en.Wedoany.com Reported - The data access dispute between US construction management platform Procore and AI agent provider Trunk Tools is drawing widespread industry attention to the control of construction data. At the heart of this dispute is who has the right to access project data and use it to train artificial intelligence agents, which are being deployed to perform tasks such as reviewing documents, preparing bids, and inspecting steel welds.
AI agents are trained on construction-specific data, enabling them to understand items like dunnage, mechanics' liens, geometric symbols on 2D drawings, and how design and construction workflows operate in the era of CAD and 3D building information modeling. Agentic AI has already delivered benefits in pre-construction processes such as estimating and document review, but teaching AI to understand geometry remains a technical challenge. This makes construction data a highly coveted asset for platform technology companies, and who has the right to access it and use it to train AI is being strictly protected by platforms.
Last year, Procore restricted Trunk Tools—whose clients include general contractors such as Gilbane Building Co. and Suffolk Construction—from accessing its application programming interface. Procore stated that this move was to protect the integrity and security of all customer data. Shortly thereafter, Procore acquired DataGrid, another provider of agentic AI services, and integrated it into the platform as a natural language AI agent partner. DataGrid features an agent builder that allows general contractors to build proprietary agents using their own data.
The construction industry has long kept project information tightly guarded to maintain a competitive edge, and the scientific and engineering resources that drive construction progress are valuable and costly. The more historical construction data available, the higher its value. However, platforms protecting and hoarding data with customer consent may undermine the progress made in open information sharing since the late 1990s and early 2000s, when 3D building information modeling brought APIs and standards. Due to privacy and competition concerns, the promise of BIM was never fully realized. Between 2005 and 2012, BIM evolved from an ideal of all stakeholders collaborating on a shared model to a cloud platform for automating information requests and change orders—far from collaboration and openness.
A construction technology expert noted that if the goal is merely to create a better platform for change orders, it deviates from the original intent of building a model that eliminates the need for change orders. The construction industry is at the forefront of agentic AI transforming processes, with automation replacing repetitive tasks that hinder best delivery practices and efficiency. If vendors choose to perpetuate past workflows and risk mitigation methods without recognizing the possibilities offered by open standards, data sharing, and a genuine examination of what each participant brings, it would be a huge missed opportunity. The vision of coordinated BIM and teamwork will only be enhanced by the emergence of agentic AI automation.
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