How the Agent Builder Empowers Construction Teams to Codify Processes with Tooey Courtemanche

0:00 [SPEAKER_00]: On this week's show, Breaking Ground, one more time with two e-cordamosh from Procule. [SPEAKER_00]: Jeff, thank you so much for having me, man. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, man, it is always fun to sit down with you. [SPEAKER_00]: I have two E, we are live. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm in a hotel room. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm on the road.

0:23 [SPEAKER_01]: We're here to talk ground break. [SPEAKER_01]: How are you? [SPEAKER_01]: I just get so excited this time of the year. [SPEAKER_01]: It's our Super Bowl, get a chance to kind of show off all the cool stuff we're doing, but also for me personally, it's just great to get a chance to reconnect with so many old friends and all leagues.

0:39 [SPEAKER_01]: It's just going to see it all kind of come together. [SPEAKER_01]: So very exciting time of year for us. [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm doing great. [SPEAKER_01]: And I appreciate you asking, how are you doing, Jeff? [SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing wonderful. [SPEAKER_00]: I am actually here at our Super Bowl.

0:50 [SPEAKER_00]: Those of you know, I'm over here at Unbound. [SPEAKER_00]: And I took some time to come up here because this is what I love about this industry and its evolution. [SPEAKER_00]: We have Procore here and I'm going to be at Groundbreak. [SPEAKER_00]: So we get to have this conversation. [SPEAKER_01]: It's also just something that we should point out which is something I'm very grateful for as the partnership that you are coming to ground break that we're able to be there and you know it's just a good reflection of the relationship you and I've been able to build over the years and the fact that we are committed not just to ourselves but to the betterment of the industry.

1:20 [SPEAKER_00]: And you said that before and I was going to jump in with the groundbreaking thing and it's the same thing here at unbound the thing about it that's so invigorating and I may be jumping through the microphone because we get to meet with the people whose lives were actually impacting and I think we forget that sometimes we're in the offices where behind the computers we're doing this kind of stuff and we get to see people who come in and they tell you this story about you know a couple hours of their life being different and better.

1:49 [SPEAKER_00]: or a project outcome, they didn't think they could see or a problem they didn't see coming that they got the fix before it happened. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, and their energy, I feel that at Groundbreak, I'm excited we're starting to feel that here at Unbound because we're back. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's why we do this.

2:03 [SPEAKER_01]: The greatest compliment I can hear is that when somebody walks up to me at Groundbreak, and they're like, look, I'm a project manager. [SPEAKER_01]: Priorities in ProCore, I had to stay in the job site trailer every night till 730 double data entering wrestling with software because a ProCore, I'm able to get out of the job site trailer at 5 o'clock and get my kids soccer game.

2:21 [SPEAKER_01]: To me, our vision is to improve the lives of everyone in construction. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think there's anything more impactful than giving people quality time with their family back, doing it in a way that is something that we're very proud of. [SPEAKER_00]: I fully agree with you. [SPEAKER_00]: We're making it all safer, reducing waste, [SPEAKER_00]: we're driving more of the valuable things.

2:40 [SPEAKER_00]: It's something I love to remind people is what gets me out of bed every day is that I get to get out of bed. [SPEAKER_00]: I say this a lot, I stole this from one of our good friends. [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't worry about this bed in this hotel room fallen through the floor last night and that's because of construction, that's because of architecture, that's because of engineering.

2:57 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? [SPEAKER_00]: I worried about my day, not falling through the floor, and we get that because these women and men go out and do the things they do, and we can just make it a little bit better, a little bit safer, a little more efficient, and we've done our thing. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, I know you're rolling into the year, what are you excited about at groundbreaking?

3:17 [SPEAKER_00]: You've always got a few nuggets for me. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm better. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you're going to be, you know, dripping as much as I want you to. [SPEAKER_01]: By the way, I was told by our marketing team today that there is no holds bar. [SPEAKER_01]: I can tell you whatever I want to tell you.

3:31 [SPEAKER_01]: So there's nothing off limits today. [SPEAKER_00]: So they got the check I sent them to make sure that it'll bounce so they can jump on it. [SPEAKER_00]: Don't worry. [SPEAKER_01]: There are two letters that are changing the world right now. [SPEAKER_01]: Let me explain it to you, because you missed it.

3:43 [SPEAKER_01]: Artificial intelligence and AI is what it's all about. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, Jeff, what's really cool about this moment in time is ProCourse always been this, you know, single code base, multi-tended architecture, dedicated only to construction, assembling all of this data and really helping structure the way that construction gets delivered.

4:02 [SPEAKER_01]: And now we're in this era of generative AI where there's nothing more important than data, especially well structured data, to power the AI engines of going forward. [SPEAKER_01]: So what I'm so excited about is, prior to now, I've been able to stand up at groundbreaking and say, look, we're giving you all the tools you need to be successful in construction.

4:22 [SPEAKER_01]: But today, now with all the things that we're going to be announcing at Groundbreak, I think I'm going to be able to say, look, we're giving you a partner that's going to help accelerate your ability to be productive as a person that's, you know, in the trades, and we're making it so that you can actually focus on what you got into the trades for, while you have these agents running in the background, doing the hard work, and then alerting you to what needs to get done, or in some cases, just taking actions on your behalf.

4:49 [SPEAKER_01]: I think that is one of those things that I cannot overstate the impact that it's going to have on the industry. [SPEAKER_01]: It's all AI. [SPEAKER_01]: It's all about how we're empowering our users with AI. [SPEAKER_01]: And also just about, you know, we're on the same journey everyone else is on, right?

5:04 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, you know, a generative AI, you know, really came to the forefront with Chatchee BT. [SPEAKER_01]: And that's when we all kind of like woke up. [SPEAKER_01]: It's been a journey. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a journey, but it's a valuable one to talk about because something that Procore has had at its core, right?

5:17 [SPEAKER_00]: It's been driving the adoption and, you know, structured data, just like you said, but to me, one of the biggest values is the completeness of that data. [SPEAKER_00]: is having all of that. [SPEAKER_00]: And if you had said 25 years ago, this is going to happen. [SPEAKER_00]: You probably said, yeah, whatever.

5:34 [SPEAKER_00]: And we've been talking about data as gold for a long time around analytics and maybe predictive analytics. [SPEAKER_00]: None of us knew this new world was going to come and that there was going to be all this valuable automation. [SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's it's key for people to [SPEAKER_00]: We're not talking about it thinking for you, right?

5:53 [SPEAKER_00]: I think there's a lot of those misnomers out there and it's like, I don't want you too far on either side. [SPEAKER_00]: It's like life, right? [SPEAKER_00]: It's made in the middle and you need those valuable amounts of data. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's not here to replace your job, but there are a number of data duplication tasks that we do as part of the process flow.

6:14 [SPEAKER_00]: We used to say this, map the process out ABCDE, right? [SPEAKER_00]: and then figure out when you can jump maybe one or two. [SPEAKER_00]: This new agentic in generative AI can allow us to jump from A to decision point M to decide are we going back to the beginning to rethink this and we can rethink it faster better or hey, no, this is the right decision we can move forward and hey, by the way, you can stay on the tools longer.

6:43 [SPEAKER_00]: You can do the things longer, but we will alert you when these things happen [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think we could have predicted that, but you guys have got to feel great about just the fact that you had that rigor without it. [SPEAKER_00]: That rigor paid off and probably a way you didn't even see coming.

7:02 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, something's interesting about what you're saying is something I've observed recently with our customers. [SPEAKER_01]: Historically, one of our customers trying to get their employees, the boots on the ground, to really care about the quality and the fidelity of the data that they're capturing as part of their job, has always been a little esoteric for the people in the field.

7:27 [SPEAKER_01]: They're like, oh yeah, my boss wants to be really run analytics before to see, you know, with the un-build change orders are, [SPEAKER_01]: I'll get to that later. [SPEAKER_01]: What we're finding now, though, is because we have a new product that is so freaking awesome called Agent Builder.

7:44 [SPEAKER_01]: But what this does is allows our customers to actually build agents. [SPEAKER_01]: So we've been having these hackathons. [SPEAKER_01]: And our customers will come in and they'll build the most unique and awesome agents that really help them kind of eliminate the most pedantic work that they have to do every day.

7:58 [SPEAKER_01]: But what's interesting is these are the field workers, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So if they're going to put it together a scheduling agent that's going to look for anomalies in a schedule over time to help you avoid issues long before they become issues, now in order for that tool that they just built to work, they have to get that ensure the data is accurate, which I think is going to have a force multiplier to really make data something less of what management's telling me I need to focus on and much more about if I'm going to be effective [SPEAKER_01]: I have to enforce strong kind of processes around how I capture and store the data for our projects.

8:37 [SPEAKER_00]: You nailed it because it was a little bit esoteric. [SPEAKER_00]: We were trying to do things with the field to get them to understand, like, this is how we make business decisions so that we know where our cash flow is and we can make sure those paychecks get paid, et cetera, but it always did feel like a burden.

8:52 [SPEAKER_00]: And you're right. [SPEAKER_00]: Now the person you help with great data is yourself. [SPEAKER_00]: And I love the hackathon idea from the field, because we've always felt like we know, but we don't know each one of our individual customers at the level that they know themselves, right? [SPEAKER_00]: We knew in industry, we knew a vertical, we knew certain things, and we could do our best at it, and we could do a lot of due diligence, but this allows with the agent builder, [SPEAKER_00]: which by the way, I'm going to want to dive into this.

9:25 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to want to play with this because this to me, this is the future of like, I can hackathon my life and in a way that fits what I do. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm comfortable in my process. [SPEAKER_00]: We've heard this and we've tried to tell the industry that you're all not snowflakes, but we'll be honest, you're a little bit snowflakes.

9:44 [SPEAKER_00]: And there's a few things that each of you do that do distinguish you. [SPEAKER_00]: from your competitors or with your, you know, trig contractors and partners, your owners are changing. [SPEAKER_00]: So this allows you to adapt and still have the fidelity. [SPEAKER_00]: So if I'm imagining this right, I'm one company, but I can use different agents because I'm, you know, I'm working the hyperscalers here.

10:07 [SPEAKER_00]: So my agents are going to look for different things. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm working on laboratory sciences over here. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking on commercial over here. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't have to use the same agents. [SPEAKER_00]: I get this flexibility. [SPEAKER_01]: No, you'll get the total flexibility that, you know, kind of roll your own, which is, which is kind of, you know, it's fun, so you're 100% right, too.

10:26 [SPEAKER_01]: We, we realized early on that, you know, we. [SPEAKER_01]: I think ProCorp pretty much understands the challenges and the complexities of the people that we serve every single day, but we certainly don't sit in their shoes, right? [SPEAKER_01]: And so what we found during the hackathon is, everyone to your point has their own set of challenges that they're trying to solve for.

10:46 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, and they all may be a little different than each other, but frankly, like, [SPEAKER_01]: Here's a great example. [SPEAKER_01]: This one just blew my mind because I've been hearing for years from executives at construction companies that one of the biggest things that they worry about is incomplete daily reporting from the field.

11:02 [SPEAKER_01]: In case they end up in litigation, they need to be able to protect themselves. [SPEAKER_01]: And so a lot of times I'd hear from executives like, man, I got to go log in to ProCore and jump around every project every day to make sure people are filling out their daily logs. [SPEAKER_01]: So one of the people in the hackathon was like, I'm just going to build an agent that's going to monitor daily logs and tell me the exception and say call, you know, project manager so-and-so because they haven't filled out their daily log yet.

11:27 [SPEAKER_01]: That kind of thing like we understand, but I don't think we would have come up with it. [SPEAKER_01]: And the fact that it's going to save this person hours a week of their time is just mind blowing. [SPEAKER_01]: And it's so simple, right? [SPEAKER_01]: But the one thing you and I both know Jeff is the complexity of the world that our customers live in every single day is kind of immeasurable.

11:48 [SPEAKER_01]: It's the amount of risk, the amount of challenges, the amount of fact that everybody's in a prototype business. [SPEAKER_01]: very little production happens in construction. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, there are an endless number of things that can go wrong. [SPEAKER_01]: And when you're running, if you're a general contractor, if you're running a 3, 4, 5% gross margin business, one mistake can put you at risk for the entire company.

12:09 [SPEAKER_01]: So having these agents that you built up, [SPEAKER_01]: that are basically 24-7 monitoring all of the things that are happening on the job site. [SPEAKER_01]: And then alerting you is just a step function in the way that people are going to use technology. [SPEAKER_00]: It's really opening for me, because that's been a conversation we've been having for a really long time about.

12:29 [SPEAKER_00]: Listen, Jeff, it's one job out of the hundreds of jobs. [SPEAKER_00]: And so we were always looking at these macro levels and trying to do those things, [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to call it step it down like it's down a ladder, but get it to the ground. [SPEAKER_00]: So if each group is using these types of things to look for the risk and the uncertainty and focus on the work, we're going to be able to focus on delivering far better products.

12:58 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think in the end projects that make for happier owners that maybe increase those margins to, there's also a time and a place where I think you'll have enough data and enough ability [SPEAKER_00]: Dare I say a place that you're more profitable true partnerships where it's working better for you customers that are your premier customers and really focus on delivering for them And also, you know, I can imagine an agent that's like, listen, I'm the foreman and I'm doing work and two of you're always calling me and you want the same dang thing [SPEAKER_00]: You know what?

13:33 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to build an agent. [SPEAKER_00]: It's going to send it to you. [SPEAKER_00]: And if you want to check your email for it or you want to get it at a text message or whatever it's going to work, you get it and I'm going to focus on what I need to do over here on our my materials getting in is the laid out right are the crews working is everybody, you know, on schedule.

13:50 [SPEAKER_00]: So I can avoid trade stacking those things that are really really hampering the industry right now. [SPEAKER_00]: So man, I love it. [SPEAKER_01]: By the way, we always say that like when we're successful in the job, two things happen. [SPEAKER_01]: One is the software disappears into the background.

14:05 [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, when you wake up in the morning, you don't think about Gmail or Outlook. [SPEAKER_01]: You just, that's just the way you work. [SPEAKER_01]: And so there's that. [SPEAKER_01]: The other thing is, if we're really successful at delivering the solutions that we need to deliver, [SPEAKER_01]: The folks that are, you know, the users of our software should be freed up to actually walk outside of the job site trailer and actually build, which is what they got into the industry for in the first place, as opposed to wrestling with a computer.

14:30 [SPEAKER_01]: And I, I think both those things are true when we, when we successfully deliver solution. [SPEAKER_00]: Even though we can do a lot of that, we can make the time on the computer more valuable and easier. [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's sort of this power as well, because you said it, they didn't get into this business to, you know, do paperwork.

14:49 [SPEAKER_00]: They got into this business to build the world around us. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what drives them. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, stop any one of them and ask for a story. [SPEAKER_00]: And you'll hear amazing things. [SPEAKER_00]: Sorry to, you know, to Bluebeam and to ProCore and to everybody out there, it's not going to be about you.

15:05 [SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be about the building, the bridge, the incredible, you know, power plan or wastewater treatment plan. [SPEAKER_00]: Those things that, you know, are delivering such valuable services to everybody and, you know, it's scale. [SPEAKER_00]: What else you got up your sleeve there?

15:20 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I've sure you got another nugget for me. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, no, we do, so Agent Builder is really, you know, Premiere. [SPEAKER_01]: It's great. [SPEAKER_01]: We also have a, a tool called developer studio. [SPEAKER_01]: We call it dev studio, which allows you to not only manage your agents, but also allows you to connect ProCord all of the systems that you use every single day.

15:41 [SPEAKER_01]: So basically, we've come to the realization long ago that [SPEAKER_01]: Procreas an amazing platform, but we're not the only platform. [SPEAKER_01]: And so in order for us to make the art customer successful, we have to be able to incorporate our data with their other systems. [SPEAKER_01]: And then there are other systems data with our data.

16:00 [SPEAKER_01]: So Dev Studio, I think, is going to be a force multiplier, because it's going to get people to stop thinking about just project controls and think about how are they running their business, which I think is really going to be transformative. [SPEAKER_00]: Have a couple more that ones that ones I we're going to sit on that sucker for a second because we have always been two businesses in this industry we have been project controls and we have been business controls so to speak and to bridge that gap.

16:32 [SPEAKER_00]: is a powerful way, especially in these, you know, changing times, it seems like feast everywhere. [SPEAKER_00]: It's really not. [SPEAKER_00]: We can get into that. [SPEAKER_00]: But this allows people to connect systems. [SPEAKER_00]: It's one of the reasons I think we've always gotten along and connected.

16:47 [SPEAKER_00]: It's why I'm where I'm at. [SPEAKER_00]: There is no one ring to rule them all. [SPEAKER_00]: that Microsoft and Google figured that out a long time ago. [SPEAKER_00]: Others should figure that out. [SPEAKER_00]: We have to be better partners. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, you know, I'll go to some of our other friends.

17:03 [SPEAKER_00]: We should fight it out when it's competition, right? [SPEAKER_00]: But in a way that makes sense to us and our customers, I and Sharpen's iron, but it's not to win. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just to all be better and work together. [SPEAKER_00]: Because that's ultimately right, if they win, we win.

17:19 [SPEAKER_00]: I think there's this missing piece that like, hey, if you love our stuff and all the stuff out there, including connecting to your businesses, you're going to use more and more of it. [SPEAKER_00]: You're going to want more and more of it, and that's what we want. [SPEAKER_00]: So I love that approach.

17:35 [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm excited to see this dev studio. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what kind of people are going to be in there? [SPEAKER_00]: You're looking at your agents, you're looking at data access to other places. [SPEAKER_00]: What's not going to look like? [SPEAKER_01]: We envision with Dev Studio that this is going to be a more kind of a higher technical calling.

17:56 [SPEAKER_01]: So it would be somebody in the corporate headquarters. [SPEAKER_01]: That's trying to tie systems together. [SPEAKER_01]: Or in many cases, it could be Deloitte or Whipfle, or AWS, or any one of our partners that's coming in [SPEAKER_01]: understand what questions they should be asking of their disparate data systems.

18:18 [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, even sage in some cases. [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, I mean, we have lots and lots of partners that are going to help us with this. [SPEAKER_01]: And then, of course, we're going to be here for our customers to help them along the way, empowering those that empower us. [SPEAKER_00]: That's that's awesome.

18:31 [SPEAKER_00]: We need those people that come in and look at our businesses that way and tie those things together. [SPEAKER_00]: at that higher level and that's that's the scale we want and we're seeing in construction now consistently so I love that I'm going to look I'm going to be you're going to man I'm going to be busy when I'm at ground break yes I will be there folks by the way I'm not letting another ground break go I will be there maybe even have some legos just a little teaser out there if you're if you're listening um because I'm into those these days what else do you got yeah what I want to point out something that's really I think kind of interesting is that [SPEAKER_01]: One of the things that we're seeing outside of AI that is really defining the difference between what a highly successful company does and what a moderately successful company, customer of ours does, is codifying their business processes.

19:18 [SPEAKER_01]: And as you know in the days of AI and all this agentic revolution, if your business processes are not well defined, you can't put agents to work because then there's no structure to tie them to it, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So what we're seeing is that there's a lot of focus these days all around the globe of our customers really double double downing looking at their current business processes.

19:44 [SPEAKER_01]: They're standard operating procedures codifying them training their people to them holding their people accountable to them to ensure they have consistency across the board. [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, we have tools like action plans, which is a really cool tool built into ProPore, which essentially lets you codify your standard operating procedures.

20:01 [SPEAKER_01]: So like, if you're going to do a waterproofing detail or whatever, it basically comes in and here's the checklist. [SPEAKER_01]: The things that have to happen before you can sign off on it. [SPEAKER_01]: Here's what you can do before you pour concrete, but it's all the company's way of doing that particular process.

20:16 [SPEAKER_01]: So I think that kind of a trend which we're seeing a lot of coupled with the fact that AI is kind of eating the world is going to be a step function and companies abilities to not only manage risk but to optimize opportunities as well and that's that's really it's really exciting it is exciting because [SPEAKER_00]: We want it to solve our problems.

20:48 [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't solve our problems. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's why we're so valuable as the individuals in the businesses that are doing the work that understand how it's delivered. [SPEAKER_00]: Whether it's water detail, you know, waterproofing details, whether it's framing and drywall, whether it's, you know, different runs for electricals, et cetera.

21:10 [SPEAKER_00]: understanding your processes and mapping them out. [SPEAKER_00]: And just like the agents are giving formant and supers and PMs a reason to want to be better at the tool, this is giving businesses a reason to need to be better at the business, at the process itself and understanding it.

21:32 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'll be honest, that's been lacking not everywhere, but [SPEAKER_00]: but a lot of places and a standardization around it. [SPEAKER_00]: So to give it an ability to have a place to then, you know, that was the other thing, right? [SPEAKER_00]: You built a standing operating procedure and then you put it in a binder.

21:47 [SPEAKER_00]: If you were lucky, you put it somewhere on a drive somewhere. [SPEAKER_00]: So this is now you do the work and you get it to the people and you deliver it where you want them to have it. [SPEAKER_00]: Now they use it. [SPEAKER_00]: Now it's all valuable to everybody. [SPEAKER_00]: So we're seeing that that process mapping really.

22:06 [SPEAKER_00]: It's been pretty consistent, but we haven't seen enough people do it. [SPEAKER_00]: So I love to see you guys give it an ability there. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, one of the things that I think we all can see is that, you know, when I started ProCore, [SPEAKER_01]: There were the project managers that we would talk to who literally had assembled a lifetime's worth of experience in their head, and they were the kind of the cowboys on the job, right?

22:32 [SPEAKER_01]: They would, you know, didn't matter what the standard operating procedure was for the company that they worked for, they were going to one that building the way that they knew how to run buildings, and it would, you know, so each one of those projects with different project managers would have this like unique way of, [SPEAKER_01]: of working is so that but I would say today we're now in the era where the hero, the cowboy, the the Maverick isn't going to be successful because you unless you work within the framework of the tools that you're given, you're not going to be able to leverage them and you're not going to, you're not going to be successful.

23:05 [SPEAKER_01]: So I think it's a whole new era of that. [SPEAKER_01]: The other [SPEAKER_01]: One of the biggest challenges that most of our customers tell us they have is that they're most senior people are aging out, they're retiring, right? [SPEAKER_01]: And they're having a hard time getting younger people to join the industry, but when they do get young people to join the industry, these folks don't know anything about construction.

23:27 [SPEAKER_01]: And so in some cases, our customers will pay the retirees to come in and teach the younger folks how to do waterproofing details and how to do the things that they need to know. [SPEAKER_01]: I think with this era of AI, that knowledge is going to be institutionalized. [SPEAKER_01]: And so therefore, it will be at everyone's fingertips.

23:52 [SPEAKER_01]: And actually, a friend of mine, John Fish, who runs Suffolk Construction, I don't know if you know, John. [SPEAKER_01]: He and I had lunch in Boston recently. [SPEAKER_01]: He and I had this amazing conversation. [SPEAKER_01]: Which by the way, I think is something that I'm going to I'm going to write a long form article with him on, but essentially you know the concept of a master builder back in the day.

24:14 [SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, for those of you who made me are not familiar. [SPEAKER_01]: So, a master builder, it all originated back in Europe, but it was basically somebody who was a skilled and almost everything that went into construction. [SPEAKER_01]: They could lay out a foundation, but they could also frame the cabinetry.

24:31 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, they knew they were experts across the entire spectrum of construction, and it would take a lifetime to assemble that amount of knowledge [SPEAKER_01]: And as John and I were talking about that, John's like, look to me, now that all of the business processes and all of the knowledge is baked into a large language model, everybody who enters the construction industry from day one can be a master builder, because they have access to the information that they need to be successful.

25:02 [SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's kind of an interesting concept. [SPEAKER_01]: I just think it's interesting that we're in an era where now everybody has the capability to be a master builder. [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to take an homage to Josh Bone, who's, you know, original on the show on the democratization of the information and needing to codify that into the software that we're building.

25:21 [SPEAKER_00]: And I never knew how we were going to do it. [SPEAKER_00]: And I think now you're right. [SPEAKER_00]: We have that capability. [SPEAKER_00]: And I think bringing those folks, by the way, extending their careers. [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of them and their careers earlier than they might want to because of the nature of what has been [SPEAKER_00]: And they can, we've always needed to do this.

25:41 [SPEAKER_00]: We need to one to many, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Because we jump to a generation, and we're going to have a whole new generation coming in that needs this, and needs to be able to get access to it. [SPEAKER_00]: But then we need the knowledge to help guide them. [SPEAKER_00]: So they can truly be that idea of the master builder.

25:58 [SPEAKER_00]: And you had to think the master builder went away because of the complexity. [SPEAKER_00]: That was beginning and happening over time on the buildings and the types of projects, but now we're able to consume that amount and break it down and work with it better now. [SPEAKER_00]: And that next generation they're going to they're going to need this they're going to need the guidance and that wisdom to be built into it and so you're thinking that this is a way towards that I'd love to have John by the way, John, if you're listening you got an invite to come on and talk about it here anytime you want.

26:34 [SPEAKER_00]: It would be great, because we need that. [SPEAKER_01]: He's a wealth of knowledge, and by the way, he is investing so heavily in AI internally, hiring engineers and running big projects, and he's got such a firm grasp on where this industry's going. [SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, he's a great visionary.

26:56 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what we need in the industry, right? [SPEAKER_00]: We need visionaries on all sides to sort of guy each other down the path, because you know, [SPEAKER_00]: You gotta come back to it. [SPEAKER_00]: There is a boom in so many areas, but we're also seeing some tough times. [SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of places right now.

27:13 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm wondering what your thoughts are on where we are right now as an industry. [SPEAKER_01]: If you remove all the excitement around AI and data, I would say we're not in a great place, right? [SPEAKER_01]: The industry still highly complex. [SPEAKER_01]: The labor shortage is as acute as ever before.

27:29 [SPEAKER_01]: No matter how many things we try to do, it's just hard. [SPEAKER_01]: Best people are aging out or retiring, so it's challenging. [SPEAKER_01]: So, but the one thing I know about the construction industry is it's probably the most resilient industry, because it has to deal with the highest amounts of risk all the time.

27:48 [SPEAKER_01]: So, I have a lot of confidence that [SPEAKER_01]: the tailwinds that we're seeing. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's tough, but like there are certain sectors, as you know, data centers are a great one, where it's just off the charts. [SPEAKER_01]: But then of course, multi-family struggling, there's a bunch of different areas within the industry itself, sectors that are struggling as well.

28:08 [SPEAKER_01]: But it's [SPEAKER_01]: But in general, I just, I remain highly optimistic because number one, the people that I get to talk to every single day give me confidence that we're going in the right direction. [SPEAKER_01]: And number two is we are in a this inflection point where we're being given the tools where we can actually help enable the industry to be more successful and do more with less.

28:30 [SPEAKER_00]: I have heard people say that consistently and I've not jumped on. [SPEAKER_00]: and I'm starting to put my foot on and get on the bandwagon that we are at that inflection point. [SPEAKER_00]: We, yeah, I've been calling for it and listening to people and I've heard it said a few times. [SPEAKER_00]: This is the inflection point.

28:48 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the inflection point. [SPEAKER_00]: But not before, if I said, you know what, I think we are arriving there. [SPEAKER_00]: And the AI hype, [SPEAKER_00]: cycles coming and we're coming back out of that trough of disillusionment. [SPEAKER_00]: We're starting to see things that really add up.

29:04 [SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, hopefully I gave you guys some time to get your data together. [SPEAKER_00]: If you didn't get your data in order, please, because it's the fuel, we need it. [SPEAKER_00]: We've always said that. [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm with you. [SPEAKER_00]: I think it is time that this inflection point is happening, given all of those pressures that you're seeing and the push towards innovation and the tools reaching their [SPEAKER_00]: reaching their potential to help the industry reach its true potential of delivering even more incredible projects than we've seen before.

29:35 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, the industry's reaching there, but ProCore and you are reaching an inflection point as well. [SPEAKER_00]: And you are welcome on this show any time and I'm excited, but there's some change going on at ProCore. [SPEAKER_00]: And I kind of wanted to lean in to asking you about your predictions for the future of ProCore.

30:01 [SPEAKER_00]: And for those who don't know, you have a new CEO that's going to be taking the reins here in November. [SPEAKER_00]: And his CEO is Ajay Gopal, you've selected him yourself along with the team. [SPEAKER_00]: Talk to me about what you see in the future of ProCore under Ajay's leadership.

30:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, let me just tell you a quick about the journey we've been on and why it's so important that Ajay starts now and is able to usher us into the next phase. [SPEAKER_01]: But I've always thought of ProCours being the system of record, which is shared across all party members in construction.

30:36 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's been a great tool, the log things in, and to run reports in, and everything else. [SPEAKER_01]: But one of the things that I always wanted to have happen at ProCours was I wanted to make the data [SPEAKER_01]: the highest value asset and not the way that we push RFIs do workflows, for instance, or whatever.

30:54 [SPEAKER_01]: So, and by the way, you know, in the early days, that was really important. [SPEAKER_01]: That's how we kind of won the U.S. [SPEAKER_01]: industry, was we did it better than most. [SPEAKER_01]: But if we, we needed to get to point where we could actually make data, the, you know, the star of the show, right?

31:08 [SPEAKER_01]: So we've been spending the last five, six years making that happen. [SPEAKER_01]: delivering really, really high quality analytics, early four days into AI, basically just allowing our customers to utilize the systems data to do things. [SPEAKER_01]: Here we find ourselves at this moment of this inflection point, where now we actually have these endlessly powerful tools that can help us, not only identify issues on jobs, but also then help rectify them, either automatically or through the help of human and the loop.

31:42 [SPEAKER_01]: So we're at this really interesting inflection point after 25 years of like, okay, I think we've got the foundation set. [SPEAKER_01]: Business processes are all documented pretty well. [SPEAKER_01]: We pretty much know how everything works. [SPEAKER_01]: We've got a good data set on our hands.

31:55 [SPEAKER_01]: All we have is a single code base. [SPEAKER_01]: So we actually have all this data, not only your company's data, but everybody else's data. [SPEAKER_01]: So now the question is, where do we go from here? [SPEAKER_01]: And that's why I, you know, when I started thinking about what I was going to do in this next chapter and thinking that I really, really wanted to be in a role where I could spend way more time with industry thought leaders professionals, folks like John Fish and all my other friends out there and to be able to work on industry advancement, being able to help focus some of my personal philanthropy on bringing more people into this industry and also just doing more with our employees and, you know,

32:34 [SPEAKER_01]: events, like being able to get out and do this. [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm I'm setting myself up for applying myself where I feel like I have the most value that I can add. [SPEAKER_01]: And bringing in somebody like Ajay who's he's such a strong operator, like it's it's almost. [SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't have dream for anything more, but the thing that matters most in this whole process because I met lots of strong operators, right?

32:58 [SPEAKER_01]: This is a great job. [SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people wanted it. [SPEAKER_01]: was Ajay's character. [SPEAKER_01]: He would always start with the people and the customers. [SPEAKER_01]: He wouldn't start with the balance sheet or the technology he started with, you know, our employees and the customers, and making sure that we have the foundations in place to put our priorities where we need to put our priorities.

33:19 [SPEAKER_01]: And I just felt like that level of character was really, really important. [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just going to do an amazing job. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to support the hell out of them through this whole process. [SPEAKER_01]: And I think, yeah, I think it's going to be an exciting next chapter for Procours.

33:35 [SPEAKER_01]: He's launches us into the future. [SPEAKER_00]: We covered him. [SPEAKER_00]: Last week, Jonathan and I surprised you. [SPEAKER_00]: Jonathan and I, Martin, I had a good discussion about it because we think seeing his history and seeing some of that. [SPEAKER_00]: But also digging in that.

33:47 [SPEAKER_00]: He talks a lot about that character. [SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty evident in researching him, which is really cool to see because, like you said, a lot of people can execute and that can be not so fun. [SPEAKER_00]: To have someone that comes in with that character, the empathy, the understanding for customers, and [SPEAKER_00]: For what I think, you know, it's that whole thing if we focus heavily on our employees and we get our employees to put our customers first then we did it right we put our employees put customers first everybody wins and then you can grow but and I'm going to be excited to interview him and see him later and meet him down the road, but I also want to thank you for not leave it and for really keeping that focus to a you've been a really positive anchor in this industry around.

34:30 [SPEAKER_00]: culture and change and evolution, but also about focusing on people, on focusing on the value of the industry and bringing those philanthropies and bringing those new people into the industry. [SPEAKER_00]: You've made it possible for a lot of us as our careers outside of your own company.

34:48 [SPEAKER_00]: to be successful and to gravitate you're doing. [SPEAKER_00]: So I appreciate that you're going to be here. [SPEAKER_00]: When I saw it at first, I was like, tell me what he's going to do. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. [SPEAKER_00]: All right. [SPEAKER_00]: All right. [SPEAKER_00]: All right. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to get him on.

34:57 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to ask him those questions. [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm excited for those things for you. [SPEAKER_00]: I do think freeing yourself and knowing that you can support the hell out of them. [SPEAKER_00]: But you can let it go a little. [SPEAKER_00]: and go to what you want to continue to focus on.

35:10 [SPEAKER_01]: I envisioned there's going to be a Tuesday when I wake up and I have no email. [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, I've for 25 years, that's never happened. [SPEAKER_01]: So it's going to take a little getting used to, but no, you're right. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to be focusing on where my strengths are, where my passion is.

35:23 [SPEAKER_01]: That's not going to end at all. [SPEAKER_01]: I actually think the one plus one equals 10 here with me plus Ajay and his leadership role. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm very, very pumped. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I hope someday you do wake up and there's no email and no fires, you know, sit on the back deck for a second, take in the atmosphere and get inspired for the next thing.

35:40 [SPEAKER_00]: That's where great stuff happens. [SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully we get to see you there and I get to see you in a few weeks. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking forward to it. [SPEAKER_00]: It'll be great. [SPEAKER_00]: So my, you know, it's one of my favorites of the year. [SPEAKER_00]: I think I'm hoping we overhear it on bound catch you, but it's where the fire catches.

35:55 [SPEAKER_00]: It is the biggest event of the year for me. [SPEAKER_00]: And we're all those people come together. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to be there with the team. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to be there presenting in the front row, taking all your pictures again, but also at the Bluebeam booth because like you said, man, we're partners.

36:10 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's a, this is an awesome come-to-fruition, like full circle for me right now. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm excited. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I look forward to seeing you in the front row. [SPEAKER_01]: I look forward to seeing you on the floor when I come by Bluebeam and say hi to the team. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm very grateful for you and the partnership.

36:23 [SPEAKER_01]: And talking to you just gets me even more fired up about the future. [SPEAKER_01]: So thank you very much. [SPEAKER_00]: And thank you and to you know, I could tell everybody where to go find you, but I think people know where to find you. [SPEAKER_00]: And I hope they come to groundbreaking this year to celebrate but also usher in this next chapter because I really do think it's here.

36:40 [SPEAKER_01]: It's gonna be the best one yet, too. [SPEAKER_01]: It's all really exciting. [SPEAKER_00]: We're excited. [SPEAKER_00]: We will see you there, and thank you for tuning in to Dave and geek out for our interview with two e-cortemosh. [SPEAKER_00]: To read all our new stories, learn more about our guests and listen to this show, visit thecontecrute.com.

36:55 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the Contecrute signing out. [SPEAKER_00]: Until next time, enjoy the ride and geek out.