Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

How Inflation, Experience Gaps, and AI Are Reshaping Education Construction and Cost Control

  • 03/23/26

Scott Creekmore, VP of Customer Engagement at Gordian, explains how Gordian evolved from Job Order Contracting into planning tools for facility condition assessments and asset recapture, plus estimating through RSMeans price data. He outlines major challenges facing education construction today: rapid inflation driven by geopolitics, an industry-wide experience gap as seasoned professionals retire without enough backfill, and resulting cost-control volatility where prices swing dramatically over short periods. Creekmore describes how advancing technology—especially AI—along with CMMS and cost-tracking software can help agencies do more with less by improving scope detail, reducing change orders, tracking labor on site, and enhancing cost benchmarking and predictive insights, including regional price differences. He also advocates for longer-term planning, economies of scale, and reexamining procurement laws and options such as cooperative purchasing and job order contracting to improve cost control.

00:00 Meet Scott and Gordian
00:22 Gordian Origins and Services
01:14 Industry Challenges Today
03:14 Tech Trends and AI Tools
05:11 AI for Better Scopes
07:42 Long Term Planning in Education
09:22 Smarter Procurement and Cost Control
10:05 Closing Thoughts

Additional resources:

Sponsored by Gordian

Featured

  • Wisconsin District Breaks Ground on New Elementary School

    The School District of La Crosse in La Crosse, Wis., recently broke ground on a new elementary school that will consolidate the students and staff of two existing schools, according to local news. Funding for the school comes from a $53-million referendum approved in 2024.

  • Higher Ed is Betting on New Buildings While Quietly Undermining Their Campuses — Here’s Why

    In this climate, the owner’s representative has changed from a delivery-focused advisor to a strategic campus partner. Institutions are increasingly relying on owner’s reps not just to manage, cope, schedule, and budget, but also help evaluate whether a project should proceed at all.

  • University of Oklahoma Announces New Campus Master Plan

    The University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., recently announced that it will soon launch a new, comprehensive Campus Master Plan to guide the campus’ physical development during the next decade, according to a news release.

  • Campus Safety Requires Using Every Resource Available

    Across the U.S., school and campus leaders are facing a security landscape that has changed dramatically over the past decade. Incidents on school property have increased in recent years, with several consecutive years setting record totals. According to analysis of data by CNN, dozens of shootings now occur on school grounds annually across K-12 and higher education environments.