Bricks And Bytes

Can an owner be their own architect?Altaf Ganihar says owners and developers are now asking Snaptrude exactly that.Alain Waha's answer: the design team's deliverable "ain't a set of drawings" anyway.Also in this week's Bricks, Bucks & Bytes:Dustin DeVan on why takeoff isn't the hardest problem in preconAutodesk University and Groundbreak in the same week of 2027Nomadic Drones, whose drones land and recharge on live power linesSo who moves first, the architect or their client?Full episode live on Youtube and Spotify. Link in comments.#aec #construction #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.com Chapters00:00 Intro00:46 Dustin calls out a competitor's testimonials09:42 Autodesk University and Groundbreak in the same week12:02 Why VCs are piling into MEP design18:41 Why use AI to read drawings when the model exists?23:04 Outsiders, Katerra and uninformed capital25:39 The gap for an AI first MEP firm29:11 The return of the master builder38:35 Construction is like Asia40:32 Dustin's read on Groundbreak 202641:51 Altaf Ganihar on the Snaptrude Agent launch45:12 Will owners bring design in house?50:22 What architects really sell, and the stamp53:31 Altaf's AI hospital redesign test57:46 Value engineering is not value engineering1:00:37 Andreas Moldskred: drones that live on power lines1:05:22 What grid operators do with the data1:08:05 Where the idea came from1:11:06 Range, air rights and scaling up1:17:25 Wrap up

“Show me you can use these tools to 10x your productivity and you got a job. I don’t care how old you are, I don’t really care what college you went to.”In today’s episode of Bricks & Bytes we have Patrick Murphy. Youngest member of Congress at 29, now founder of Togal.AI and chief investment officer at Coastal Construction, a $7.5bn pipeline contractor in Miami.Here’s what we cover:Why one click takeoff doesn’t exist, straight from someone selling AI takeoffHow many of the AI takeoff startups raising money today are still around in five years (his answer: about one in ten)The estimator who uses AI gets hired on the spot. The one who doesn’t, less soWhat winning a congressional race by 2,429 votes teaches you about winning workWhy Washington is broken, in his words, and what short term incentives do to any businessWhere US construction costs go next and who is really being priced out of South FloridaFull episode out on Youtube and Spotify. #constructiontech #ai #aec #construction #bricksandbytesOur Sponsors:This episode is brought to you by our friends at Miter. If you haven’t heard of Miter, you’re missing out. Today, 2 of every 100 construction workers in the U.S. are paid through their AI-powered platform that connects payroll, HR, field operations, and job costing. And that number is growing fast. Miter is on a mission to defeat what they call “the Frankenstack”, the tangle of 1980s software, spreadsheets, and paper that every construction back office is familiar with. Learn why thousands of contractors are running everything from prevailing wage payroll to time tracking to per diems on Miter at miter.com (M I T E R .com)https://www.miter.com/?utm_source=bricks-and-bytes&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=bb-sponsorship-q4-2026&utm_content=bb-podcastAphex 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.com Chapters00:00 Teaser00:51 Intro and quickfire01:31 Washington is broken: Patrick's three words02:11 Why hundreds of millions are going into AI takeoff03:03 Will AI replace the estimator?04:44 Would he go back to Congress?06:08 Where US construction costs go next08:11 The K shaped construction market09:50 Who is Patrick Murphy11:19 One click takeoff: does it exist?15:34 Why so many startups are chasing takeoff17:02 Productivity and pay: the estimator who uses AI19:55 What Togal.AI customers actually saw21:51 Sponsors: Miter, Aphex and Archdesk24:33 Bricks & Bytes newsletter24:56 Winning Congress by 2,429 votes at 2928:10 United Solutions and the night the bill died31:05 Getting a room of people twice your age to take you seriously32:33 The jet engine killed democracy34:43 Immigration enforcement and the labour market36:09 Coastal Construction and the next three to five years37:40 Florida's affordability crisis38:57 Infrastructure underwater42:39 RENCO: the fourth way to build43:44 Robotics, prefab and controlled environments47:18 The frat house, the family business and the CIO role49:44 Buyer and seller: sitting on both sides of the table51:48 The greatest revolution in history53:01 Togal.AI today and the roadmap58:18 How AI disrupts the general contractor model01:01:24 Wrap

This week's briefing covers three things that landed in the same week and all point at where construction is actually heading.First, Boston. Suffolk, a 13 billion dollar privately held contractor, opened a 50 million dollar innovation facility called 100MAG in Roxbury this week. Inside it sits their in-house design and engineering team, a materials sourcing arm, a venture fund, an accelerator, and AI engineers embedded directly into live project teams. John Fish, who founded Suffolk and has run it for four decades, built the evening around one line. The cost to build a building today is now higher than the value of the finished building. He said it is the first time in his career that has been true. From that he gets to his argument that the next five years will be the most pivotal the construction industry has seen, and that Suffolk intends to be the one doing the disrupting.Then Bedrock Robotics. On Monday the company announced a 600 million dollar raise at a 4.1 billion dollar valuation. The company is two and a half years old, founded by engineers out of Waymo, and retrofits excavators so they dig without anyone in the cab. Total raised since launch is now just under a billion dollars. Kevin Peterson, Bedrock's co-founder and CTO, told Bricks and Bytes the strategy unlocked the round, not the other way round. The plan does not change. More customers, more capable machines, and next year fleets of different machine types working together overnight. The detail that struck Owen most: the data from the sensors is already paying for itself before the autonomy does. Site managers are seeing productivity dips at the start and end of shifts they had no idea existed.Then Harvard. A study covering nearly 10,000 leaders across 108 countries found that the organisations making the most progress on digital transformation are the ones engaging a specific type of employee. Harvard calls them digital wayfinders. They are frequently junior, they are already using AI without asking, and they challenge how things are done out loud. The companies getting somewhere are the ones that have found a way to use them rather than stop them. The authors have three recommendations: candid two-way communication, removing unnecessary bureaucracy while keeping clear guardrails, and giving wayfinders visible sponsorship and a seat in the room where real decisions get made.This week's episode is sponsored by Buildots, the construction intelligence platform turning site data into actionable insights for over 100 of the largest owners and contractors including Turner, Multiplex and Vinci Construction. Find out how to join them at https://buildots.com/lab/global-construction-benchmarks-report/Also don't forget to check out our other sponsor Miter, the AI-powered operating system built for construction that connects payroll, HR, field operations and job costing in one platform. Today 1 in 50 US construction workers is paid on Miter every week. Learn more at https://www.miter.com/?utm_source=bricks-and-bytes&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=bb-sponsorship-q4-2026&utm_content=executive-briefingDrop your answers to this week's questions in the comments of this week's LinkedIn post.

Should founders take advice from investors who have never run a company?Owen's view on this week's Bricks, Bucks and Bytes was blunt: it's like hiring a personal trainer who has never stepped on a treadmill.Maria Davidson spent eight years building Kojo in what she calls construction's "hard mode". She has now launched Relational Capital, a $50M solo GP fund writing $1M to $5M cheques at pre seed and seed.Also on the show, Bedrock Robotics co-founder and CTO Kevin Peterson on how a company founded in 2024 just raised $600M at a $4.1bn valuation.Operator investors or career VCs. Which have actually been more useful on your cap table?Full episode live on YouTube and Spotify.#vc #constructiontech #aec #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.com Chapters00:00 Intro01:12 Inside Suffolk's 100MAG and why the next five years matter03:59 Bedrock Robotics raises $600M08:04 How a two year old company hits $4.1bn, and where the money goes11:54 Deployment challenges and "the wolves at the door"16:56 Maria Davidson's $50M fund and why operators make better investors25:05 Where Maria is investing in construction tech31:00 One piece of advice for every founder

Architecture firms forget every project the day it finishes.The detail that caused an RFI goes back into the library unfixed, and turns up on the next job with the same problem attached.In today’s episode of Bricks & Bytes, Ross Wagner from Pirros joined us to unpack why it keeps happening, and what an AI project hub actually changes.What we learnt:* Why firms forget every project the day it finishes, and how a bad detail carries its RFI onto the next job* What Pirros does as an AI project hub, and how its AI agent Mira works alongside designers inside Revit* Why quality review belongs in the model as well as the drawing set* The shift in construction tech upstream into design, and the move from point tools towards connected platforms* Lessons from PlanGrid on hiring, building an AEC sales team and go to market through communityFull episode live on Youtube and Spotify. Link in the comments!#aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #bricksandbytesOur Sponsors:This episode is brought to you by our friends at Miter. If you haven’t heard of Miter, you’re missing out. Today, 2 of every 100 construction workers in the U.S. are paid through their AI-powered platform that connects payroll, HR, field operations, and job costing. And that number is growing fast. Miter is on a mission to defeat what they call “the Frankenstack”, the tangle of 1980s software, spreadsheets, and paper that every construction back office is familiar with. Learn why thousands of contractors are running everything from prevailing wage payroll to time tracking to per diems on Miter at miter.com (M I T E R .com)https://www.miter.com/?utm_source=bricks-and-bytes&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=bb-sponsorship-q4-2026&utm_content=bb-podcastAphex 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.com Chapters0:00 Teaser0:38 Intro: Ross Wagner, Head of Strategy at Pirros1:05 Quickfire: are contractors taking control of design?2:53 Why Ross joined Pirros after PlanGrid and Autodesk4:06 How to stop knowledge leaving your firm4:40 What is Pirros? The AI project hub for architects5:30 Why AEC firms forget every project the day it finishes7:38 Sponsors10:43 The biggest problems inside architecture firms12:20 Startup vs Autodesk: the “say no with pleasure” advice14:46 Builders vs optimisers: architect and engineer co-founders16:17 How to measure the ROI of AI in design18:31 Why AI shouldn’t design construction details20:15 Mira: an AI agent that works inside Revit21:55 What a Head of Strategy actually does22:51 How to know if your strategy is working25:00 Competitive moat in the age of AI: why context beats code27:12 How to hire great people (the “no jerks” rule)28:44 Growing 5x and lessons from PlanGrid29:56 What’s the end game: acquisition or IPO?31:02 Construction tech trends: the shift upstream to design31:57 Platforms vs point solutions32:46 The three eras of AI: chat, copilot and coworker33:46 Is AI drawing review enough? Drawings vs BIM models36:53 How to build a construction tech sales team37:50 Hiring your first salesperson38:34 Advice for founders: start with the boring workflow41:11 Doug Leone’s startup orchestra lesson41:37 Go-to-market that works in AEC: community42:43 Software fatigue and change management44:06 Lessons from Autodesk vs startups45:49 What’s next for Pirros: quality review and MCP 

This week's briefing covers three things that matter more than the headlines suggest.First, America. The Architecture Billings Index came in at 44.7 in September, down from 47.2 in August and the largest share of firms reporting falling billings since May. Signed design contracts fell to 43.7. Enquiries are still positive at 53.2, which means clients are asking but not committing. AIA describes the index as a leading indicator for non-residential construction nine to twelve months out. What architects are not signing now is work you will not be bidding next autumn. On the other side, JLL puts 317 million square feet of industrial space under construction in the US, up 28.7% on a year ago and the most since early 2024. Same country, same week, two completely different economies.Then the knowledge problem. There is a chief estimator somewhere who is 63 years old, 30 years in the job, and retires in 18 months. None of what he knows is written down. This week Owen sat down with Zaid Khan and Bogdan Arsintescu, who helped build the Google Knowledge Graph in 2011, to answer one question. What actually is a knowledge graph and why does construction need one. The answer starts with a three-hundred-page spec, an addendum in a different folder, and a door schedule that was never updated. A chatbot finds the spec and answers with confidence. A knowledge graph finds the conflict between all three and cites the clause. The pitch stripped of the buzzwords is this. Become the project historian. Keep the context when the people leave.Then the Bricks and Bytes Council. Last Tuesday Owen sat in a room with leaders from some of the largest design, engineering and contracting businesses in the UK and the US. Everything is confidential but five themes came through. Design teams are materially smaller than a decade ago for the same work. Contractors are now running AI across drawing sets before they go out, so designers are building the same checks into their own process to catch problems first. Door hardware schedules and lighting schedules, handed to the most junior person in the office, are driving more RFIs than structure on some jobs. Architecture may be going the way of book publishing, more buildings, more architects, a profession hollowing out in the middle. The line that came up more than once from more than one person in the room: we did not even need a tool to solve that. We just had to change the way we think.This week's episode is sponsored by Buildots, the construction intelligence platform turning site data into actionable insights for over 100 of the largest owners and contractors. Find out how to join them at https://buildots.com/.Drop your answers to this week's questions in the comments of this week's LinkedIn post.

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