ASU alum at forefront of innovating AI in the construction industry
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Eric Cylwik, director of innovation at Sundt Construction, is leveraging AI to address labor shortages in the construction industry, having previously demonstrated its potential to industry executives.
Sun Devil community ASU alum at forefront of innovating AI in the construction industryEric Cylwik, director of innovation at Sundt, sees AI as a tool for easing the labor shortage Eric Cylwik started working at Tempe-based Sundt Construction when he was a second-year student at ASU. He's now the director of innovation for the company. He's shown at ISTB 4 on the Tempe campus, one of the first construction projects he worked on. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News By Mary Beth Faller | December 11, 2025 Three years ago, Eric Cylwik wowed a room full of construction executives when he presented an AI-generated illustration to show how the technology wasn’t on the horizon — it was already there.“All of a sudden, they realized this stuff is coming way faster than they thought it would be,” he said.As the director of innovation for Tempe-based Sundt Construction, Cylwik must anticipate and prepare his company for game-changing trends, and he sees artificial intelligence as an important way to help alleviate the shortage of labor in the construction industry.Cylwik credits his fearless embrace of innovation to his time at Arizona State University, where he earned a degree from The Design School in 2009.“The academic depth and breadth here was just overwhelming, and that's what drew me in and connected me with the community,” he said.“It showed me a much wider view of the world than I started out with.”He started in the School of Art but the studio classes were not for him, so he s...
