McKinsey & Company and ALICE Technologies have announced a formal partnership to deliver AI-driven generative scheduling software to contractors across the infrastructure and construction sectors, signaling a shift in how complex capital projects are planned and executed.
The global consulting firm will offer ALICE Technologies' artificial intelligence-driven generative scheduling platform to contractors across the infrastructure and construction spectrum, according to a Tuesday announcement. The terms of the partnership were not disclosed. The collaboration brings together McKinsey's Capital Excellence consulting practice and the Menlo Park, California-based scheduling platform, targeting an industry where cost overruns and schedule delays remain endemic.
Background
By 2027, investment in infrastructure and sustainability capital projects is projected to reach $130 trillion, according to ALICE Technologies, placing mounting pressure on project owners and contractors to extract efficiencies from planning and delivery. Traditional scheduling tools - built around static Gantt charts and manually sequenced logic - have long struggled to account for real-time variability in labor, equipment, and material availability.
ALICE Technologies describes its platform as a generative construction scheduling system that uses a parametric, rules-based engine to explore execution options at scale. The platform can analyze BIM models and Oracle P6 schedules to generate millions of possible execution paths while identifying the most efficient options, according to the announcement. By treating labor, equipment, materials, space, and sequence as adjustable variables, builders can stress-test alternatives, understand the ripple effects of a given decision, and weigh tradeoffs between cost, speed, and risk, the firms said.
The partnership also arrives as the broader construction AI market continues to expand. The global AI in construction market is projected to reach an estimated $4.86 billion in 2025, according to industry analysis, reflecting growing adoption across design, planning, and site execution functions. A related data standards challenge, covered previously in this publication, remains a key barrier to scaling such platforms beyond pilot deployments - with fragmented data models and legacy project management systems slowing integration. For context on those interoperability hurdles, see our earlier analysis in Construction Robotics, AI Face Data Standards Barrier.
Details
The two companies have already introduced the optimization technology to more than 35 clients in infrastructure, data centers, energy, and manufacturing, achieving schedule acceleration of up to 20%, per the announcement. Specific project outcomes reported by the firms illustrate the range of application. San Antonio-based Zachry Construction used the technology to analyze schedules and cut a highway project's timeline by 28 days. A McKinsey data center client reduced the construction schedule on one project by 40%, per the announcement. Separately, Suffolk Construction used ALICE's Schedule Insights Agent to save 42 days on a project, according to ALICE Technologies' 2025 Annual Review.
Senior figures from both organizations framed the partnership as a structural shift in project controls. "Generative scheduling creates a step change in capital project performance," said Erikhans Kok, senior partner and leader of McKinsey's Capital Excellence practice. "When embedded within the right operating model and supported by strong project controls, it can help organizations make faster, more informed decisions."
Mark Pitcher, a partner in McKinsey's Capital Excellence practice, told Construction Dive that a McKinsey team will build models in ALICE's software to perform schedule analyses. "We use those models to perform deep schedule analytics to identify opportunities to improve the project plan," Pitcher said. "In parallel, we put in place the operating model and build the capabilities of our client teams that will sustain this novel approach over the long term."
ALICE Technologies CEO and founder René Morkos said: "Generative scheduling is reshaping how complex capital projects are planned and delivered. Together with McKinsey, we are helping organizations integrate this capability into broader transformation efforts and drive sustained impact at enterprise scale."
According to ALICE Technologies, clients using the platform have achieved a 17% reduction in project duration, a 14% reduction in labor costs, and a 12% reduction in equipment costs, according to CEO René Morkos.
Outlook
Industry observers will watch whether the partnership can scale beyond early adopters, with data governance and system interoperability representing the most immediate obstacles. Firms adopting generative scheduling will need clear policies on data ownership and model provenance, along with integration pathways into existing ERP and project management systems. Policy and standards bodies may also move to define standardized data schemas enabling cross-project benchmarking as the technology matures across sectors.
