A Third of the Week Is Spent Looking for Things
Quick answer: In a 2018 FMI and PlanGrid survey, respondents said they spend 35% of their time, more than 14 hours a week, on non-productive activities such as looking for project information, resolving conflicts, and fixing mistakes. The study priced that at $177.5 billion in US labor cost for the year. Autodesk and FMI's 2021 survey of more than 3,900 professionals found that 30% said more than half of their project data is "bad," and only 12% said they always use project data in decisions. When the answer to a question sits in an email, a log, a phone photo, and a spreadsheet, an assistant that has read all of them and returns the answer with its source attached shortens the search.
Key Takeaways
- ●Respondents in a 2018 FMI and PlanGrid survey spent 35% of their time, over 14 hours a week, on non-productive activities including looking for project information, which the study priced at $177.5 billion in US labor cost that year.
- ●Navigant's study of 1,362 projects found an average of 796 RFIs per project and a median of 9.7 days to get an answer. Design professionals averaged about 8 hours and $1,080 per RFI response, in 2013 dollars.
- ●In Autodesk and FMI's 2021 survey, 30% said more than half of their project data is "bad," and 12% said they always use project data in decisions.
- ●The answer is usually spread across an email, a submittal log, a photo on someone's phone, and a spreadsheet the last PM built.
- ●In one ServiceIQ implementation, every record is indexed as it's created, a PM asks a question in plain language and gets the answer with its source attached, and the same engine runs each morning unprompted, with dollars and deadlines first.
The Week That Goes Missing
FMI and PlanGrid's 2018 report, Construction Disconnected, found that respondents spend 35% of their time, more than 14 hours a week, on non-productive activities. That covers looking for project information, resolving conflicts, and dealing with mistakes and rework. FMI priced it at $177.5 billion in US labor cost for 2018.
The data is dated and survey-based. The arithmetic worth doing is on your own payroll, with your own PMs' loaded hourly rate and the hours your team actually spends searching.
The RFI Numbers, With Their Limits
Navigant Construction Forum's 2013 study, "Impact & Control of RFIs on Construction Projects," reviewed 1,362 projects with construction costs between $5 million and $5 billion, each with at least 100 RFIs. The average was 796 RFIs per project, and the median time to get an answer was 9.7 days.
Navigant also estimated that responding to an RFI took design professionals about 8 hours and about $1,080, in 2013 dollars, from an informal survey. That cost sits with the design team. The wait sits on your schedule.
A smaller project will see far fewer RFIs than 796. The response time is the number most worth comparing against your own jobs.
The Answer Is Spread Across Four Places
Autodesk and FMI's 2021 report found that 30% of respondents said more than half of their project data is bad, and that bad data led to poor decisions more than half the time. Only 12% said they always bring project data into their decisions. Those 12% reported habits such as regularly reviewing data for quality, standardizing how it's collected and reported, and keeping it in a common data environment.
Volume isn't the obstacle. Today's answer is in an email from March, a submittal log, a photo on someone's phone, and a spreadsheet the last PM built.
What Changes When an Assistant Has Read the Records
In one ServiceIQ implementation (September 2026), every record is indexed as it's created, including RFIs, submittals, quotes, pay applications, CRM, and accounting. A PM asks a question in plain language, and the answer comes back with its source attached. Each morning the same engine runs without being asked, with dollars and deadlines first.
Because it reads the company's records and doesn't depend on anyone's memory, the answer is still there after a PM leaves.
What It Doesn't Do
It's only as good as the records it reads. An RFI that never got logged, or an email nobody connected to the job, is invisible to it, so keeping the records clean comes first. It also doesn't decide anything. It finds the answer and shows where it came from, and a person acts on it.
Where to Start
Pick one problem and measure it before you buy any tool. For two weeks, have each PM note the time spent looking for project information, and track how long your RFIs wait for an answer. That gives you a baseline of your own, which beats a 2018 national average.
Then ask any vendor three questions. Which of my systems does it read? What does it do when it finds something? Who approves?
"The Complete Guide to Choosing Field Service Software" covers the wider vendor checklist. Two other pieces in this series cover where bad records show up on the job, "The Fee You Lose Between the Field Text and the Change Order" and "Revision C Was Issued. The Field Was Still on B."
The slides from our EdTech Summit session, "AI in the Construction Workplace," cover this problem and four others, and they're a free download.
Frequently asked questions
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