Advertise on podcast: Construction Technology Podcast

Josh Whisenant of Roger joins Luigi La Corte, Mike Powers, and Andrew Zukoski the day after Procore's Groundbreak conference in Orlando. The group recaps Procore's AI announcements, including the Magpie model and agent "starter packs," debates whether agents are really different from skills, and discusses why contractors should keep benefiting from foundation models that get better and cheaper every few weeks. Josh walks through Roger's relaunch as a services provider that carries general contractors to operational outcomes, covering buyout and scope writing, submittal review, and a billing approach where Roger doesn't send an invoice if the work isn't a fit and puts its fee at risk for scope gaps. The hosts compare who actually owns scoping and buyout at GCs (precon, procurement, or project management), and Josh shares his thesis that AI can industrialize the contractor and change, rather than eliminate, operations roles. He closes with where Roger fits best: complex, fast-moving vertical projects and high-volume submittal work such as data centers.

Luigi La Corte, Mike Powers, and Andrew Zukoski dig into how far general-purpose AI models can go on construction work now that frontier labs are buying expert-labeled, proprietary data, and where project data, harnesses, and purpose-built UI still matter. They compare AI adoption across mid-market GCs, mechanical reps, and manufacturers, from enterprise ChatGPT and Claude licenses to shared skills, MCP connectors, and the low-hanging fruit in everyday document workflows, plus whether bid management goes "headless" inside the inbox. Mike breaks down LG's long-term agreement with mechanical rep group Air Controlled Concepts, which backs a new 350,000-square-foot US chiller factory and more than five gigawatts of capacity, and why aggregated rep demand helps manufacturers commit to building capacity. The episode closes with a walkthrough of a closed-loop data center cooling design using dry coolers and chillers, and what it means for the debate over data center water use.

Carl from Ramp joins Luigi La Corte, Mike Powers, and Andrew Zukoski to unpack how a horizontal financial operating system is being pulled deeper into construction. Ramp covers corporate cards and expense management, purchasing and accounts payable, treasury with JPMorgan, and a newly announced accounts receivable product—serving more than 80,000 businesses including over 15,000 construction and construction-adjacent customers. The conversation covers why construction needs a distinct experience (GC–sub coordination, retainage, change orders, lean waivers, AIA billing), Ramp Plus automation versus point-solution sprawl, project-centric job costing and dynamic PM expense approvals, the ServiceTitan embedded partnership, and how AI plus payment infrastructure could close the loop between GCs and subs on cash flow.

Wissam Akra, founder and CEO of Tough Leaf, joins Luigi La Corte, Andrew Zukoski, and Victor Muchiri (sitting in for Mike Powers) to unpack how general contractors actually find certified subcontractors and prove compliance. Tough Leaf aggregates verified certifications from federal, state, and local agencies alongside qualification data on hundreds of thousands of subs, then plugs into BuildingConnected and Procore preconstruction so primes can match RFPs without rebuilding their workflow. The conversation covers why pre-vetting is different from full prequalification, how AI agents now handle enrichment and matching while phone verification stays human, during-construction compliance tracking, and why a dedicated compliance data layer still beats rebuilding the same dataset inside every procurement tool.

Luigi, Mike, and Andrew unpack Autodesk University — keynote demos, AI assistants as tool-pickers inside systems of record, token pricing, and whether agents-on-workflows beat agent-first products. They debate fee compression in PM software, the $1 vs $99 contractor spend split, and whether you’d buy Autodesk stock after AU (or just buy Google).

Hammad Chaudhry (Pomerleau) joins Luigi, Mike, and Andrew on running innovation and digital construction at a multi-billion-dollar GC — when to slow down before you speed up, security vs adoption, BIM/VDC as table stakes, and how to justify tech spend to the C-suite.

Francesco Iorio (Augmenta) joins Luigi, Mike, and Andrew on LLMs vs spatial AI, why building-scale design breaks token-context workflows, BIM metadata and prefabrication, and what it takes to automate the guts of buildings — not just the aesthetics.

Spencer Thompson of Cardinal Civil Contracting joins Luigi, Mike, and Andrew. They dig into what makes site-development precon different from vertical work — dirt as the windshield of a job, geotech unknowns, and pricing risk as levers for owners rather than a blanket premium. Spencer also talks takeoffs, true production vs dirt counting, and why Cardinal is cautious about unleashing AI company-wide until security guardrails are real.

What if completing a construction takeoff became as simple as uploading a drawing and asking for what you need? In this episode, we speak with Elan, CEO and co-founder of Kamai, about using AI to make takeoffs faster and easier for contractors. Elon shares how his cybersecurity background in the Israeli military led him and his co-founder, Ben, into construction technology. We discuss why construction software must be almost effortless to adopt, how Kamai turns drawings into precise measurements, and why customers care more about cost and results than whether the underlying AI models are open or closed. Elan also explains Kamai’s approach to distribution, including bringing its takeoff capabilities into tools contractors already use, and why conversational interfaces could fundamentally change how people interact with construction drawings.

Kyle Bonde, Senior Estimator at Hensel Phelps, joins the Construction Technology Podcast to discuss what it takes for new technology to succeed inside a major general contractor. Kyle explains why adoption beats automation, how Hensel Phelps evaluates and implements new tools, and why software must fit an estimator’s existing workflow before it can create value at scale. The conversation covers AI takeoffs, scope generation, conceptual estimating, Copilot, custom software built with tools like Lovable, and the growing tension between established platforms and fast-moving startups. The group also explores where preconstruction technology is heading, including more specialized takeoff tools, AI-generated interfaces, automated scope analysis, better use of historical project data, and systems that help estimators find scope gaps before they become costly problems. A practical look at how one of the industry’s most technology-focused estimators separates useful innovation from software that is not ready for the field.

What happens when AI stops assisting the estimator and starts doing the estimate? In this episode, we speak with Dmitry from Handoff about H1, an AI system that autonomously turns construction drawings into complete estimates. Users upload their plans and receive takeoffs, markups, scope reports, pricing, assumptions, and potential conflicts. Dmitry explains why Handoff is focused on smaller and growing contractors, how H1 connects estimates to supplier pricing, and what it takes to build enough trust for a contractor to bid from an AI-generated estimate. We also discuss Handoff’s broader ambition: automating the back office of a construction company, from the first estimate through project management and invoicing.

Construction still runs on phone calls, jobsite conversations, and quick decisions that rarely make it into the official project record. Karly Heffernan, co-founder of Hardline, joins Luigi La Corte, Mike Powers, and Andrew Zukoski to discuss how contractors can turn those conversations into structured project memory without changing how field teams work. They explore why field software often fails, how phone-call data could automate RFIs and follow-ups, the “Big Brother” concern, legal discoverability, whether construction will remain human-first, and what happens to traditional software as AI agents become more capable. Is the most valuable data in construction hiding in phone calls?

Can AI tools like Claude actually perform construction takeoffs? In this episode, Luigi, Andrew, and Mike test Fable/Claude against real construction projects with known ground truth. The results are mixed: AI is getting very strong at scope identification, especially across drawings and specs, but quantity takeoff is still harder to trust. The conversation gets into where AI is already useful, where it breaks down, and why auditability matters. Can a model count doors, fans, and equipment? Yes. Can it reliably calculate concrete, drywall, paint, or labor-driven quantities without a human checking the work? That is where the debate starts. The group also talks about whether subcontractors should use Claude today, why estimators still need to verify the outputs, and what this means for takeoff software, preconstruction workflows, and the future of AI in construction.

In this episode, Luigi, Mike and Andrew are joined by Elliot Christensen, Senior Vice President of Operations at Cleveland Construction. The conversation starts with Cleveland’s approach to technology adoption and why labor shortages are pushing contractors to think differently about efficiency, self-perform work, and repeatable scopes. Elliot shares how Cleveland is evaluating vertical integration, where CM fees are headed, and why design-build may create better alignment between owners, architects, engineers, and GCs. The group then gets into Cleveland’s move from Procore to Autodesk. Elliot explains why the decision was driven less by product issues and more by cost, pricing structure, platform breadth, and Autodesk’s connection to the design ecosystem. The conversation also covers what Procore could do differently, why bundled platforms are attractive to contractors, and how Autodesk’s design-build-operate strategy may play out. The second half focuses on Cleveland’s technology stack and startup adoption. Elliot explains why Cleveland is all in on Trunk Tools, where OpenSpace, Box AI, Breadcrumb, and Autodesk fit, and how AI agents could change the way project managers work. The episode closes with a rapid-fire round on overhyped categories, software buying advice, and why construction software fails when the field does not buy in. Takeaways Cleveland moved from Procore to Autodesk primarily because of cost structure and platform economicsAutodesk’s advantage is its connection to design, build, and operate workflowsContractors are under pressure to do more with lower CM feesPoint solutions are harder to justify unless they solve several problems wellCleveland is betting heavily on Trunk Tools for drawings, RFIs, submittals, and construction-specific AIBox AI is useful for internal experimentation because the data is already there and the cost is cappedAI agents may eventually shift project managers from managing paperwork to managing workflows and exceptionsField adoption is still the hardest part of construction softwareChapters 00:00 Introduction and Cleveland Construction’s approach to tech 01:17 Labor shortages and the need for efficiency 02:37 Self-perform work and repeatable scopes 04:41 Declining CM fees and vertical integration 05:08 Why design-build may win 08:10 Takeoffs, BIM, and risk transfer 15:38 Cleveland’s move from Procore to Autodesk 18:37 The cost savings behind the switch 19:11 Autodesk vs. Procore functionality 20:36 What keeps Cleveland on Autodesk long term 23:42 Autodesk’s design-build-operate advantage 27:57 What Procore should change 34:13 Why contractors cannot afford too many point solutions 36:51 Cleveland’s Trunk Tools bet 38:25 OpenSpace, Breadcrumb, Box AI, and Cleveland’s core stack 41:03 Token spend and capped AI costs 43:51 Why Trunk Tools is different from horizontal AI tools 47:53 Could Autodesk catch up on AI? 50:24 Project managers managing agents 52:33 Startup opportunities in quality control 55:22 Rapid fire: overhyped categories, pilots, and software buying advice

In this episode, Andrew, Mike and Luigi are joined by Micah, Head of Preconstruction at Knutson Construction, for a conversation on where preconstruction is headed and how AI may reshape the role of estimators, architects, engineers, and builders. The discussion starts with delegated design and delegated scoping. Micah breaks down how design responsibility is shifting across project teams, why that creates risk for general contractors and trade partners, and how better coordination earlier in the process can reduce downstream issues. From there, the conversation moves into design-build, architectural control, design iterations, and the tension between optimization and accountability. The group explores how contractors can empower architects and engineers while still giving preconstruction teams the clarity they need to price, plan, and manage risk. The episode also covers construction technology adoption, in-house software development, change management, and why adoption has to happen from the bottom up. The conversation closes with a look at how the estimator role is changing, the challenges of project initiation and collaboration, facility condition assessments, and a speed round of predictions for the future of construction. Takeaways Delegated design is changing how risk moves through construction projectsPreconstruction teams need better clarity earlier in the design processDesign-build creates opportunities, but also new coordination challengesEstimators are moving from quantity takeoff toward risk, strategy, and decision supportConstruction technology adoption requires change management, not just better softwareBottom-up adoption matters because the people closest to the work know where the friction isAI may help preconstruction teams move faster, but only if the inputs, workflows, and incentives are clearChapters 00:00 Introduction and Friday Greetings 05:39 Delegated Scoping and Design-Build 13:10 Delegated Design’s Impact on Other Trades 22:03 Software Adoption and Change Management 29:28 The Transition to Preconstruction 36:07 Project Initiation and Collaboration Challenges 47:01 Facility Condition Assessment and Future Planning Takeaways Delegated design is impacting the construction industryAdoption of construction technology requires change management and a bottom-up approach Changing role of estimatorsImpact of technology on preconstruction Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Friday Greetings05:39 Delegated Scoping and Design Build13:10 Delegated Design Impact on Other Trades22:03 Software Adoption and Change Management29:28 Transition to Preconstruction36:07 Project Initiation and Collaboration Challenges47:01 Facility Condition Assessment and Future Planning