Houzz estimates AI is worth $244K a year to a construction firm that uses it. Here's what its survey actually shows.

Houzz's new survey puts a price on AI for a construction firm that uses it: $244,000 a year. That's Houzz's model, built on hours people say they saved. Nobody measured it. The survey is Houzz's 2026 U.S. State of AI in Construction & Design report, and Houzz has a commercial interest: it sells AI-powered software to construction and design pros through Houzz Pro (p. 59). Builder Magazine wrote the report up. Here's what the survey actually shows.

What the survey measured is adoption and self-reported time. More than half of construction firms on Houzz (52%) say they use AI for everyday business tasks. That's up 20 percentage points from 2025 (pp. 13–14). Another 34% say they're exploring AI tools.

Construction firms using AI report saving 4.7 hours a week on average. Nearly a third (32%) report saving eight hours or more, against 18% of AI-using construction and design pros combined (pp. 5, 13, 22).

The 4.7 is an average Houzz built from answers given in ranges: under 1, 1 to 3, 3 to 5, 5 to 8, and 8 or more hours. Houzz doesn't say how it counted the open-ended 8+ group.

Houzz turns those hours into $244,000 a year per AI-using construction firm (pp. 9, 22). It's an estimate "based on self-reported weekly time savings from AI use and average annual revenues," and it "assumes a 40-hour workweek and that time saved translates into a productivity gain" (p. 9 note).

The figure leans on average revenue, not just hours. Construction firms report about a third more weekly hours than design firms (4.7 vs 3.6; pp. 22, 28). But Houzz values their gain at about three times as much ($244,000 vs $80,000; p. 9).

Construction firms using AI lean on it most for client-facing and project work. Sales and marketing leads (64%), then planning and design (61%), project and client management (59%), administrative work (52%) and business operations (45%) (p. 16). The most common single use is still estimates or proposals (87%, pp. 13, 18). Pre-project visuals rose to 70% from 42% (p. 20), and task creation and tracking to 70% from 33% (p. 18).

Who answered: Houzz emailed U.S. construction and design pros registered on Houzz in June and July 2026, and 601 businesses responded (pp. 4, 57). Respondents chose to answer. Houzz gives no response rate and doesn't say how many of them use Houzz Pro. It marks statistical significance (at the 90% level) on only some changes, like the rise to 52% (p. 14), and on none of the four in the chart.

Construction Owners ran Houzz's release under the headline "Houzz Report: AI Adoption in Construction Reaches 41%." That 41% isn't construction alone. In Houzz's own release, it's the share of all construction and design firms using AI for everyday business tasks, up 7 points (pp. 5, 8). For construction firms alone, the figure is 52%.

Firms that use it, use it a lot: 80% of construction firms using AI use it daily (p. 15). Reliability is still the open question. Among construction and design pros combined, 37% name the reliability and accuracy of AI as their biggest concern, up from 33% in 2025. Houzz asked for a single biggest concern, and this was the top answer (pp. 5, 11).