CII AI Assistant Proof of Concept
Reimagining Knowledge Discovery Through AI
Role
UX Design Lead
Year
2025
Client
Construction Industry Institute
The Opportunity
Construction Industry Institute (CII) maintains an extensive library of research, best practices, and benchmarking data for the construction industry. However, finding and engaging with that knowledge isn't intuitive—members must manually filter through a vast content repository, which can be overwhelming and time-consuming.
Our team saw an opportunity to help CII leverage AI to transform how members interact with their knowledge base—and to demonstrate BlueModus's innovation capabilities in the process. We pitched an AI-powered experiences that could align with their broader technology roadmap. The brief outlined how AI could transform member experiences through:
AI-powered search that understands complex queries and cites relevant documents
Research assistant that generates summaries and insights
AI-driven recommendations based on user behavior
Benchmarking support to help members compare project data
AI-enhanced education tools, such as summarizers and tutors
AI-driven knowledge management, improving how definitions and conflicts in research are handled
My Role
I was tasked with translating these concepts into a real, usable experience through three core components:
1. AI Assistant for Smarter Content Discovery
Design how the assistant fits into the experience—as an inline search tool, floating chat interface, or dedicated page. The AI should guide users toward better results through suggested prompts and conversational filtering, with responses that include summarized insights, follow-up suggestions, and connections to related reports.
2. Document Sidebar AI for Enhanced Engagement
Create a sidebar within the document viewer that provides key takeaways, conversational guidance through dense reports, and potential for future features like downloadable audio summaries—available when users need it, easy to ignore when they don't.
3. AI Dashboard for Organized Insights
Design how AI-generated insights should be presented—as a personalized feed based on user activity, a structured way to track research, or connections between reports, courses, and best practices. The dashboard needed to feel like a valuable tool, not just another page to scroll through.
Prototypes
Non-Authenticated Experience:
Homepage introducing the AI Assistant as a membership benefit
Login flow leading to personalized dashboard
Trending Insights, Recent Research, Course Progress, and AI-generated Research Recommendations
Interactive "Add a Section" feature where users could request custom dashboard modules through conversational AI
Real-time AI response adding "Recent Activity in my Community" section
Conversational AI Assistant
Logged-in homepage with AI chat interface overlaying hero section
Role-based suggested prompts (e.g., "As a capital projects planner, show me the latest research for industrial modularization")
AI response with strategy recommendations, source citations, and follow-up questions
Follow-up interaction: "How can I access the PDRI tools and resources from CII?" with step-by-step guidance
AI-Powered Document Reader:
PDF detail page with "Read with CII Blueprint" call-to-action
Enhanced PDF viewer with AI sidebar assistant
Suggested prompt interaction: "What specific contributions of CII members were highlighted?"
AI scanning document, providing answers with clickable page references, and offering related follow-up questions
What made this successful
A one-week POC requires ruthless prioritization. I focused design effort on the moments that would make AI feel transformative:
The dashboard "Add a Section" interaction that showed AI understanding natural requests and responding in real-time. The conversational search experience with follow-up questions that demonstrated how AI could guide discovery better than keyword search. The document sidebar with clickable page references that proved AI wasn't just summarizing—it was creating pathways deeper into the research.
By designing the highest-impact moments rather than comprehensive coverage, I created a prototype that told a compelling story about CII's AI-powered future.