We are using AI to help the architecture, engineering and construction [AEC] industry leverage under-utilized data to unlock trillions of dollars in stranded economic value. I had founded CONXAI together with Dr. Krishna Sridhar. Previously, I was a co-founder and CEO of the AI computer vision startup Dive and also worked in telecommunications and as a digitalization consultant. Krishna worked as a researcher at HP labs, before joining Continental, where his most recent position was head of autonomous AI. At CONXAI, we unite analytical and insightful AEC practitioners with highly skilled, cutting-edge AI and data engineers.
CONXAI is building an AI platform for the AEC industry to rapidly contextualize project lifecycle data from multiple sources and transform them into actionable knowledge. Since its founding in 2021 in Germany, CONXAI has focused on equipping AEC teams with the data and knowledge they need to deliver higher performance through automated decision support, planning and workflows. Our first-of-its-kind, no-code platform allows even non-tech users to build AI-powered solutions – or modify existing ones – for various AEC uses, without requiring software or AI skills. This has multiple advantages: Firstly, the platform delivers tailored AI-enabled solutions at a fraction of the cost of bespoke ones; secondly, a single platform that delivers numerous solutions can reduce overheads surrounding tasks like enrolling vendors, handling billing and general platform adoption; thirdly, a single platform reduces the need for project teams to learn how to use multiple software solutions.
It’s well known that global AEC is one of the largest but also least efficient sectors. A big part of the efficiency problem can be solved by adopting a more data-driven approach to operations. The construction industry is awash in data, yet much of it remains under-utilized: an estimated 90% of the data generated during construction remains unused and up to 30% of the project data is lost by project closeout, resulting in massive knowledge loss. Fragmentation of data and knowledge processing accentuate this problem by creating information silos. The effective and timely use of data can unlock hundreds of billions of dollars in new economic value. AI holds the key, but we found that the conventional AI approaches are limited in applicability, scalability and affordability.
It is often the simplest aspects of our solution that draw the biggest reactions. Watching a site manager’s jaw drop when we show him a video feed of CONXAI’s SiteLens analyzing the completion percentage of a concrete pour in real-time, for instance. Or seeing a project manager’s eyes light up when we produce a highly accurate take-off estimate from a complex CAD file within minutes.