➡️ The Conveyor Fall Edition 2025
Artificial intelligence is no longer an abstract idea—it’s becoming part of the everyday fabric of our industry. From the quarry to the batch plant to the dispatch office, AI has the potential to streamline operations, improve safety, and enhance service. But here’s the truth: technology alone doesn’t change anything. People do.
That means the most important work for leaders today is not just adopting AI but equipping our people to succeed with it.
From Buzzword to Real-World Value
Leadership in the heavy building materials industry has always been about solving tough, practical problems: getting materials where they need to be, keeping crews safe, and meeting customer demands. AI is simply another tool in that tradition.
The real opportunity lies in applying it to the basics:
- Safety & Compliance: surfacing patterns in reports to prevent incidents before they happen.
- Operations: optimizing dispatch routes, reducing downtime with predictive maintenance, and spotting quality issues early.
- Customer service: quickly summarizing project histories and specifications so we can respond more accurately and faster.
Each of these use cases ties directly to the KPIs we already track—tons per hour, on-time delivery, cost per yard, fuel efficiency. The lesson for leaders is simple: don’t chase shiny technology. Focus on where AI can remove friction for your people and deliver measurable results.
Leadership as the Differentiator
What separates successful organizations from the rest won’t be the software they buy—it will be the leadership practices around it.
AI brings new risks: bias, errors, and data security challenges. Frameworks like the NIST AI Risk Management Framework remind us to treat AI with the same seriousness we bring to safety-critical systems: establish clear roles, document how data is used, validate results, and monitor outcomes.
But leadership goes deeper than risk management. It’s about creating the right culture. Just as high-performing crews speak up about near misses, leaders must foster environments where people feel safe questioning AI outputs. When teams feel empowered to raise a hand, ask a question, or challenge a result, trust is built—and trust is the foundation of adoption.
Equipping People for the Journey
AI won’t replace skilled people; it will reward them. The job of leaders is to help their teams build confidence and competence to use these new tools well. Here’s how:
- Train for tasks, not titles. Dispatchers should learn how to shape AI inputs for complex delivery routes. Operators should know how to interpret model confidence levels. Sales teams should verify AI-generated estimates against customer specs.
- Write clear “rules of the road.” Define what data is appropriate, when human oversight is required, and how sensitive information should be protected. Put it in plain language, not tech jargon.
- Celebrate progress. Recognize employees who experiment responsibly with AI. Even small wins—time saved on paperwork, fewer errors, quicker responses—should be highlighted.
When people see that AI makes their jobs safer and easier, adoption follows naturally.
Leading with Clarity and Cadence
Introducing AI is no different than any other change effort: success depends on steady progress, not big one-time pushes. Leaders can build momentum by:
- Forming a cross-functional team that includes operations, IT, safety, and HR.
- Running short pilots (6–8 weeks) with clear goals and lessons learned.
- Sharing results openly—what worked, what didn’t, and what’s next.
Above all, communicate constantly. People want to know why changes are happening, how they’ll be supported, and what success looks like.
A Call to Lead
CALCIMA members literally build California’s foundation. In a state that values safety, sustainability, and efficiency, AI is becoming an expectation, not an experiment. But the heart of this transition is not the technology itself, it’s the leadership around it.
As leaders, our job is to keep people at the center: to equip them with skills, to create cultures of trust, and to guide them with clarity through change. If we do this well, AI won’t feel like a disruption. It will feel like an enabler—helping us build safer workplaces, stronger businesses, and better communities.
That is leadership in the age of AI.