AI Robots, Construction's BIG Technology Problem, Drones & the Future of Jobsites

Twelve months ago, Zaid Kahn said the words "knowledge graph" to us in a Boston office.We nodded. We had no idea what he meant.So we brought him back, with Bogdan Arsintescu, who sat on the original Google Knowledge Graph team and later ran graph systems at LinkedIn and Microsoft.The ask was simple. Explain it like we're five. A knowledge graph is a set of facts. Subject, predicate, object. "Door 105 has a 45 minute fire rating." An ontology is the rulebook. Everyone agreeing what every symbol on a drawing sheet means before anyone reads it. A chatbot context window is a drawing table. If the addendum is in the filing cabinet, it doesn't exist.Bogdan's line of the episode: "Knowledge Graph is just the bullet points."We still don't fully know what ontology means. But we're closer.#constructiontech #ai #aec #preconstruction #bricksandbytesOur Sponsors:Aphex 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 Teaser01:07 What Is a Knowledge Graph? (Explained Like You're Five)04:10 Knowledge Graph vs Ontology: The Difference Explained07:56 Sponsor10:57 Why Construction Needs Knowledge Graphs (Spec vs Drawing vs Addendum)14:58 Why ChatGPT Can't Do This: Context Windows Explained19:11 Knowledge Graphs vs LLMs: Why You Need a Vertical AI26:43 Preconstruction Risk: Why Bids Go Wrong29:53 The Future of AI in Construction32:10 How Neuron Factory Works With Suffolk and GCs

This week’s briefing covers three things that landed in the same week and all point at the same underlying question. Are construction businesses actually prepared for what is coming at them?First, the productivity number nobody wants to say out loud. Buildots Intelligence Lab published its first global construction benchmarks report this week, built on data from over 200 live projects across housing, offices, hospitals and data centres. On a typical project, crews deliver 63% of their planned production rate. The best quarter of projects reach 79%, which still means losing a full day every single week. But here is the part that should change how you run your jobs. Every project in the dataset has four consecutive weeks where crews nearly double their output. Same people, same building, nothing new on site. The report cannot tell you why it happens. But it can tell you it happens on nearly every job. The question is whether you are capturing those conditions and repeating them.Download the full report at buildots.com/lab/global-construction-benchmarks-reportThen Aramco. One of their pipelines was hit by a drone. The next morning bulldozers were already cutting a new route. They recover from catastrophic events more than six times faster than the industry average. Not because of one thing, but because of a system. Zero hour response teams on site within minutes. Damage assessed before the incident is contained. Ninety percent of repair materials already warehoused locally. Multiple redundancies so no single failure stops the operation. The lesson for construction businesses is not about oil pipelines. It is about whether your contingency plans are a system or just a list.Then KPMG surveyed 400 American CEOs on what keeps them up at night. The answer was not labour, not tariffs, not interest rates. It was cybercrime. 85% say it will affect their company within three years and it ranked above every geopolitical risk. Construction had it ranked 10th. Turner, Kiewit and AECOM have all reported unauthorised system access since July. The lawyers say the most common attack is a fake invoice from a hijacked email with a different bank account number, and after 24 to 48 hours the money is gone.Drop your answers to this week’s questions in the comments of this week’s LinkedIn post.

Manufacturing in Europe runs 267 robots per 10,000 workers. Construction runs close to zero.That gap is why we are hosting Groundworks on 11 November. It is also why Origin exists.Yogesh Ghaturle joined Bricks, Bucks & Bytes the day Origin came out of stealth with $20M to put autonomous robots to work on interior construction.Why the last wave of drywall robots failed, and what has changed sinceThe throughput question every contractor asks before anything elseUS contractors want to rent. European contractors want to buy the outcome.Martin's verdict: commercially viable on big jobs, hard to see on small and medium sites.So, a business or a science project?Full episode live on Youtube and Spotify. Link in comments.#constructiontech #ai #aec #bricksbucksandbytes #bricksandbytesChapters00:00 Teaser01:21 Bricks, Bucks & Bytes Podcast03:07 Groundworks Summit: Construction Robotics Event in London10:43 AI in Engineering and Construction: Productivity Gains for Small Firms13:19 OpenAI Recording Device Case and AI Cybersecurity Risks17:39 Origin Raises $20M: Autonomous Robots for Construction20:19 Interior Construction Automation: Wall Finishing Robots21:34 Construction Action Models: How Origin's Robot AI Works26:13 Commercialising Construction Robots: Pilots, Customers and Throughput31:29 Hardest Challenges in Building Interior Construction Robots33:08 Construction Robotics Business Models: Rental vs Outcome-as-a-Service

Which construction tech is the industry wasting money on?We put that to Stuart Drahota at DPR Construction and he didn't dodge it: progress tracking and deviation analysis. In his words, "we're not quite there yet."His reasoning: there's a real gap between what project teams expect from these tools and the effort it takes to make them work on a live job.Agree, or are we being too harsh? We also got into:The digital dig board his team is now piloting across 15 DPR projects Why he thinks progress tracking isn't quite there yet The Sharpie layout robot DPR patented in 2013 and later licensed to Dusty Robotics The one tool he'd keep if the whole tech budget vanishedFull Episode live on Youtube and Spotify. Link in comments.#constructiontech #realitycapture #aec #construction #bricksandbytesChapters00:00 Intro00:55 Introduction to Stuart Drahota and DPR Construction03:07 Innovation Metrics and Impact in Construction04:43 Technology Adoption and Challenges in Construction08:23 The Digital Dig Board: Enhancing Job Site Communication13:56 Reality Capture and Drone Technology in Construction17:23 ROI of Drone Technology and Its Applications20:25 Common Reasons for Technology Failure on Job Sites20:57 Sponsors24:48 Embracing Failure as a Learning Tool25:38 Winning Support for Technology Adoption27:34 The Evolution of Layout Technology29:46 Building a Technology Roadmap32:22 The Role of AI in Construction35:32 Innovations in Robotics39:09 The Future of Construction Technology45:07 Advice for Newcomers in Construction

Startups are paying thousands for AEC conference booths and asking what they actually got for it.AEC conference season is here, and almost nobody we talk to is coming home from these events happy.On this week's Bricks, Bucks & Bytes, Dustin told us where Ediphi's event budget is going next year: "I don't think we're gonna be spending money on these conferences."Also on the episode:• Why startups are skipping booths for side events and hyper-local customer hosting• Autodesk promotes its Media & Entertainment lead to EVP of AEC• Schneider Electric buys PTC for $22.6B in cash• Data centre planning slows while institutional work grows, and the $4.2T question hanging over AI infrastructure• Andrés Mitnik, CEO of Strong by Form (€5.8M Series A), on timber floors that compete with concrete• Alex Michalatos, CEO of Buildcheck ($12M Series A), on AI design review for GCsIs the big vendor conference still worth it, or is the side event the real event now?Episode out on Youtube and Spotify. Link in comments.#aec #constructiontech #bricksbucksandbytes #bricksandbytesOur Sponsors:Aphex 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 Teaser01:23 Event season is here02:18 How to survive conference season05:57 Are construction conferences still worth it?09:08 Autodesk's new head of AEC, Diana Colella11:12 Schneider Electric buys PTC for $22.6B17:01 Is data centre construction slowing down?18:23 Is AI a bubble? The $4.2 trillion question23:13 Help to Buy and the housing affordability problem24:04 Strong by Form calls in from Berlin24:24 Can wood replace concrete floors?27:14 Timber vs concrete: the real cost comparison31:08 Is mass timber sustainable? Reuse vs recycling34:15 Why new building materials struggle to scale36:24 Buildcheck calls in37:27 How AI checks construction drawings for errors42:21 How Buildcheck prices AI design review46:04 AI design review vs BIM clash detection48:40 How construction tech startups win over GCs

This week’s briefing covers three things that landed in the same week and all point at the same uncomfortable gap between what AI promises and what it actually delivers.Suffolk, one of the biggest contractors in the US, published a white paper with MIT’s Center for Real Estate and MIT Media Lab this week. They took a real building, a 118,000 square foot multi-family block in San Francisco that finished in 2024 at 179 million dollars, and ran six AI levers across it simultaneously. Design automation, offsite manufacturing, permitting, scheduling, labour and subcontracting, and supply chain. The model took 28 million dollars out of 128 and seven months out of 30 on the construction phase alone. The unlevered return to the developer goes up by 5 to 6 percentage points, which the paper says can be the difference between housing getting built and housing not getting built at all.Then the authors themselves. The per lever gains come from early stage pilots and should be treated as directional rather than construction validated benchmarks. The six levers only compound if data flows between them, and the paper says that needs a shared data infrastructure layer the levers themselves do not provide. The practitioners in the room ranked robots last despite academic studies being the most optimistic about them, because the studies measure performance in controlled conditions and practitioners are pricing in what it costs to create those conditions on a live site. Suffolk calls its own model a first pass. The work to prove it runs in 2027.Then the market as it actually stands. Gardner and Theobald describe it as selective not cheaper. 69% of contractors say they are more selective than a year ago. MEP is the pinch point with 68% reporting tighter availability. In the US, contractors have absorbed roughly half the material cost rises from this year and JLL expects the rest to land in bids before year end. And on labour, UK right to work rules extended to the self employed and subcontractors from October 1st with fines of 60,000 pounds per worker. In the US, immigration enforcement is discouraging legal workers from reporting to sites in a workforce already 300,000 to 400,000 short.Thank you to our sponsors, Buildots: https://buildots.com/Drop your answers to this week’s questions in the comments of this week’s LinkedIn post.

Can a CEO tell you what their company bought last year?In today's episode we have Eldar Sadikov, CEO of Field Materials. He says most contractors can't, and he estimates 15 to 20% of materials spend gets lost to the mess.Around 25 to 30% of purchases are will calls, bought on the fly with no planned buyout behind themHe reckons 50% or more of contractors still pay suppliers by chequeHis bar for a good CEO: "the CEO should be in the position to go and query this."Episode live on YouTube & Spotify. Link in comments.#aec #constructiontech #ai #bricksandbytesOur Sponsors:Aphex 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 Intro00:48 Why Is Material Procurement Broken in Construction?04:50 What Are the Hidden Problems Behind Construction Material Procurement?09:05 How Much Do Material Procurement Issues Cost Construction Projects?14:27 How Does the Construction Material Procurement Workflow Work?16:22 Sponsor Message24:36 How Does Field Materials Solve Construction Procurement Challenges?34:59 Who Are the Key Stakeholders in Construction Procurement?36:12 How Will AI and OpenClaw Change the Future of Procurement?36:26 How Does Onboarding and Implementation Work for Procurement Software?38:47 What Does a Day in the Life of a Project Manager Look Like With Procurement Software?40:39 Who Are the Customers for Construction Procurement Software?42:59 How Do You Measure ROI on Procurement Software in Construction?46:43 What Role Will AI Play in Construction Procurement?49:38 How Do You Evaluate Construction Procurement Software?53:05 Why Do Procurement Software Implementations Fail?56:57 Where Do Major ERP Players Fit in Construction Procurement?1:00:48 What Is the Future of Construction Tech?

This week's briefing covers four things that landed in the same week, starting with a story about an intern, a spreadsheet and eighteen thousand snags.Gene Hodge is Vice President of Innovation at Mortenson, a family owned American builder with 11 billion dollars of revenue and the tenth biggest contractor in America. He started his career printing off punch list items and walking the site with a pen. Twenty three years later, someone still walks the site with a list. His answer to why is that the industry is structurally fragmented, and the way past it is trust, collaboration and simplifying what it takes to build. Mortenson's data centre built the industrialised way, with precast duct bank, prefabricated wall panels and as much made offsite as possible, uses half the on-site labour hours of a non-industrialised one. It took seven years of failures and a 90,000 square foot research and development facility to get there. On AI on site his answer was blunt. It is not making a big impact yet.Then your software bill. Alain Waha, Chief Technology Officer at Buro Happold, was at Autodesk University in Las Vegas and came away with one takeaway. The week was about how Autodesk plans to charge more. The shift he is describing is from per seat licensing to per token, paying for how much thinking the machine does on your behalf. His example is adding a floor in Revit. Today that takes a day of your time. Tomorrow the AI does it and the vendor charges accordingly. The question is whether you would know what you actually bought.Then the quickfire. Diesel hit two pounds a litre on Monday, a record, up 42 percent since January, adding roughly 590 million pounds a year to UK infrastructure costs. Accenture has launched a construction business, 5,000 people built from 11 acquisitions, aimed at owners of airports, grids, data centres and factories. Turner, Kiewit and AECOM have all reported unauthorised access to their systems since July, and 48 percent of construction firms said they are not big enough to be a target. And Bricks and Bytes has announced Groundworks, a robotics event on the 11th of November in London.Drop your answers to this week's questions in the comments of this week's LinkedIn post.

Autodesk now runs from the first sketch to the maintenance ticket.So who is left to compete?We got back from Autodesk University and put that question to three people this week:Connor Watumull on Miter's $40M Series B, and why payroll was the way into the whole contractor back office.Lea Scherer on Kuro's €10M seed, and how a two year old startup ended up working with Goldbeck and Hochtief Infrastructure.Alain Waha, CTO of Buro Happold, on why AI could push software bills up from here.Episode is live! #aec #constructiontech #ai #bricksbucksandbytes #bricksandbytesOur Sponsors:Aphex 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 Intro01:12 Autodesk University 2026 recap02:45 Autodesk's plan to own design, construction and operations04:49 Can startups compete with Autodesk?07:23 Most internet traffic is now AI bots08:49 Miter raises $40M Series B11:15 What is Miter? Construction payroll and workforce software14:01 Why construction payroll is so hard16:28 From payroll to field operations and safety19:04 How construction software startups win customers20:37 Replacing the construction Franken Stack22:08 Kuro raises €10M seed for AI for general contractors23:12 How AI reads construction documents and tenders26:01 Why Kuro targets Europe's biggest general contractors28:22 How AI startups stay defensible against ChatGPT33:09 Building construction tech in Europe vs the US34:12 Kuro's growth and hiring plans38:11 Jevons paradox: why software keeps costing more38:37 Can Autodesk be disrupted?39:53 Why construction is slow to adopt new tech41:57 Why switching away from Revit is so hard43:47 AI as a generational shift in design46:04 Will AI replace Revit? Snaptrude, Motif and AI design tools48:11 Should you build your website for AI agents?52:41 Humans plus AI: the chess grandmaster lesson53:43 Autodesk AI pricing: from seats to tokens59:34 Is AI actually creating value in engineering?

A few years ago, Mortenson's own leadership group told them they were treating innovation "kind of like a hobby".This year they're No. 10 on ENR's Top 400, running a 90,000 sq ft R&D facility and about to launch a joint venture with Goldbeck.So we asked Gene Hodge, their VP of I4 and Innovation, how he proves the ROI on all of it:"I think anyone asking what's the ROI on innovation is not interested in innovating, most likely."CFOs, we'd love to hear you push back on this one.#construction #constructiontech #aec #ai #bricksandbytesOur 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.com00:00 - Teaser00:43 - Intro01:36 - Who is Gene Hodge & Mortenson Overview02:31 - Quick-Fire Questions: Builder vs Technologist03:10 - Sponsors06:19 - Is Most Construction Tech Worth the Money?06:49 - How Has the Jobsite Changed Since 2005?07:43 - The Reality of AI on the Construction Site08:29 - Autonomous Equipment & Robots in 5 Years09:30 - What Actually Moves the Needle on Projects10:04 - Mortenson's In-House R&D & Innovation Spending11:39 - Data Sovereignty: Which Tech Mortenson Refuses to Buy12:33 - Goldbeck Joint Venture & Industrialised Construction14:57 - Real-Time Jobsite Visibility vs Manufacturing16:03 - Standardisation vs Bespoke Client Architecture17:27 - Data Centres & the Hyperscaler Effect18:56 - Industrialised Construction Across Resi & Defence21:19 - Day-to-Day Role & The ROI of Innovation23:04 - 30 Years After VDC: Why Has Productivity Stagnated?25:35 - Lessons from 2003: 18,000 Punch List Items on Paper28:29 - Precast Duct Bank Innovation30:24 - Building a Corporate Culture of Innovation32:38 - BLUvera: Scaling Offsite Manufacturing34:38 - Redesigning the Jobsite Trailer & Field Wellbeing36:41 - AI Hype vs Real Jobsite Workflows38:46 - Machine Learning in Pre-Construction & Estimating40:44 - Measuring AI ROI & Enabling Growth41:49 - How to Pitch Tech to Mortenson42:57 - What Keeps an Innovation VP Up at Night45:19 - Cross-Industry Collaboration & The Future Contractor Model48:19 - The #1 Tech for 2035: Generative Design & Real-Time Costing