaaS also requires less services time to implement and keeps more of the revenue in a sales transaction for the product rather than low-margin implementation projects. The vendor must spend less time troubleshooting unique customer hardware and software environments and modifications. Over time, multi-tenant SaaS customers pay more for their solution, per calculations by Dave Kellogg and others.

Why do you care about that?

Because software companies must be profitable, and if they are selling something that is more expensive to develop and deliver than their competitors’ products, they may not succeed. More pointedly, ownership may opt to sell the whole company or that specific product to some other company for the maintenance revenue, with little concern for a future product roadmap or ongoing development.

If a construction software company or product line is sold, more modern products are more likely to become or remain flagship solutions for that new owner, perhaps replacing another, less modern, solution in their product portfolio.

Modernity matters in other ways too—is the software built on programming languages nobody learns in school anymore? What does that mean for your ability to find support, and the vendor’s future costs of development? Does the underlying database comply with Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability (ACID)-compliant for data integrity despite system failures? Is the software built around RESTful APIs (read why this matters)?

Questions to Ask About Construction Software

Apart from the lack of accurate information, starting a construction software selection process with an AI chatbot or answer engine is problematic because most of us will only go through this process onec, maybe twice, in our careers.

Most construction executives and principals don’t know what to ask the chatbot. We’re starting from a place of unconscious incompetence—we don’t know what we don’t know.

Most of these answers can only be found from the vendor—that is one reason I focus on surfacing important product specification data from these software vendors and put in front of a registration wall. But ChatGPT was too lazy to find it, even here, until prompted to visit a specific URL.

Where to Find Accurate Information on Construction Software

Software selection teams in other industries like manufacturing have access to a broad spectrum of analysts, consultants and resources to help them make a successful move to a new application. And as more construction contractors adopt capable enterprise software for their front-office operations and back-office processes, consultancies like Sunstone Transformations,  Burger Consulting, Cano Consulting, Clearplan Consulting and Alamo Innovation are arising to guide the creation of shortlists, demos, due diligence and final selections.

Some selection consultants are also partners with one or more software vendors and may sell implementation and consulting around one or more solution. Some may even also collect a referral fee from the vendor. Seek clarity and make the most of what these companies can offer!

You can also watch the Explainer Blog and our social feeds for more material from Rathmann Insights as we build structured, tactical resources about important construction software categories including:

• Construction HCM

• Construction ERP

• Construction CRM

• Construction Project Management Software

• Preconstruction Software

• Construction Reality Capture

  
  

Learn more and get involved in our research.