Bricks And Bytes

Bricks And Bytes
  • 4.8 (6)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • 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. 1d ago

    54 Robot Demos, One Purchase, and a Cardiff Contractor Who Bought Two With His Own Money. This Is What We Learned at Groundworks.

    54 Robot Demos, One Purchase, and a Cardiff Contractor Who Bought Two With His Own Money. This Is What We Learned at Groundworks. This week's briefing is a recap of Groundworks, Bricks and Bytes' first construction robotics summit, held in east London on 11 November. Two years ago a search for construction robotics on Spotify returned almost nothing. This week we put the builders, the robot makers, the investors and the clients in one room for a day and asked one question. How many of these machines are actually out on sites doing real work. 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 Phil Reed, head of innovation at Vinci Construction UK, gave the most honest numbers of the day. Since January 2024 Vinci has had 54 robot demonstrations, 24 went to trial, two of the companies went bankrupt, and Vinci bought one robot. Goldbeck, the German builder, has piloted seven robots and deploys roughly half of one. The half is because the robot belongs to a subcontractor who uses it on their sites. On the other side, Monumental has built more than 100 bricklaying robots and on an average day about 50 are out laying bricks. Kewazo has about 120 scaffold material hoists in the field. Field AI says it is on hundreds of sites across three continents. Those are the companies' own figures. Almost nobody on stage wanted to sell a robot. Monumental turns up as your bricklaying subcontractor and pays for human bricklayers if its machines cannot finish the job. CSC Robotic Engineering hires its ceiling drilling robot at 2,500 pounds a week. Hilti has done more than a hundred times as many rentals as sales. An audience survey at the end found 82% agreed robots as a service and hire companies should own the machines, not main contractors. Mark Reynolds, chairman and CEO of Mace Construct, brought the best numbers. Mace studied more than 230 of its own major projects. The industry average value created per hour on site is 37 pounds. Mace's average is 67. Its top projects reach 100 pounds and the best reached 250. That best project used no robots. The biggest productivity gains came from offsite manufacturing. His rule on technology: if it has not paid back in 12 months he will not invest. The trial failures were the most instructive part of the day. A plastering robot only ran four hours a day because the humans preparing walls in front of it could not keep up. A drilling robot stopped because the ceiling was 100mm taller than the brief said. A bricklaying robot could not make the small adjustments a human bricklayer makes instinctively. And one portfolio company had workers sabotaging the robots they were supposed to be deploying. Then Steve Davies, who runs a 20-year concrete repair firm in Cardiff. He cannot find workers and the vibration from drilling damages hands and arms. So he bought two drilling robots with his own money. They are booked onto jobs into 2027 and he wants more. His message to the main contractors in the room: line up the sites and we will be there. Also sponsored by 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-briefing Drop your answers to this week's questions in the comments of this week's LinkedIn post.

    54 Robot Demos, One Purchase, and a Cardiff Contractor Who Bought Two With His Own Money. This Is What We Learned at Groundworks.

  2. 2d ago

    Nvidia’s Jensen Huang Resigns, AI Startups at Risk & Construction Robotics’ Reality Check

    Is AI about to wipe out a whole category of construction tech startups? Mike Powers of BuildVision thinks so, and he joined us this week to say it out loud. This week on Bricks Bucks and Bytes, Owen, Martin and Dustin are joined by Mike Powers who argues that reading construction documents is about to become a commodity and that a long list of funded ConTech startups are standing in the way of the foundation models. Core topics Jensen Huang's resignation from Nvidia and the hosts' first reactions Whether the Democratic wave, including Texas, slows data centre construction and who gains if it does Why Mike and Dustin think takeoff, drawing review and contract review tools are heading to zero on price, and where they would build instead What Owen and Martin learned at Groundworks about who pays for robotics on site Hotter GPUs, dry coolers and what that means for chiller manufacturers Full episode live on Youtube and Spotify.  #constructiontech #ai #construction #aec #bricksandbytes  Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:17 Jensen Huang Resigns as Nvidia CEO: Our Reaction 06:16 US Midterms 2026: Will Data Centre Construction Slow Down? 09:49 Data Centres in Space: Engineering Problem or Fantasy? 11:30 State vs Federal: Who Controls the Data Centre Boom? 13:45 Why Neoclouds Could Get Crushed by the Hyperscalers 15:59 Is AI Commoditising Construction Tech? 18:26 Why VCs Got Construction AI Wrong 22:55 What to Build in Construction Tech Now 26:05 Construction Robotics Reality Check: Lessons From Groundworks London 29:03 Who Pays for Robots on Site? Subcontractors vs General Contractors 31:32 Prefab Factories vs Jobsite Robots and Union Pushback 34:56 Hotter GPUs and Data Centre Cooling: The End of Chillers? 36:22 Claude vs ChatGPT vs Gemini: What AI Costs a Startup 38:37 Will AI Replace Structural Engineers? 40:24 Generative Design and Pricing 50 Design Options 43:24 How AI Will Split Large and Small Contractors 44:57 Empire State Building vs Modern Construction Productivity 46:54 Are We Living in Extraordinary Times for AI? 49:06 What Jensen Huang's Exit Means for Nvidia and China

  3. 4d ago

    “Manual Quantity Takeoffs Are Dead”: Accenture Construct CEO on AI Replacing Traditional QS Work, Why Megaprojects Fail & the $2.5 Billion Construction Bet

    Six vendors can all deliver their scope successfully, and the project can still fail. That is the problem Accenture Construct says it was built to solve. We sat down with CEO Adam Shaw to ask why Accenture has put $2.5B into capital projects, and what “one accountable partner” means in practice. Why the industry buys effort when owners want outcomes Why owners end up owning the gaps between their vendors 73 to 77% of senior leaders say they positively influence cost, planning and schedule. Only 13% of workers say those decisions consistently shape their daily work. Where AI is already changing project decisions Adam’s view is that the talent is already there, and fragmentation is what holds projects back. Full Episode live on Bricks and Bytes YouTube and Spotify. Link in comments. #construction #capitalprojects #contech #AI #bricksandbytes Our 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-podcast 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 00:42 How Owen and Adam first connected 10 years ago 02:30 Quick fire: "Manual quantity takeoffs are dead" 05:25 Why Accenture launched Construct 07:40 Sponsors: Miter, Aphex and Archdesk 10:45 Owner's rep, contractor or something new? 14:40 The research: why capital projects fail 18:36 Is fragmentation a data problem? 21:41 Build or buy: how Construct thinks about technology 26:25 Does Accenture build its own tech? 27:51 What AI makes possible now 29:26 AI use cases inside Accenture Construct 33:28 Leaders vs the field: the 13% gap 37:00 What "one accountable partner" means 39:45 $2.5B and the acquisitions behind Construct 41:56 Integrating acquired firms without destroying them 45:44 Capital project delivery in five years 47:46 Closing thoughts

  4. 6d ago

    Microsoft Cut $5 Billion From Data Centre Spending, MEP Contractors Lost 15% in a Day, and Accenture Just Entered Construction With 5,000 People.

    Microsoft Cut $5 Billion From Data Centre Spending, MEP Contractors Lost 15% in a Day, and Accenture Just Entered Construction With 5,000 People. This week’s briefing covers three things that landed in the same week and all point at whether the data centre boom is about to change shape. 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 First, Microsoft. A generator fire in Texas, late hardware deliveries, cabling problems, and a $1 million fine for running generators without permits on a New Jersey site. At the end of October Microsoft’s finance chief cut this year’s data centre spending forecast by $5 billion, citing third party capacity delays. Microsoft has now tightened oversight on three neo-cloud companies, walked away from a $3 billion deal in Texas due to grid delays, and cancelled a letter of intent for 1.35 gigawatts in West Virginia. The day after the American midterms, where voters passed 40 of 41 ballot measures putting new restrictions on data centre construction, Comfort Systems fell 15%, Quantum fell 12% and the NASDAQ dropped 5.5%. On the same day Skanska matched its all time record for new orders, with roughly a third in data centres, and its CEO said the company is turning some of that work away because it cannot find the right electrical subcontractors. Then Accenture Construct. In September Accenture launched a new global business with more than 5,000 people aimed at the owners of big projects. Accenture puts that market at $260 billion a year. Owen interviewed CEO Adam Shaw this week. His argument is that on a large project an owner might hire six different firms, all of whom could complete their own scope successfully, and the project could still fail because of the gaps between them. Today the owner carries all of those gaps. Accenture’s pitch is to sit on the owner’s side of the table as one accountable partner. Between 73 and 77% of senior leaders in Accenture’s research said they were having a positive influence on cost and schedule. Only 13% of workers agreed. Then the market numbers. US construction fell 1.9% in September when economists expected a small rise. Excluding data centres and power, private non-residential work was down 7.8%. UK housebuilding PMI came in at 35.1. The Bank of England raised rates to 4%, its first increase since August 2023. The forecasters agree on which parts of the market are growing and which are shrinking. They do not agree on what any of it means. Also sponsored by 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-briefing Drop your answers to this week’s questions in the comments of this week’s LinkedIn post.

    Microsoft Cut $5 Billion From Data Centre Spending, MEP Contractors Lost 15% in a Day, and Accenture Just Entered Construction With 5,000 People.

  5. Nov 6

    AI Redesigns a 244,000 Sq Ft Hospital in Four Days, Are Architects at Risk? & Snaptrude’s AI Agent Launch

    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 precon Autodesk University and Groundbreak in the same week of 2027 Nomadic Drones, whose drones land and recharge on live power lines So who moves first, the architect or their client? Full episode live on Youtube and Spotify. Link in comments. #aec #construction #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 00:46 Dustin calls out a competitor's testimonials 09:42 Autodesk University and Groundbreak in the same week 12:02 Why VCs are piling into MEP design 18:41 Why use AI to read drawings when the model exists? 23:04 Outsiders, Katerra and uninformed capital 25:39 The gap for an AI first MEP firm 29:11 The return of the master builder 38:35 Construction is like Asia 40:32 Dustin's read on Groundbreak 2026 41:51 Altaf Ganihar on the Snaptrude Agent launch 45:12 Will owners bring design in house? 50:22 What architects really sell, and the stamp 53:31 Altaf's AI hospital redesign test 57:46 Value engineering is not value engineering 1:00:37 Andreas Moldskred: drones that live on power lines 1:05:22 What grid operators do with the data 1:08:05 Where the idea came from 1:11:06 Range, air rights and scaling up 1:17:25 Wrap up

  6. Nov 3

    90% of AI Takeoff Companies Could Disappear, The $3M AI Opportunity & Why Washington Is Broken

    “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 takeoff How 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 so What winning a congressional race by 2,429 votes teaches you about winning work Why Washington is broken, in his words, and what short term incentives do to any business Where US construction costs go next and who is really being priced out of South Florida Full episode out on Youtube and Spotify. #constructiontech #ai #aec #construction #bricksandbytes Our 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 Chapters 00:00 Teaser 00:51 Intro and quickfire 01:31 Washington is broken: Patrick's three words 02:11 Why hundreds of millions are going into AI takeoff 03:03 Will AI replace the estimator? 04:44 Would he go back to Congress? 06:08 Where US construction costs go next 08:11 The K shaped construction market 09:50 Who is Patrick Murphy 11:19 One click takeoff: does it exist? 15:34 Why so many startups are chasing takeoff 17:02 Productivity and pay: the estimator who uses AI 19:55 What Togal.AI customers actually saw 21:51 Sponsors: Miter, Aphex and Archdesk 24:33 Bricks & Bytes newsletter 24:56 Winning Congress by 2,429 votes at 29 28:10 United Solutions and the night the bill died 31:05 Getting a room of people twice your age to take you seriously 32:33 The jet engine killed democracy 34:43 Immigration enforcement and the labour market 36:09 Coastal Construction and the next three to five years 37:40 Florida's affordability crisis 38:57 Infrastructure underwater 42:39 RENCO: the fourth way to build 43:44 Robotics, prefab and controlled environments 47:18 The frat house, the family business and the CIO role 49:44 Buyer and seller: sitting on both sides of the table 51:48 The greatest revolution in history 53:01 Togal.AI today and the roadmap 58:18 How AI disrupts the general contractor model 01:01:24 Wrap

  7. Oct 31

    $600 Million Into Self-Driving Excavators, Harvard’s 10,000-Leader Study, and a $13 Billion Contractor Opens a $50 Million Innovation Lab.

    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-briefing Drop your answers to this week's questions in the comments of this week's LinkedIn post.

    $600 Million Into Self-Driving Excavators, Harvard’s 10,000-Leader Study, and a $13 Billion Contractor Opens a $50 Million Innovation Lab.

  8. Oct 30

    Bedrock’s $600M Robotics Bet, 24/7 Construction Sites & Kojo Founder’s $50M Fund

    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 #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 01:12 Inside Suffolk's 100MAG and why the next five years matter 03:59 Bedrock Robotics raises $600M 08:04 How a two year old company hits $4.1bn, and where the money goes 11:54 Deployment challenges and "the wolves at the door" 16:56 Maria Davidson's $50M fund and why operators make better investors 25:05 Where Maria is investing in construction tech 31:00 One piece of advice for every founder

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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
    380
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Bricks And Bytes
  • Show Website
    Bricks And Bytes

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