AI helps a builder rethink what’s possible
With fresh perspective and Fisher‑sharpened skills, Levi Duncan turns data, vision and grit into momentum for revitalizing Springfield.
Levi Duncan used AI as an aide when designing The Springfield Metropolis, a redevelopment project his company completed in downtown Springfield. (Photo by Corey Wilson)
As the founder of a home remodeling company, Levi Duncan knows the importance of spotting opportunity. Case in point? One of his carpenters still uses a flip phone. Folksy? Yes. Cutting-edge? Not really.
“Technology is just getting started in construction,” says Duncan, a student in the Executive MBA program at the Fisher College of Business. “Sure, they’re printing 3D houses, but when you’re at the remodeling level, technology isn’t a big thing. That just means it’s primed to be disrupted.”
It’s why Duncan, who also spent 24 years in the U.S. military before retiring last autumn, has turned to AI to help manage routine tasks and big-picture projects. He credits a data analytics class, part of his master’s program coursework, as being instrumental.
“I’m sitting in class thinking, ‘How do I take what I’m learning and make it into something that can disrupt my industry?’” he says. “From there, I started getting myself and my staff familiar with tools like ChatGPT to see how beneficial it can be.”
Turns out, pretty beneficial.
“If we have issues or questions, we can use ChatGPT to pull up a municipality’s code and give us all the references we need before submitting a permit request,” Duncan says. “Same for estimating and design work. There’s a learning curve for design software, but there’s no learning curve for ‘Show me cabinets in green with this and that’ to come up with a simple idea.”
Duncan’s embrace of AI has created even broader impact. He used it to transform a historic building and church into The Springfield Metropolis, a redevelopment project in downtown Springfield, an area 45 miles west of the Columbus campus that houses a growing mix of businesses and nonprofit agencies.
Tracey Tackett ’24 MPA is assistant mayor, a city commissioner and a small business owner. She laughs thinking about when she first heard Duncan’s ambitious plans.
“I remember thinking, ‘I love this guy for his dreams, but man, how’s this going to make money?’” she says. “It’s so big, and our town is now at 60,000 to 70,000 in population. It seemed like such a gigantic dream to put all these different businesses together within this building and reimagine a church.”
Getting the Metropolis started was actually a bit analog. Duncan lined up investment partners, secured funding and grants. But the research behind each request, proposal and application was aided by AI.
“I turned to AI to help create synergy based on the latest census and demographics data we have for Springfield,” Duncan says. “Before, I would have had to have others open doors for me to learn about real estate―and there’s value in that. But with AI, I can accelerate my ability to analyze information and get that expert advice 100 times faster, with just the click of a keyboard.”
Today, the Metropolis is thriving and home to a hair salon and three nonprofit organizations. The fully restored sanctuary of the former Central Methodist Episcopal Church now serves as an event space.
That Duncan has and continues to wholeheartedly embrace emerging technology doesn’t surprise those close to him. EMBA classmate Paul Homan ’19 had a front-row seat to early conversations about Duncan’s next venture, an app startup designed to help automate home maintenance and repair. The idea, sparked by that same data analytics course at Fisher, is in the fundraising phase.
“Levi has been the most actionable out of our class, in terms of utilizing that knowledge and technology for new developments,” says Homan, head of client solutions at Cincinnati-based Prodigy Product Development. “People talk about how they’re using different products that are out there, but for him to take that leap into actually implementing it into a startup is awesome and speaks to Levi’s personality as a go-getter.”
In Springfield, Tackett calls him an “entrepreneur dreamer,” which is apt. Duncan’s dreams, however, typically become reality.
“He came in and saw the beauty of Springfield and the opportunity, whereas, when you live here and drive past the same boarded-up house every day for 10 years, it all becomes wallpaper to you,” she says. “To see someone come in with fresh perspective, a fresh vision, it reignites the people within the city who love the city, who want the best for the city, who work hard for this city, but who also feel kind of beat up, especially by the past couple of years. To have that fresh energy and the fresh perspective is just re-energizing.”
