From what i know the plan calls for robots to start working before any humans arrive. I'm not sure if they will go with domes or underground, if they go underground there could be the materials (and shielding) needed for habitat instead of blasting a mountain...
Perhaps this might require some sort of manned space station orbiting Mars itself, to speed up operations on the ground. So if a proper space station with artificial gravity can be built near Earth, such object could be moved to Mars. Well you could practice doing the same thing on the Moon first, where landing and taking off is much cheaper.
AI does exist, it might not have attained full sentience yet, but it is real. You should take a search online, several impressive projects exist.
There's no need for AI for any of this.
There's simply a need for extensive stockpiles of materials and functioning gardens.
But that all still begs the question.
What is all this
FOR? What does it
DO?What else?
SCIENCE! and technological progress.
Make the station with artificial gravity near earth, move it to mars orbit, start working the probes until a suitable settlement can be possible down there. If you don't put the humans close to the probes, then sure AI would benefit as the long delay in communication means the robots can make different decisions in the meantime. Otherwise things like digging underground would take ages.
Who knows, maybe they could even find something valuable...