https://bricks-bytes.work/podcasts/bricks-and-bytes/ Podcast Wed, 15 Jul 2026 13:51:12 +0000 en-US © 2024 Bricks and Bytes Podcast Bricks and Bytes Podcast Bricks and Bytes hello@bricksbytes.show false hello@bricksbytes.show Podcast No yes ac428397-316f-5288-a4e5-192113929925 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.1 https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/the-construction-tech-exec-exposing-ai-vaporware/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:32:16 +0000 https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/the-construction-tech-exec-exposing-ai-vaporware/ “I can make you something that looks like it’s really expensive, but it took me four hours.” Dustin Burns, SVP of Technology at McCownGordon Construction, on the  software demo you just sat through. He built a cost history web app. Their real cost data, region benchmarking, conceptual estimates. One HTML file.  Four hours. His verdict: “And it is vaporware.” The point isn’t that it was bad. It’s that from the outside, you can’t tell anymore. So he looks for the ones building their own models, not the ones wrapping someone else’s API. Full episode with Dustin Burns is live now. Link below! #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #aec #construction  #constructiontech #ai #vc Chapters 00:00  Teaser 00:50 The Stress Beard (And Why He Shaves Every Morning) 03:03  Should Construction Companies Build Their Own Software? 05:29  What AI Actually Looks Like Inside a $1B Contractor 08:32  AI Sprawl: Governing Tools Your Team Builds Without You 10:50  Reality Capture, Laser Scanning and Drones on the Jobsite 14:10  Construction Robotics: Building a Robot for Under $5K 16:21  Sponsors 19:21  AI Estimating: When Your Client Prices the Job Without You 22:39  The Silver Tsunami and Construction’s Knowledge Transfer Problem 27:29  Voice AI in the Field: Less Typing, More Talking 30:25  Why a Safety Checklist Has No Value to a Superintendent 32:03  Emerging Construction Technology Worth Watching 34:30  How to Actually Sell Construction Software to a GC 36:19  Getting Pitched 10 AI Tools a Week 37:39  How to Spot an AI Wrapper (And Why Most Demos Are Vaporware) 40:05  Construction 2037: What the Jobsite Looks Like in 11 Years 45:16  Humans and Robots on the Same Jobsite 48:03  AI Governance Insurance: The Next SDI? 49:55  Automated Progress Tracking: The Problem Nobody Has Solved Our Sponsors: BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. – breadcrumb.co Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co Archdesk –  “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies – Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com]]> “I can make you something that looks like it’s really expensive, but it took me four hours.” Dustin Burns, SVP of Technology at McCownGordon Construction, on the  software demo you just sat through. He built a cost history web app. Their real cost data, region benchmarking, conceptual estimates. One HTML file.  Four hours. His verdict: “And it is vaporware.” The point isn’t that it was bad. It’s that from the outside, you can’t tell anymore. So he looks for the ones building their own models, not the ones wrapping someone else’s API. Full episode with Dustin Burns is live now. Link below! #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #aec #construction  #constructiontech #ai #vc Chapters 00:00  Teaser 00:50 The Stress Beard (And Why He Shaves Every Morning) 03:03  Should Construction Companies Build Their Own Software? 05:29  What AI Actually Looks Like Inside a $1B Contractor 08:32  AI Sprawl: Governing Tools Your Team Builds Without You 10:50  Reality Capture, Laser Scanning and Drones on the Jobsite 14:10  Construction Robotics: Building a Robot for Under $5K 16:21  Sponsors 19:21  AI Estimating: When Your Client Prices the Job Without You 22:39  The Silver Tsunami and Construction’s Knowledge Transfer Problem 27:29  Voice AI in the Field: Less Typing, More Talking 30:25  Why a Safety Checklist Has No Value to a Superintendent 32:03  Emerging Construction Technology Worth Watching 34:30  How to Actually Sell Construction Software to a GC 36:19  Getting Pitched 10 AI Tools a Week 37:39  How to Spot an AI Wrapper (And Why Most Demos Are Vaporware) 40:05  Construction 2037: What the Jobsite Looks Like in 11 Years 45:16  Humans and Robots on the Same Jobsite 48:03  AI Governance Insurance: The Next SDI? 49:55  Automated Progress Tracking: The Problem Nobody Has Solved Our Sponsors: BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. – breadcrumb.co Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co Archdesk –  “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies – Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com]]> https://bricks-bytes.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/23027300-1647240923907-174e9bb8bfdaf-scaled.jpg false no 00:51:35 No no https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/95-of-ai-projects-fail-the-data-centre-boom-is-stalling-one-problem-is-behind-both/ Sat, 11 Jul 2026 04:40:16 +0000 https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/95-of-ai-projects-fail-the-data-centre-boom-is-stalling-one-problem-is-behind-both/ This week’s briefing covers three things every construction leader should understand before they sign off on anything this year. David Gal from Samsara makes the argument that three quarters of construction hasn’t even started the thing that comes before AI. Not behind on AI. Behind on the step underneath it. He lays out a four stage journey, and most firms are at stage zero, still on the clipboard, still ringing round to find out where the excavator is. One firm he works with lost twenty million dollars of equipment in a single year without knowing it. The cost of not digitising is not zero. You just cannot see the bill yet. Then KPMG surveyed over two thousand senior executives across twenty countries. Nearly a third said they had no idea where their growing AI costs were coming from. MIT looked at corporate AI projects and found ninety five percent of them fail, not on the technology, but on the groundwork nobody did. The AI worked. The organisation around it did not. And the data centre boom, the thing keeping order books healthy while housing sits flat, is starting to slip. Not because the money has dried up. The four biggest tech companies are spending north of six hundred and fifty billion dollars this year alone. It is slipping because the wait for transformers and switchgear has stretched from two years to five. You can have the land, the funding and the chips and still not be able to build. The same problem is underneath all three. And construction, the industry everyone calls backward, already knows what it is. Drop your answer in the comments of this week’s LinkedIn post.]]> This week’s briefing covers three things every construction leader should understand before they sign off on anything this year. David Gal from Samsara makes the argument that three quarters of construction hasn’t even started the thing that comes before AI. Not behind on AI. Behind on the step underneath it. He lays out a four stage journey, and most firms are at stage zero, still on the clipboard, still ringing round to find out where the excavator is. One firm he works with lost twenty million dollars of equipment in a single year without knowing it. The cost of not digitising is not zero. You just cannot see the bill yet. Then KPMG surveyed over two thousand senior executives across twenty countries. Nearly a third said they had no idea where their growing AI costs were coming from. MIT looked at corporate AI projects and found ninety five percent of them fail, not on the technology, but on the groundwork nobody did. The AI worked. The organisation around it did not. And the data centre boom, the thing keeping order books healthy while housing sits flat, is starting to slip. Not because the money has dried up. The four biggest tech companies are spending north of six hundred and fifty billion dollars this year alone. It is slipping because the wait for transformers and switchgear has stretched from two years to five. You can have the land, the funding and the chips and still not be able to build. The same problem is underneath all three. And construction, the industry everyone calls backward, already knows what it is. Drop your answer in the comments of this week’s LinkedIn post.]]> https://bricks-bytes.work/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/23027300-1781257795960-aee0c2ab94e65-scaled.jpg false no 00:19:24 No no https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/manhattan-skyscraper-buckling-trunk-tools-70m-change-management-over-tech-why-fintech-backs-construction/ Fri, 10 Jul 2026 16:08:27 +0000 https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/manhattan-skyscraper-buckling-trunk-tools-70m-change-management-over-tech-why-fintech-backs-construction/ “Real AI is way more about how you do change management than picking the right technology.” That is Dr. Sarah Buchner, founder and CEO of Trunk Tools, on this week’s Bricks, Bucks & Bytes. A year on from her $40M Series B, she joined the roundtable to explain why the hardest part of construction AI is not the model. It is getting people to trust it. ✅ Why Trunk Tools will not sell you agents unless you let them train your team first ✅ The shift from point solution to a “system of action” that sits on top of Procore and Autodesk ✅ Why a new AI takeoff startup seems to launch every week, and why most break on the last 20% ✅ Her blunt line on vibe coded tools: “Don’t come on the market with something that Claude can already do.” Plus: a structural engineer breaks down the Midtown column buckling, and SubBase’s Eric Helitzer on why a fintech led his $7M Series A. 🎧 Full episode on YouTube and Spotify. #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vc Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:55 Introduction and Welcome 03:55 Trunk Tools Update and Series B Insights 06:46 Evolution of Trunk Tools: From Co-Pilot to System of Action 09:53 Challenges in Understanding Construction Drawings 12:52 Integration with Systems of Record 15:44 Building Trust in AI Agents 18:44 The Landscape of AI Startups in Construction 27:01 The Surge of AI in Outreach 28:07 Innovation in Construction Technology 32:35 Collaboration vs Competition in AI 34:44 Efficiency Gains in Construction 39:28 The Shift in AI Adoption 43:48 Future of Construction Tech and AI 47:58 Innovations in Construction Technology 49:33 Challenges in Construction Tech 50:16 The Future of Construction Tech 53:29 Structural Integrity and Engineering Insights 01:01:19 Funding and Growth in Construction Startups Our Sponsors: BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. – breadcrumb.co Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co Archdesk – “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies – Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com]]> “Real AI is way more about how you do change management than picking the right technology.” That is Dr. Sarah Buchner, founder and CEO of Trunk Tools, on this week’s Bricks, Bucks & Bytes. A year on from her $40M Series B, she joined the roundtable to explain why the hardest part of construction AI is not the model. It is getting people to trust it. ✅ Why Trunk Tools will not sell you agents unless you let them train your team first ✅ The shift from point solution to a “system of action” that sits on top of Procore and Autodesk ✅ Why a new AI takeoff startup seems to launch every week, and why most break on the last 20% ✅ Her blunt line on vibe coded tools: “Don’t come on the market with something that Claude can already do.” Plus: a structural engineer breaks down the Midtown column buckling, and SubBase’s Eric Helitzer on why a fintech led his $7M Series A. 🎧 Full episode on YouTube and Spotify. #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vc Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:55 Introduction and Welcome 03:55 Trunk Tools Update and Series B Insights 06:46 Evolution of Trunk Tools: From Co-Pilot to System of Action 09:53 Challenges in Understanding Construction Drawings 12:52 Integration with Systems of Record 15:44 Building Trust in AI Agents 18:44 The Landscape of AI Startups in Construction 27:01 The Surge of AI in Outreach 28:07 Innovation in Construction Technology 32:35 Collaboration vs Competition in AI 34:44 Efficiency Gains in Construction 39:28 The Shift in AI Adoption 43:48 Future of Construction Tech and AI 47:58 Innovations in Construction Technology 49:33 Challenges in Construction Tech 50:16 The Future of Construction Tech 53:29 Structural Integrity and Engineering Insights 01:01:19 Funding and Growth in Construction Startups Our Sponsors: BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. – breadcrumb.co Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co Archdesk – “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies – Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com]]> https://bricks-bytes.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/23027300-1647240923907-174e9bb8bfdaf-scaled.jpg false no 01:17:43 No no https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/the-ai-making-construction-sites-safer/ Wed, 08 Jul 2026 15:25:18 +0000 https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/the-ai-making-construction-sites-safer/ You can vibe code software in a weekend. You can’t vibe code a decade of safety data. That was the throughline with Ben Leach and Andrew Barron of HammerTech. In an AI era obsessed with what’s actually defensible, their answer wasn’t features. It was data. Ben built the company out of his own frustration on site: “what’s the point of sitting in there making sure that all your compliance is up to scratch if people are getting hurt out in the field” In today’s episode of Bricks & Bytes, we got into the real competitor (paper and spreadsheets, not rival software), why data centres are raising the safety bar for everyone, and what a solved job site looks like in ten years. Full episode out now. Link below #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vcChapters 00:00 Intro 01:16 Introduction to HammerTech and Safety Technology 08:59 The State of Safety in Construction 15:25 The Transition from Manual to Digital Safety Processes 24:20 The Future of Reality Capture and Data in Construction 33:34 Customer Onboarding and Implementation Process 42:20 Navigating the Competitive Landscape 48:13 Future of Safety Technology in Construction]]> You can vibe code software in a weekend. You can’t vibe code a decade of safety data. That was the throughline with Ben Leach and Andrew Barron of HammerTech. In an AI era obsessed with what’s actually defensible, their answer wasn’t features. It was data. Ben built the company out of his own frustration on site: “what’s the point of sitting in there making sure that all your compliance is up to scratch if people are getting hurt out in the field” In today’s episode of Bricks & Bytes, we got into the real competitor (paper and spreadsheets, not rival software), why data centres are raising the safety bar for everyone, and what a solved job site looks like in ten years. Full episode out now. Link below #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vcChapters 00:00 Intro 01:16 Introduction to HammerTech and Safety Technology 08:59 The State of Safety in Construction 15:25 The Transition from Manual to Digital Safety Processes 24:20 The Future of Reality Capture and Data in Construction 33:34 Customer Onboarding and Implementation Process 42:20 Navigating the Competitive Landscape 48:13 Future of Safety Technology in Construction]]> https://bricks-bytes.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/23027300-1647240923907-174e9bb8bfdaf-scaled.jpg false no 00:53:52 No no https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/the-three-phases-of-ai-readiness-how-construction-ceos-can-prepare/ Tue, 07 Jul 2026 16:07:39 +0000 https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/the-three-phases-of-ai-readiness-how-construction-ceos-can-prepare/ “How much money did we spend last year on small equipment?” That’s the one question David Gal, VP of Product & Engineering for ConnectedEquipment at Samsara, says stops most construction leaders cold. Most of them can’t answer it. And that blind spot is exactly why so many still can’t use AI. On today’s episode, David walks us through the data maturity curve everycontractor climbs, whether they realise it or not: Phase 0 : clipboards, spreadsheets, and hundreds of thousands of assets nobodycan locate Phase 1 : digitise the fleet, drop accidents, cut fuel Phase 2 : insights, utilisation, proactive maintenance Phase 3 : agents making the phone calls for you His warning: you can’t buy your way into Phase 3. Skip the groundwork and the AIhas nothing to stand on. We also get into stolen fleets, autonomous job sites, and why one pane of glassbeats another point solution. Watch the full episode on Youtube and Spotify. #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction#constructiontech #ai #vc Our Sponsors: BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. – breadcrumb.co Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co Archdesk – “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies – Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:35 The Data Backbone Construction Never Built 02:57 Why Construction Operations Are So Hard to Digitize 05:18 The Phases of Digitizing a Construction Business 08:10 What Staying Analog Actually Costs You 09:51 Sponsor 12:52 The Real Cost of Analog (cont.) 14:09 Getting From Phase Zero to Your First Digital Win 17:01 What the Data Reveals Once You Digitize 20:00 Putting AI to Work in Daily Operations 27:32 How AI Is Reshaping Fleet Management 30:15 Where Virtual Assistants Actually Add Value 34:10 Getting Your Team to Adopt New Tech 36:22 What Autonomy Really Means for Construction 43:10 Where Contractors Should Start Tomorrow]]> “How much money did we spend last year on small equipment?” That’s the one question David Gal, VP of Product & Engineering for ConnectedEquipment at Samsara, says stops most construction leaders cold. Most of them can’t answer it. And that blind spot is exactly why so many still can’t use AI. On today’s episode, David walks us through the data maturity curve everycontractor climbs, whether they realise it or not: Phase 0 : clipboards, spreadsheets, and hundreds of thousands of assets nobodycan locate Phase 1 : digitise the fleet, drop accidents, cut fuel Phase 2 : insights, utilisation, proactive maintenance Phase 3 : agents making the phone calls for you His warning: you can’t buy your way into Phase 3. Skip the groundwork and the AIhas nothing to stand on. We also get into stolen fleets, autonomous job sites, and why one pane of glassbeats another point solution. Watch the full episode on Youtube and Spotify. #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction#constructiontech #ai #vc Our Sponsors: BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. – breadcrumb.co Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co Archdesk – “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies – Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:35 The Data Backbone Construction Never Built 02:57 Why Construction Operations Are So Hard to Digitize 05:18 The Phases of Digitizing a Construction Business 08:10 What Staying Analog Actually Costs You 09:51 Sponsor 12:52 The Real Cost of Analog (cont.) 14:09 Getting From Phase Zero to Your First Digital Win 17:01 What the Data Reveals Once You Digitize 20:00 Putting AI to Work in Daily Operations 27:32 How AI Is Reshaping Fleet Management 30:15 Where Virtual Assistants Actually Add Value 34:10 Getting Your Team to Adopt New Tech 36:22 What Autonomy Really Means for Construction 43:10 Where Contractors Should Start Tomorrow]]> https://bricks-bytes.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/23027300-1647240923907-174e9bb8bfdaf-scaled.jpg false no 00:48:48 No no https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/two-things-were-supposed-to-save-construction-this-year-neither-showed-up/ Sat, 04 Jul 2026 10:11:00 +0000 https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/two-things-were-supposed-to-save-construction-this-year-neither-showed-up/ This month’s recap covers what June 2026 actually meant for the industry, and it was not what anyone had pencilled in. The cheaper borrowing that stalled schemes were relying on did not arrive. The European Central Bank raised rates. The Fed held. The Bank of England held. And a spike in oil above 125 dollars a barrel, triggered by fears over the Strait of Hormuz, made central banks nervous about cutting at all. On the materials side, US tariffs on steel, aluminium and copper are sitting at 50 percent, with non-residential material costs rising at their fastest pace since 2022. One estimate puts 17,500 dollars of added cost onto a single new American home. Both doors closed in the same month. Then the split that was supposed to be temporary. Data centres are now a bigger construction category than offices. But the thing holding that work back is not money, it is power, and grid connections are running five to seven years behind the builds. The boom is real. The gate is megawatts. Plus a full recap of the three June briefings you may have missed, on safety tech, the AI price war, what happens when AI hands your client the knowledge you used to charge for, and why the first piece of reconstruction technology in Ukraine is not a crane. And some trivia. What Gustave Eiffel built inside the Statue of Liberty, and what a Boston World Cup pitch crew found ten inches underground that nobody had touched in twenty years. The LinkedIn comment thread for this episode is where the conversation is happening. Come and tell us where you land.]]> This month’s recap covers what June 2026 actually meant for the industry, and it was not what anyone had pencilled in. The cheaper borrowing that stalled schemes were relying on did not arrive. The European Central Bank raised rates. The Fed held. The Bank of England held. And a spike in oil above 125 dollars a barrel, triggered by fears over the Strait of Hormuz, made central banks nervous about cutting at all. On the materials side, US tariffs on steel, aluminium and copper are sitting at 50 percent, with non-residential material costs rising at their fastest pace since 2022. One estimate puts 17,500 dollars of added cost onto a single new American home. Both doors closed in the same month. Then the split that was supposed to be temporary. Data centres are now a bigger construction category than offices. But the thing holding that work back is not money, it is power, and grid connections are running five to seven years behind the builds. The boom is real. The gate is megawatts. Plus a full recap of the three June briefings you may have missed, on safety tech, the AI price war, what happens when AI hands your client the knowledge you used to charge for, and why the first piece of reconstruction technology in Ukraine is not a crane. And some trivia. What Gustave Eiffel built inside the Statue of Liberty, and what a Boston World Cup pitch crew found ten inches underground that nobody had touched in twenty years. The LinkedIn comment thread for this episode is where the conversation is happening. Come and tell us where you land.]]> https://bricks-bytes.work/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/23027300-1781257795960-aee0c2ab94e65-scaled.jpg false no 00:21:23 No no https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/palantirs-ai-play-higharcs-95m-raise-indias-construction-boom-and-openspaces-spatial-ai/ Fri, 03 Jul 2026 16:54:15 +0000 https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/palantirs-ai-play-higharcs-95m-raise-indias-construction-boom-and-openspaces-spatial-ai/ $95M raises, Palantir’s sovereignty play, and a debate that nearly boiled over. This one had everything. This week on Bricks, Bucks & Bytes, we sat down with Alain Waha (CTO, Buro Happold), Marc Minor (CEO, Higharc) and Jeevan Kalanithi (CEO, OpenSpace), alongside Owen, Patric, Martin and Dustin, for one of our most heated roundtables yet On the table: → Palantir’s new sovereign AI push with Nvidia, and whether “no contradiction between sovereignty and alpha” is real insight or pure marketing → Why Dustin thinks forward-deployed engineers “need to go away” → Higharc’s fresh $95M Series C and the case for replacing AutoCAD in homebuilding → Whether the GC is really just an insurance company in disguise → Where OpenSpace is taking spatial AI eight months after acquiring Disperse Full episode on YouTube and Spotify. #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vc Our Sponsors: BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. – breadcrumb.co Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co Archdesk – “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies – Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:40 Alain Waha’s Global ConTech Tour: India, US, Canada, UK 03:44 Why the West Underestimates India in Construction 06:36 India vs China: The $7 Trillion Construction Boom 09:25 Palantir vs Anthropic: The AI Sovereignty War 12:42 How Alex Karp Markets Palantir (And Why It Works) 23:47 Why Nobody Understands “Ontology”: Palantir Buzzwords Decoded 24:51 Do You Really Need Forward Deployed Engineers? 27:55 Why Construction Is Really an Insurance Industry 29:14 Palantir in Construction: Cavtera, McCarthy and the Data Play 31:37 Higharc’s $95M Series C to Replace AutoCAD (Marc Minor) 33:32 How Higharc Serves Home Builders at Scale 37:02 Higharc’s Business Model and Home Building Challenges 40:00 Homes as Data: Inside the Higharc x USLBM Deal 46:02 World Cup Banter: US Football and Officiating 46:41 Is Football the World’s Greatest Sport? The Debate 49:08 OpenSpace Spatial AI: Agents That See the Jobsite (Jeevan Kalanithi) 55:16 Data Centres and the AI Delusion Killing Startups 01:07:04 What 10 Years as CEO Taught Jeevan Kalanithi]]> $95M raises, Palantir’s sovereignty play, and a debate that nearly boiled over. This one had everything. This week on Bricks, Bucks & Bytes, we sat down with Alain Waha (CTO, Buro Happold), Marc Minor (CEO, Higharc) and Jeevan Kalanithi (CEO, OpenSpace), alongside Owen, Patric, Martin and Dustin, for one of our most heated roundtables yet On the table: → Palantir’s new sovereign AI push with Nvidia, and whether “no contradiction between sovereignty and alpha” is real insight or pure marketing → Why Dustin thinks forward-deployed engineers “need to go away” → Higharc’s fresh $95M Series C and the case for replacing AutoCAD in homebuilding → Whether the GC is really just an insurance company in disguise → Where OpenSpace is taking spatial AI eight months after acquiring Disperse Full episode on YouTube and Spotify. #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vc Our Sponsors: BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. – breadcrumb.co Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co Archdesk – “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies – Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:40 Alain Waha’s Global ConTech Tour: India, US, Canada, UK 03:44 Why the West Underestimates India in Construction 06:36 India vs China: The $7 Trillion Construction Boom 09:25 Palantir vs Anthropic: The AI Sovereignty War 12:42 How Alex Karp Markets Palantir (And Why It Works) 23:47 Why Nobody Understands “Ontology”: Palantir Buzzwords Decoded 24:51 Do You Really Need Forward Deployed Engineers? 27:55 Why Construction Is Really an Insurance Industry 29:14 Palantir in Construction: Cavtera, McCarthy and the Data Play 31:37 Higharc’s $95M Series C to Replace AutoCAD (Marc Minor) 33:32 How Higharc Serves Home Builders at Scale 37:02 Higharc’s Business Model and Home Building Challenges 40:00 Homes as Data: Inside the Higharc x USLBM Deal 46:02 World Cup Banter: US Football and Officiating 46:41 Is Football the World’s Greatest Sport? The Debate 49:08 OpenSpace Spatial AI: Agents That See the Jobsite (Jeevan Kalanithi) 55:16 Data Centres and the AI Delusion Killing Startups 01:07:04 What 10 Years as CEO Taught Jeevan Kalanithi]]> https://bricks-bytes.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/23027300-1647240923907-174e9bb8bfdaf-scaled.jpg false no 01:11:07 No no https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/procores-safety-lead-on-nfc-helmets-ai-and-the-future-of-jobsite-safety/ Wed, 01 Jul 2026 17:24:01 +0000 https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/procores-safety-lead-on-nfc-helmets-ai-and-the-future-of-jobsite-safety/ “Even the most digitized job sites still have a binder and a filing cabinet in the trailer.” — Juliana Richard Butler, Procore We sat down with Procore’s Director of Product for Quality, Safety, and Media as part of our ongoing series on the state of construction safety technology. Her take cuts through a lot of the AI hype: paper isn’t going anywhere soon, and the real unlock is reducing friction, not adding more forms. ✅ NFC-enabled Studson helmets can surface certifications with a single tap, no wallet required ✅ Procore’s newly acquired Datagrid AI is built to support human intuition on the jobsite, not replace it ✅ Healthcare’s forced interoperability offers lessons for construction, but construction’s openness to new tools is the advantage healthcare doesn’t have ✅ The best safety tech buyers plan 2-3 years out, not around a single RFP Watch now on Youtube and Spotify. Our free Construction Safety Report. Download your copy here: https://bricks-bytes.com/downloads/construction-safety/ #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vc Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:30 How to fix safety on construction sites 01:13 What construction can learn from healthcare safety 04:43 How mobile apps are changing construction safety 07:39 Is construction safety actually digitised yet? 10:23 What safety software really does on site 14:18 Why workers don’t adopt safety technology 19:15 The real reason safety tech doesn’t get used 24:20 Where Procore fits in construction safety 29:16 How AI will change construction safety 29:17 Will AI replace safety managers? 31:41 Using technology to prevent site accidents 35:08 How to build a safety culture on site 38:55 Why psychological safety matters in construction 39:50 How customers shape safety technology 45:28 Compliance vs productivity in safety tech 50:37 How to choose the right safety technology]]> “Even the most digitized job sites still have a binder and a filing cabinet in the trailer.” — Juliana Richard Butler, Procore We sat down with Procore’s Director of Product for Quality, Safety, and Media as part of our ongoing series on the state of construction safety technology. Her take cuts through a lot of the AI hype: paper isn’t going anywhere soon, and the real unlock is reducing friction, not adding more forms. ✅ NFC-enabled Studson helmets can surface certifications with a single tap, no wallet required ✅ Procore’s newly acquired Datagrid AI is built to support human intuition on the jobsite, not replace it ✅ Healthcare’s forced interoperability offers lessons for construction, but construction’s openness to new tools is the advantage healthcare doesn’t have ✅ The best safety tech buyers plan 2-3 years out, not around a single RFP Watch now on Youtube and Spotify. Our free Construction Safety Report. Download your copy here: https://bricks-bytes.com/downloads/construction-safety/ #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vc Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:30 How to fix safety on construction sites 01:13 What construction can learn from healthcare safety 04:43 How mobile apps are changing construction safety 07:39 Is construction safety actually digitised yet? 10:23 What safety software really does on site 14:18 Why workers don’t adopt safety technology 19:15 The real reason safety tech doesn’t get used 24:20 Where Procore fits in construction safety 29:16 How AI will change construction safety 29:17 Will AI replace safety managers? 31:41 Using technology to prevent site accidents 35:08 How to build a safety culture on site 38:55 Why psychological safety matters in construction 39:50 How customers shape safety technology 45:28 Compliance vs productivity in safety tech 50:37 How to choose the right safety technology]]> https://bricks-bytes.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/23027300-1647240923907-174e9bb8bfdaf-scaled.jpg false no 00:52:41 No no https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/how-japans-220-year-old-contractor-is-rolling-out-ai-across-a-20000-person-workforce/ Tue, 30 Jun 2026 14:50:02 +0000 https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/how-japans-220-year-old-contractor-is-rolling-out-ai-across-a-20000-person-workforce/ “We don’t see the real costs of AI.” That’s Jean-Marc Frangos, ex-BT in Silicon Valley, now running AI at Shimizu, one of Japan’s “Big 5” contractors, founded in 1804. We sat down with him to unpack how a 220 year old builder actually rolls out AI across a 20,000 person workforce. The playbook, not the hype: ✅ Start with your data, not the model ✅ 5,000+ staff on one AI platform in ~7 months ✅ When the subsidies end, undisciplined teams get hit “like a ton of bricks” 🎧 Full episode out now. #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vc Our Sponsors: BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. – breadcrumb.co Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co Archdesk – “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies – Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com 00:00 Intro 00:33 Inside Japanese construction and innovation 05:58 What is a “genecon”? Shimizu and Japan’s super contractors 07:49 Sponsors 10:58 From telecom to construction: Jean-Marc’s career path 17:11 Japan vs Silicon Valley: how innovation actually happens 22:49 How Japanese construction trains its workforce 27:21 How Shimizu adopts AI and new technology 33:26 Why AI adoption in construction is accelerating 36:11 Specialized AI tools vs general models 38:03 RAG explained: AI data retrieval in construction 41:34 AI model routing to cut costs 43:56 Rolling out AI across a large organization 47:55 AI governance: tracking ROI and real benefits 55:39 The future of construction robotics 59:19 The cultural roots of Japan’s innovation mindset 📩 Subscribe to the Bricks & Bytes Newsletter: https://bricks-bytes.beehiiv.com/🌐 Visit our website: http://bricks-bytes.com/📲 Follow us: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bricks-bytes/ Twitter: https://x.com/bricksbytespod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bricksbytes/Enjoying the insights? Hit that Subscribe button to stay ahead in construction tech, AI, and the future of how we build.]]> “We don’t see the real costs of AI.” That’s Jean-Marc Frangos, ex-BT in Silicon Valley, now running AI at Shimizu, one of Japan’s “Big 5” contractors, founded in 1804. We sat down with him to unpack how a 220 year old builder actually rolls out AI across a 20,000 person workforce. The playbook, not the hype: ✅ Start with your data, not the model ✅ 5,000+ staff on one AI platform in ~7 months ✅ When the subsidies end, undisciplined teams get hit “like a ton of bricks” 🎧 Full episode out now. #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vc Our Sponsors: BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. – breadcrumb.co Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co Archdesk – “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies – Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com 00:00 Intro 00:33 Inside Japanese construction and innovation 05:58 What is a “genecon”? Shimizu and Japan’s super contractors 07:49 Sponsors 10:58 From telecom to construction: Jean-Marc’s career path 17:11 Japan vs Silicon Valley: how innovation actually happens 22:49 How Japanese construction trains its workforce 27:21 How Shimizu adopts AI and new technology 33:26 Why AI adoption in construction is accelerating 36:11 Specialized AI tools vs general models 38:03 RAG explained: AI data retrieval in construction 41:34 AI model routing to cut costs 43:56 Rolling out AI across a large organization 47:55 AI governance: tracking ROI and real benefits 55:39 The future of construction robotics 59:19 The cultural roots of Japan’s innovation mindset 📩 Subscribe to the Bricks & Bytes Newsletter: https://bricks-bytes.beehiiv.com/🌐 Visit our website: http://bricks-bytes.com/📲 Follow us: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bricks-bytes/ Twitter: https://x.com/bricksbytespod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bricksbytes/Enjoying the insights? Hit that Subscribe button to stay ahead in construction tech, AI, and the future of how we build.]]> https://bricks-bytes.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/23027300-1647240923907-174e9bb8bfdaf-scaled.jpg false no 01:08:25 No no https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/when-ai-knows-what-you-know-what-does-the-client-pay-for/ Sat, 27 Jun 2026 10:11:00 +0000 https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/when-ai-knows-what-you-know-what-does-the-client-pay-for/ This week’s briefing covers three conversations every construction leader should sit with. Ryan Maibach runs Barton Malow, a five billion dollar builder with over a hundred years of history. He is turning work away in the best market his firm has ever seen, and that is not the surprising part. The surprising part is what worries him most. A large chunk of what builders get paid for is knowing things the client does not. If AI hands that knowledge to the client directly, what exactly are you selling? Rob Painter runs Trimble and arrives at the same warning from the other side. Construction got faster task by task and never fixed the system those tasks sit inside. His read on AI is identical, and his advice to any CEO trying to navigate it is blunt. You cannot delegate understanding the thing that is about to reshape your business. And then Ukraine. Not the war as you have seen it on the news, but what is being built underneath it. A country that moved from software to world leading drone technology out of necessity is now positioning construction tech as the next step. The rebuild has not started yet, because you cannot rebuild what you have not counted, and something new gets destroyed even as you are counting it. Three conversations. One question running through all of them. Join the argument in the comments of this week’s LinkedIn post.]]> This week’s briefing covers three conversations every construction leader should sit with. Ryan Maibach runs Barton Malow, a five billion dollar builder with over a hundred years of history. He is turning work away in the best market his firm has ever seen, and that is not the surprising part. The surprising part is what worries him most. A large chunk of what builders get paid for is knowing things the client does not. If AI hands that knowledge to the client directly, what exactly are you selling? Rob Painter runs Trimble and arrives at the same warning from the other side. Construction got faster task by task and never fixed the system those tasks sit inside. His read on AI is identical, and his advice to any CEO trying to navigate it is blunt. You cannot delegate understanding the thing that is about to reshape your business. And then Ukraine. Not the war as you have seen it on the news, but what is being built underneath it. A country that moved from software to world leading drone technology out of necessity is now positioning construction tech as the next step. The rebuild has not started yet, because you cannot rebuild what you have not counted, and something new gets destroyed even as you are counting it. Three conversations. One question running through all of them. Join the argument in the comments of this week’s LinkedIn post.]]> https://bricks-bytes.work/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/23027300-1781257795960-aee0c2ab94e65-scaled.jpg false no 00:18:29 No no https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/ukraines-588-billion-reconstruction-nvidias-ai-factory-the-future-of-construction/ Fri, 26 Jun 2026 15:00:01 +0000 https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/ukraines-588-billion-reconstruction-nvidias-ai-factory-the-future-of-construction/ Ukraine’s reconstruction has been estimated at $588 billion by the World Bank’s Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA5), although our guest argues the true figure is likely higher.In this episode of Bricks, Bucks & Bytes, we speak with Oleg Demydenko, Chair of Ukraine’s National ConTech Cluster, about the technologies, engineering approaches and digital systems emerging during Ukraine’s reconstruction.We also discuss:* Why Ukraine’s reconstruction is currently estimated at $588 billion (World Bank RDNA5)* How new infrastructure is being designed with modular, distributed and replaceable systems* Why Oleg says, “We have no time to sell it. We’ve already developed a new one.”* NVIDIA’s AI factory in Ukraine* Why Patric Hellermann believes humanoid robots are an overhyped investment category* Agility Robotics going public via a SPAC after deploying around 100 humanoid robotsIf you’re interested in construction, construction technology, AI, robotics, infrastructure and venture capital, this episode explores the ideas, technologies and investment themes discussed by our panel.#construction #constructiontechnology #contech #ukraine #ai #robotics #infrastructure #venturecapitalOur Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. – breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk – “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies – Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.comChapters00:00 Intro00:58 What We’re Building for the ConTech Community02:01 Wispr Flow Voice AI: Owen’s Honest Take03:29 Agility Robotics SPAC: Should Robots Go Public?05:50 How Much Is a Humanoid Robot Actually Worth?09:29 Humanoid Robotics: The Problems Nobody Talks About13:32 Can Humanoid Robots Be Used in War?16:01 Rebuilding Ukraine: The $588 Billion Plan23:32 How the War Is Changing Construction Technology27:36 Modular Steel That Protects Ukraine’s Power Grid30:14 Designing Buildings to Survive Attacks32:46 Why Modular Construction Is the Future36:25 How Much of Ukraine Is Actually Destroyed?40:17 Ukrainian Founders: Stop Changing Your Name43:57 Is the Ukraine War Reaching a Turning Point?]]> Ukraine’s reconstruction has been estimated at $588 billion by the World Bank’s Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA5), although our guest argues the true figure is likely higher.In this episode of Bricks, Bucks & Bytes, we speak with Oleg Demydenko, Chair of Ukraine’s National ConTech Cluster, about the technologies, engineering approaches and digital systems emerging during Ukraine’s reconstruction.We also discuss:* Why Ukraine’s reconstruction is currently estimated at $588 billion (World Bank RDNA5)* How new infrastructure is being designed with modular, distributed and replaceable systems* Why Oleg says, “We have no time to sell it. We’ve already developed a new one.”* NVIDIA’s AI factory in Ukraine* Why Patric Hellermann believes humanoid robots are an overhyped investment category* Agility Robotics going public via a SPAC after deploying around 100 humanoid robotsIf you’re interested in construction, construction technology, AI, robotics, infrastructure and venture capital, this episode explores the ideas, technologies and investment themes discussed by our panel.#construction #constructiontechnology #contech #ukraine #ai #robotics #infrastructure #venturecapitalOur Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. – breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk – “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies – Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.comChapters00:00 Intro00:58 What We’re Building for the ConTech Community02:01 Wispr Flow Voice AI: Owen’s Honest Take03:29 Agility Robotics SPAC: Should Robots Go Public?05:50 How Much Is a Humanoid Robot Actually Worth?09:29 Humanoid Robotics: The Problems Nobody Talks About13:32 Can Humanoid Robots Be Used in War?16:01 Rebuilding Ukraine: The $588 Billion Plan23:32 How the War Is Changing Construction Technology27:36 Modular Steel That Protects Ukraine’s Power Grid30:14 Designing Buildings to Survive Attacks32:46 Why Modular Construction Is the Future36:25 How Much of Ukraine Is Actually Destroyed?40:17 Ukrainian Founders: Stop Changing Your Name43:57 Is the Ukraine War Reaching a Turning Point?]]> https://bricks-bytes.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/23027300-1647240923907-174e9bb8bfdaf-scaled.jpg false no 00:56:12 No no https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/navatechs-prakash-senghani-why-whatsapp-is-constructions-most-successful-tech-tool/ Wed, 24 Jun 2026 15:00:00 +0000 https://bricks-bytes.work/podcast/navatechs-prakash-senghani-why-whatsapp-is-constructions-most-successful-tech-tool/ “WhatsApp’s the most successful construction technology tool ever built.” Half a joke, but only half. That’s what Prakash Senghani, Co-Founder and CEO of Navatech, told us on the latest Bricks & Bytes. His point: the workers who most need safety tech are the ones it never reaches. So instead of forcing them onto another clunky app, Navatech put its AI inside the tool they already use, in their own language, by voice, or from a photo. A few things that stuck with us: Most “digital transformation” in safety is just paper on a screenYou can’t prove a negative, which makes safety ROI brutally hard to show The scariest competitor isn’t Procore or Autodesk, it’s customers building their own tools with AI Full episode out now. 🎧 #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vc Our free Construction Safety Report. Download your copy here: https://bricks-bytes.com/downloads/construction-safety/ Our Sponsors: BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. – breadcrumb.co Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co Archdesk – “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies – Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com Chapters0:00 Teaser 1:24 Intro – Why Safety Tech Matters in Construction 4:10 What Poor Safety Really Costs You 5:42 Sponsors 8:43 What Poor Safety Really Costs You (cont.) 10:04 Why Compliance-Only Safety Falls Short 13:16 How Construction Safety Training Is Changing 16:20 Using Technology to Manage Site Safety 19:19 Automating Safety Data Capture 22:17 Bringing Advanced Tech Into Safety 25:24 Getting Crews to Actually Use Safety Software 28:28 Inside the Safety Tech Market 31:08 How to Choose the Right Safety Software 34:08 The Future of Construction Safety Tech]]> “WhatsApp’s the most successful construction technology tool ever built.” Half a joke, but only half. That’s what Prakash Senghani, Co-Founder and CEO of Navatech, told us on the latest Bricks & Bytes. His point: the workers who most need safety tech are the ones it never reaches. So instead of forcing them onto another clunky app, Navatech put its AI inside the tool they already use, in their own language, by voice, or from a photo. A few things that stuck with us: Most “digital transformation” in safety is just paper on a screenYou can’t prove a negative, which makes safety ROI brutally hard to show The scariest competitor isn’t Procore or Autodesk, it’s customers building their own tools with AI Full episode out now. 🎧 #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vc Our free Construction Safety Report. Download your copy here: https://bricks-bytes.com/downloads/construction-safety/ Our Sponsors: BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. – breadcrumb.co Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co Archdesk – “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies – Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com Chapters0:00 Teaser 1:24 Intro – Why Safety Tech Matters in Construction 4:10 What Poor Safety Really Costs You 5:42 Sponsors 8:43 What Poor Safety Really Costs You (cont.) 10:04 Why Compliance-Only Safety Falls Short 13:16 How Construction Safety Training Is Changing 16:20 Using Technology to Manage Site Safety 19:19 Automating Safety Data Capture 22:17 Bringing Advanced Tech Into Safety 25:24 Getting Crews to Actually Use Safety Software 28:28 Inside the Safety Tech Market 31:08 How to Choose the Right Safety Software 34:08 The Future of Construction Safety Tech]]> https://bricks-bytes.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/23027300-1647240923907-174e9bb8bfdaf-scaled.jpg false no 00:45:47 No no