Congress Session Spotlight: From Algorithm to Assembly: AI to Lean Delivery

How can AI and computational design improve Lean design and construction processes? By helping teams identify constraints earlier, model complex scenarios, improve decision-making, protect ﬂow, and reduce tedious administrative work without replacing—and in fact reinforcing— the human collaboration at the heart of Lean project delivery.

At the 2026 LCI Congress, Bernita Beikmann, FAIA, EDAC, LSSBB Speaker, Chief Delivery Officer at HKS, Inc., and Anthony Montalto, AIA Speaker, Chief Design Officer at HKS, Inc., will explore those opportunities during From Algorithm to Assembly: AI to Lean Delivery. Their session will examine where AI and computational design are improving project delivery today and how teams can use these technologies to enable true team integration and improve whole-team performance from design through construction.

Attendees can expect to gain actionable takeaways, explore inspiring yet practical opportunities, and have fun! Learn more in our interview with these experienced, dynamic speakers.

Make sure you’re there for this session and much more at the 2026 LCI Congress, October 12-16, in Atlanta, Georgia! Register today before prices go up on September 11.

Q. How Can AI and Computational Design Improve Team Performance?

Anthony: “We will explore how AI and computational design can move beyond simply generating more options and instead help teams make better, earlier, and more integrated decisions. We will share how these tools can support scenario modeling, identify constraints, balance cost and performance, and allow teams to design more intentionally for prefabrication, fabrication, and assembly.”

What works and what doesn’t?

Anthony: “We will also be candid about what has not worked. Greater speed does not automatically create greater alignment, and automation can amplify confusion when roles, responsibilities, and decision rights are unclear. We’ll examine the leadership structures and Lean processes needed to turn digital intelligence into meaningful project outcomes.”

Impacting the Lean tools we use now.

Bernita: “How will this affect the Lean tools we use now? How do we apply AI to Last Planner System®, visual workﬂow control, and accountability? Is it effective for fabrication schedules, faster design iterations, and earlier trade participation? How do we change the way our teams plan and make commitments?

How does that technology actually make us better and make us communicate as people more effectively? It is not an intuitive thing to do with AI, but it actually is possible. The goal is not simply to introduce more technology, but to protect ﬂow and improve whole-team performance from design through construction.”

Q. What are some of the challenges of using AI effectively and how are you addressing those?

Anthony: “People sometimes expect that, regardless of what you ask AI, everything it shoots out is going to be perfect, and just like anything else, it’s only as good as what you’ve put in. We have been building a data set and data model from real experiences and project performance. Otherwise, you don’t know where the data is coming from, and you don’t know how real it is.

If you want it to truly represent your company and your voice, it has to learn from you, so the more you use it, the more it understands how you respond to things. The great thing about AI is it learns quickly. The bad thing about AI is you don’t necessarily know where it’s learning from all the time.”

Q. What are some of the opportunities presented by AI, Computational Design, and Automation?

Bernita: “AI allows you to analyze data quickly, so you can potentially show constraints sooner and see patterns in the constraints. Computational design allows us to work directly in the language of fabrication.”

Sharing case studies and examples.

Bernita: We will show several examples and case studies of how we have worked directly with fabricators to either develop a design solution or an installation solution with computational design. This eliminates the error in translation and gives us a better quality product, which is what we really care about.”

Anthony: “The greatest opportunity is to use these technologies to bring knowledge forward in the project lifecycle. AI and computational design can help teams explore complex scenarios, understand performance implications, identify risks, and test constructability before decisions become expensive or difficult to change. So it’s everything that we’ve always said is great for early alignment and what Lean is based on, but now you’re bringing in more data and hopefully more knowledge.”

Integrating different perspectives early.

Anthony: “These technologies also create an opportunity to connect design more directly with manufacturing and assembly. When designers, builders, fabricators, and trade partners work from shared information early, we can reduce rework, improve cost predictability, standardize components where appropriate, and create better-performing solutions without limiting design ambition. You’re better integrating all those different perspectives.”

Q. What do you hope attendees gain from this session?

Anthony: “This is a tool that helps the professions. It’s not competitive. The better we get as a group, the better value it provides, particularly for the architects and designers and those who are providing these services.”

Gaining a practical framework.

Anthony: “I hope attendees leave with a practical framework for connecting AI and computational design with Target Value Delivery, structured decision-making, fabrication, and assembly. They should be able to evaluate whether a technology is improving the project as a whole—not simply accelerating one isolated task. We don’t just want a faster tool. It’s the same story with innovation. We don’t want change for change’s sake, but we actually want to improve it.”

Growing confidence.

Anthony: I also hope they gain conﬁdence to experiment while establishing the right guardrails. Innovation requires curiosity, but it also requires clarity around purpose, roles, decision-making, and measurable outcomes.”

Bernita: “I hope it drives less fear about some of these tools and shows ways to use them as more of a way to make the work effort shorter, fail faster, improve faster, and check solutions. I hope they recognize that there are still human roles that are fundamental, but this makes us better and faster. It leaves us time to be creative. It is the same argument that we use for implementation of Lean strategies in design. We can now use AI to make those Lean things happen, so they actually work together very well.”

Q. Will there be takeaways to implement immediately?

Bernita: “We’ll be sharing some quick hacks that you can apply right away. 15 years ago, when I started this, for example, with sticky notes, now you can take a picture, put them in a whiteboard app, and it writes them all for you and organizes them and collates them. That’s something that took us hours before. So there are quick hacks like that we can share. The thinking part you still have to do, but at least it takes care of the tedious stuff like typing.”

Q. Will using AI free up more time?

Anthony: “We’re getting a lot of questions like, ‘I hear AI is making your life easier, so when is the fee coming down?’ Well, that’s not what we’re using it for. The intent is, again, not to provide less service, but as Bernita said, really spend the time on servicing our clients. It’s not just quickly iterating, but really spending more time on optimizing solutions.”

Q. Who should attend this session?

Bernita: “It’s for people who like to have fun. If we don’t get a few laughs, I will be disappointed. And it’s for the entire project team, from owners to designers to builders. We are not leaving anyone out of the discussion.”

Anthony: “The real question is who’s going to miss out if they don’t show up? It’s for architects, engineers, design leaders, computational designers, innovation teams, and project managers, who are working to integrate emerging technologies into real project delivery—basically everybody who’s in it.

The tool is only going to be as powerful as the perspectives and the data that we put in. So it will be particularly relevant to anybody asking how AI can create better decisions and greater collaboration, rather than simply, as Bernita stated earlier, more speed and more design options. So it should also be valuable for owners and construction partners who want to engage design teams earlier around cost, constructability, fabrication, and long-term project performance.”

There’s also a chance they’ll be dressed as the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who, as they did recently to raise money for a charity at a construction event—

Bernita: “It wouldn’t be the first time we did something goofy at Congress. We just haven’t decided what it’s going to be yet.”

Q. What are you looking forward to at Congress?

Anthony: “Bernita’s been part of it for much longer than I have, but I always enjoy the opportunities to share. I find the environment to be collaborative and one of learning from one another, which is great. It’s learning from people who are consistently testing new ideas of this intersection of design, technology, construction, and Lean thinking.

Congress creates an important opportunity to move beyond these abstract conversations about innovation and understand from our colleagues and peers what’s actually producing better outcomes for their teams, clients, communities, and the built environment.

I am also looking forward to candid conversations about the experiments that did not work. Our industry will advance more quickly when we openly share both successes and lessons learned.”

Bernita: “I just want to see my people. The best part of Congress is connecting with people who are there specifically to learn from others, talk about projects, and talk about how we can, as a collective whole, not just as one part of the project process, be better. That’s why I go.”

What You’ll Learn Recap

AI, computational design, and automation are not problems the construction industry needs to deal with but opportunities to bring value-added Lean principles to design and construction where:

AI informs decision-making
Computational design reduces variability
Automation increases reliability
Fabrication shifts work upstream
Delivery systems maintain flow
Culture enables learning

Learn more about how these technologies can enable true team integration from our experts.

Learn more about this session and the rest.

Explore the LCI Congress interactive agenda for more on this session and the entire program, including several more sessions covering relevant, actionable AI topics.

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