Bricks And Bytes

Bricks And Bytes
  • 4.8 (6)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Biweekly

A show about construction technology, business, and entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Bricks and Bytes Podcast, where we bring together the worlds of construction, technology, and entrepreneurship. We explore the innovative ideas and groundbreaking advancements that are shaping the future of the industry.

  1. 2h ago

    What Construction’s Top Leaders Are Worried About Behind Closed Doors, the Knowledge Problem Nobody Has Solved, and Why Signed Contracts Are Falling.

    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.

    What Construction’s Top Leaders Are Worried About Behind Closed Doors, the Knowledge Problem Nobody Has Solved, and Why Signed Contracts Are Falling.

  2. 1d ago

    What Construction AI Is Missing: Connecting the Dots With Knowledge Graphs

    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.com Chapters 00:00 Teaser 01:07 What Is a Knowledge Graph? (Explained Like You're Five) 04:10 Knowledge Graph vs Ontology: The Difference Explained 07:56 Sponsor 10:57 Why Construction Needs Knowledge Graphs (Spec vs Drawing vs Addendum) 14:58 Why ChatGPT Can't Do This: Context Windows Explained 19:11 Knowledge Graphs vs LLMs: Why You Need a Vertical AI 26:43 Preconstruction Risk: Why Bids Go Wrong 29:53 The Future of AI in Construction 32:10 How Neuron Factory Works With Suffolk and GCs

  3. Oct 17

    Construction’s 63% Problem, Aramco Under Attack & What Keeps 400 CEOs Awake

    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-report Then 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.

    Construction’s 63% Problem, Aramco Under Attack & What Keeps 400 CEOs Awake

  4. Oct 16

    Origin’s $20M Raise, Construction’s Robotics Problem, Anthropic’s AI Warning & Groundworks Summit

    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 since The throughput question every contractor asks before anything else US 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 #bricksandbytes Chapters 00:00 Teaser 01:21 Bricks, Bucks & Bytes Podcast 03:07 Groundworks Summit: Construction Robotics Event in London 10:43 AI in Engineering and Construction: Productivity Gains for Small Firms 13:19 OpenAI Recording Device Case and AI Cybersecurity Risks 17:39 Origin Raises $20M: Autonomous Robots for Construction 20:19 Interior Construction Automation: Wall Finishing Robots 21:34 Construction Action Models: How Origin's Robot AI Works 26:13 Commercialising Construction Robots: Pilots, Customers and Throughput 31:29 Hardest Challenges in Building Interior Construction Robots 33:08 Construction Robotics Business Models: Rental vs Outcome-as-a-Service

  5. Oct 13

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

    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 vanished Full Episode live on Youtube and Spotify. Link in comments. #constructiontech #realitycapture #aec #construction #bricksandbytes Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:55 Introduction to Stuart Drahota and DPR Construction 03:07 Innovation Metrics and Impact in Construction 04:43 Technology Adoption and Challenges in Construction 08:23 The Digital Dig Board: Enhancing Job Site Communication 13:56 Reality Capture and Drone Technology in Construction 17:23 ROI of Drone Technology and Its Applications 20:25 Common Reasons for Technology Failure on Job Sites 20:57 Sponsors 24:48 Embracing Failure as a Learning Tool 25:38 Winning Support for Technology Adoption 27:34 The Evolution of Layout Technology 29:46 Building a Technology Roadmap 32:22 The Role of AI in Construction 35:32 Innovations in Robotics 39:09 The Future of Construction Technology 45:07 Advice for Newcomers in Construction

  6. Oct 9

    Autodesk’s New AEC Leadership, Schneider’s $22.6B PTC Deal, AI’s $4.2T Revenue Challenge & Construction Conferences

    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 GCs Is 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 #bricksandbytes Our Sponsors: 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 Teaser 01:23 Event season is here 02:18 How to survive conference season 05:57 Are construction conferences still worth it? 09:08 Autodesk's new head of AEC, Diana Colella 11:12 Schneider Electric buys PTC for $22.6B 17:01 Is data centre construction slowing down? 18:23 Is AI a bubble? The $4.2 trillion question 23:13 Help to Buy and the housing affordability problem 24:04 Strong by Form calls in from Berlin 24:24 Can wood replace concrete floors? 27:14 Timber vs concrete: the real cost comparison 31:08 Is mass timber sustainable? Reuse vs recycling 34:15 Why new building materials struggle to scale 36:24 Buildcheck calls in 37:27 How AI checks construction drawings for errors 42:21 How Buildcheck prices AI design review 46:04 AI design review vs BIM clash detection 48:40 How construction tech startups win over GCs

  7. Oct 9

    AI Could Take 20% Off the Cost of a Building According to MIT. Here Is the Caveat.

    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.

    AI Could Take 20% Off the Cost of a Building According to MIT. Here Is the Caveat.

  8. Oct 6

    Why Construction Procurement Is Broken: The 15–20% Cost, AI Agents & The Future of Buying Materials

    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 them He reckons 50% or more of contractors still pay suppliers by cheque His 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 #bricksandbytes Our Sponsors: 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 00:48 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 Message 24:36 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?

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Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

A show about construction technology, business, and entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Bricks and Bytes Podcast, where we bring together the worlds of construction, technology, and entrepreneurship. We explore the innovative ideas and groundbreaking advancements that are shaping the future of the industry.

Information

  • Creator
    Bricks And Bytes
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    371
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Bricks And Bytes
  • Show Website
    Bricks And Bytes

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