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Updated - April 28, 2026 at 07:27 PM.

Ranjeeth Rathod (right), Managing Director, DRA, and Senthil Kumar, CTO- Global Head of AI, Slate Technologies Inc. at a press conference in Chennai. | Photo Credit: BIJOY GHOSH

Chennai-based real estate developers DRA on Tuesday announced a strategic partnership with California-based Slate Technologies Inc. to deploy Slate AI, an AI-powered construction intelligence platform across its operations.

The platform is currently deployed across DRA projects in Chennai covering approximately 3.3 million sq. ft., supporting nearly 2,000 workers across construction sites and over 100 technical staff, the real estate company said in a press conference on Tuesday. DRA will be integrating Slate AI across key functions including project management, quality inspection, site monitoring, procurement optimisation, safety analytics, and delay prediction, among others.

Slate Technologies helps developers shift from traditional reporting systems to proactive, AI-led execution models. Its platform and the various modules help offer more visibility in the project phases and help improve delivery outcomes and reduce cost overruns.

Ranjeeth Rathod, Managing Director, DRA said that the construction industry is at a crucial juncture where it needs to evolve. “Construction by experience is great but need to move to construction by intelligence for efficient delivery,” he said.

With Slate, we are now able to forecast the exact number of days, manpower, and material needed to deliver on projects and right now are focusing on shortening project delivery timelines,” he added. He expects to go in for full implementation of the AI modules by December 2026.

On the risk of AI eating up jobs in the labour intensive sector, Rathod told businessline that the tool is going to help the sector upskill their workforce and use of robots or other such physical AI systems is not here yet. Speaking about the impact of the West Asia war, Rathod says they have seen about 8-10 per cent cost increase and delivery pressures due to the situation. “AI tools like Slate help in meeting project timelines amid such crisis,” he added.

Speaking about the partnership, Senthil Kumar, Global Head of AI, Slate Technologies Inc. said that traditional systems are no longer enough to manage growing project complexity in the construction industry. The Silicon Valley based company that already serves North American, EU, UK, Africa and others, is making their India foray with DRA. We are now also in talks with more real estate players in India, Kumar told businessline.

Published on April 28, 2026

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