Construction safety challenges in 2026 will be shaped by tighter schedules, labor shortages and broader use of artificial intelligence, according to insights from industry leaders at construction risk management firm Highwire.
David Tibbetts, Highwire’s chief safety officer, said schedule pressure will continue to intensify as demand grows in mission-critical sectors such as data centers and semiconductor manufacturing. Many of those projects operate multiple shifts to meet aggressive delivery timelines, increasing the risk of worker fatigue and quality issues.
Labor shortages are expected to compound those risks, particularly as less experienced workers are placed into fast-paced, high-risk environments. Tibbetts said owners and general contractors will face growing tension between meeting deadlines and managing the long-term costs of rework, safety incidents and subcontractor defaults.
He said the most effective projects will be those that treat safety and quality as part of the schedule itself, rather than as separate requirements. That includes planning around high-risk activities, identifying quality control hold points and addressing fatigue and worker well-being.
At the same time, construction companies are expected to move beyond experimenting with artificial intelligence and begin seeing measurable efficiency gains, according to Shayne Gaffney, Highwire’s vice president of product and engineering.
Gaffney said AI tools are increasingly being used to support safety inspections and risk management, including image recognition, voice-to-text documentation and automated alerts. Drones and other technologies are helping teams identify issues faster and reduce the time spent on manual data entry.
AI is also being used to improve pre-task planning by directing inspectors toward emerging risks based on recent inspection and incident data. In addition, data-driven tools are being applied to assess financial default risk during the bidding process.
Together, these shifts are expected to allow safety professionals to spend more time in the field and less time on administrative work, while improving visibility into safety and risk conditions across job sites.
