Empowering Careers in Concrete with AI

In this episode of Building Better with AI mini-series, host Sarah McGuire is joined by Robert Litton, Director of Client Development at Concrete Careers, to explore the evolving labor landscape in the concrete industry, and the critical role technology plays in shaping its future. 

Together, they unpack how AI can help address workforce shortages, close knowledge gaps, and support the next generation of ready-mix professionals. From the realities of driver retention to the shift toward data-driven recruiting, Robert shares practical insights into how companies can attract, train, and retain top talent in an industry that’s rapidly changing. 

This is a must-listen for producers and anyone navigating the intersection of concrete, people, and progress. Discover why the future of our industry won’t be driven by AI alone, but by the people who know how to use it. 

Transcript

Podcast Transcript

Sarah McGuire

Welcome back to another episode of building better with AI. I am your host Sarah McGuire and today we will be diving into the changing landscape of the labor force in the concrete industry with the coming wave of AI. How can we empower the next generation with tools that seem to be imminent? I am joined today by my friend Robert Litton, the Director of Client Development and Concrete Careers. Robert holds a Bachelor of Arts in Education from Jacksonville State University and is also accredited by the Institute of Retrained Search.

Robert has been with Concrete Careers for just two years, but has already made such an impact in our industry in this time. He is very passionate about improving how talent is identified, supported, and elevated across the industry. Robert, welcome to the podcast.

Robert Litton

Thanks for having me. Love, love Giatec. Love Sarah. Love being here.

Sarah McGuire

Oh my gosh. All right. Well, Robert, first I want to start by sharing with everyone how we met because we all know what it's like to go from conference to conference and you kind of see some of the same people, but you're never actually introduced. But you, Robert, came right up to me at CRMCA back in November and at this time we're recording in June. So that was just over six months ago. And I'm so grateful that you did because we have become best friends because of that bold move. So I'd love to start by asking you about your background before coming into the concrete industry and then just kind of learning about the learning curves of you jumping into this industry and how it's changing your labor force and how you've seen that transition for yourself.

Robert Litton

Yeah. So I come from hospitality and restaurants.  I look at things from a very customer client centered viewpoint, just because when you're in that industry, you have to, I come to the concrete world, which you would think on the surface would be really different. You would probably think like, that's not a real, there's not a lot of overlap there, but there is. There's a science to what we do, not just the technology side, not just the admix side, not just the batching side of it, not just the dispatch side of it, but the human side of it. There's a science, there's an intentionality that if done correctly, it's the same thing that I've done most of my life. And so I think the biggest thing for me jumping over into this industry, which I love, there's such a welcoming culture into what we do in concrete. And the really the biggest hurdle for me. 

I would say two things. One is that imposter syndrome. You go into these rooms and you talk to these men and women who are just impressive people, stand alone, no matter what we do in the concrete industry. But then you go into the, I don't really know concrete like these people do. And the fact that, you know, for a long time, that was such a hurdle for me internally, that I felt like I had to know what these men and women know. And why would I? We and I know how to deal with talent.

You know, and that's one of the things about the hospitality industry that's really carried over is, you know, in the hospitality industry, you're always recruiting. You're always looking for people because in my, you my off time, I'm a person. I go to eat, I go to hotels, I go to do things and you're always looking for somebody. If somebody's a good waiter or waitress to you, you're like, hey, if you're ever, you know, looking for a job that's not here, here's my card. Here's my information. Come find me.

And so, you know, in sales, it’s always be closing and in hospitality, it's always be recruiting.

Sarah McGuire

Is that truly an acronym or is that your phrase that you've put together? Always be recruiting.

Robert Litton

I, you know, one of the highlights of my time in the concrete industry so far was getting to speak at the Carolina ready mix association this past week or the week before. and the thing that we, and I as a, a talent professional tell our clients and people that we speak to is if you're not always recruiting, then you're behind because we have a finite amount of people in our industry that are qualified and interested and, and talented enough to do the things that we need them to do. And if you're not always trying to find maybe that next person or build your bench up or recruiting your own people to stay, you're behind. So it's a funny acronym, but it's the truth.

Sarah McGuire 

I do want to obviously dive into everything that we are seeing in our industry, in the concrete industry and how technology is changing that. But I think one of the really interesting parallels between where you came from and where you are now is that both industries are extremely labor intensive. Like it's very customer facing, it's very face to face. And I'm curious to know just how, I'm just curious, you were working in the service industry. Construction kind of had this bonus where they were still considered essential.

And now they didn't have traffic on the roads. They were able to pour concrete more effectively. Like there was, there was actually more of a positive thing that, you know, I'd love to understand from your lens before coming into this industry, what going through that transition was like, and then how you saw maybe technology playing a role in solving some of those gaps in the labor force for service.

Robert Litton

Great question.  So COVID is the reason I got out of the industry.  Yeah. So, we were talking just, you you know this, but just so everyone knows, I have an 11-year-old and an eight-year-old. And so during COVID, I mean, we were essential and so we could go and work. so, you know, with the organization that I was with, no one lost a job, no one lost today's work, but the opposite happened. I was going from working 50-hour weeks, to where I was working 75, 80-hour weeks. And at the time my daughter was three or four and there was a three-to-four-day period where I didn't see her. And when I did see her the next time, was in the morning getting ready to go back to work and she saw me put on my work shirt to start crying. And that was just one of those moments where it'll live in my head forever. I was like, I can't do this anymore. As much as I love the hospitality industry and then serving people in that sort of function. My daughter is way more important than any job I can go do. And so that was the day that my heart left the industry. And so I think the thing that I learned from that is the workforce that changed with COVID, things like this weren't really normal. Teams calls and Zoom calls and things like that, people use them and business operated like that. So that need to be connected as people and as communities, and as organizations and businesses, technology was the thing that really allowed that to happen. It filled that gap of going to your job and seeing your work friends and seeing the people that you work with. you know, the, the commonality between hospitality and construction is so much of that is face to face. It is someone serving your food. It's someone, a driver bringing the concrete to the site to pour and the batch operator doing their thing. just, there's a lot of overlap and I think the technological advance wasn't, I don't think Teams and Zoom are any different now than they were five years ago, but I think our perception of it was forced upon us in a positive way to where we had to adapt and overcome. And that's the way that we adapted the separation and we overcame that problem with technology.

Sarah McGuire

But I agree with you, and I think it served a really good purpose, but it also kind of translates to the bigger concern that people have around AI specifically, quote, dumbing down people's skill sets. So, leveraging that technology, very helpful to fill that gap. But what did we lose in that process? I'm curious from your perspective, maybe that newer generation that's coming into the workforce that's spent their time learning online and going, know, the people that I felt really bad for during that time, obviously there were a lot of people that were suffering in a, very big way. And there's a lot of people theorizing now that when it comes to AI, it's going to replace a lot of those automated processes that are coming into place. So then the people that do have those very intensive interpersonal skills and the ability to read rooms and those social cues, those will actually be the new skills that are going to set you apart because those will be the most sought after. But I'm curious from your perspective as you're looking at recruiting, when you're looking at recruiting that particular age range, do you see a major difference there? There's obviously massive changes in our generations, but I'm curious if you're noticing. 

Robert Litton

I think AI is much like cell phones were 15, 20 years ago and before that calculators were however many years before that. Everybody said, this is going to ruin, you know, having a phone around people aren't going to know how to talk to each other. There's some truth there. So I think when you have that sort of dip below normal, yeah, there are going to be those people that are left behind. mean, like I said, my son was one of those people in first grade, virtually learning. That's not ideal.

And of course that has some sort of impact. AI is not going to kill talent acquisition. The people that harness it and learn how to use it as an effective tool are going to be the ones that really succeed and know how to interact with that person in their 50s that's more of an analog face-to-face person, just as well as they do that maybe 25 year old person that's geared more towards shorter bursts of information and shorter bursts of conversation. AI will help.

be able to bridge those gaps, but it's not going to be the thing. Well, let me say a very pointed thing. Good recruiting will not be impacted by AI. There are people that use AI for everything. And much like if technology is the only thing driving the results, it won't be good. always has to be a talented person behind those things to make them work. And so the younger side of the people that we're

we're working with are really those people that are just now entering into the workforce. those 25- to 28-year-old people that have come out of college or come in any other second degree and they're getting into it. Talented people are talented people. I think there is a cultural maybe issue with it. I don't really think on the labor force there is because I think those people were a little older and they had already formed who they were as people and professionals a little more.

But I think successful people adapt and overcome. I hope that it's not an issue, maybe to the degree that it could be.

Sarah McGuire

One of the things I just want to ask before we go into like really deeply understanding the labor landscape today in the construction industry is any big changes that you've seen as it pertains to technology impacting the recruiting landscape in only the two years that you've been doing this? Is there anything specific that you've seen?

Robert Litton

You've got really good questions today. The first thing that popped into my head are our ATS, our Applicant Tracking Systems and our CRMs. Every one of them now has an AI component. That is the thing they sell us. That's the thing that they push towards us. We just moved from one that we had had for a really long time into a new one this year. And that was one of the selling points. And so, from that perspective, it's almost like drinking out of a water hose. You're never going to get all of it. You're going to get what you need out of it. AI is now really pushing itself on how we hold our data and how we find our data. And so I think that the easy win that the AI people will try to push on to bad recruitment is this will do everything for you. It'll find your candidates. It'll find this. It'll interview them. It'll do this. And all you have to do is, well, what do you have to do at that point?

Sarah McGuire (12:04)

Right, and regardless of what we're doing, there's some sort of AI component. And if you can learn how to leverage it faster than the others, then that is what puts you in the next leg up. It is automating a lot. Yes, it's bringing all of your data together and processing it, but you still have to have the wherewithal to know what to ask that will set you apart. So, it's spurring that almost creative thinking in a way that does set humans apart in a massive way. So, I like that.

I personally, guess I'm a humanist and an optimist on the whole idea is that it's only going to make humans more creative and intellectual in that way because it's going to broaden what we can ask of ourselves and our data every day.

Robert Litton

Well, from a recruiting standpoint, I love what you said there. We want AI to free up our recruiters to do the more important things and have more time to do those things, more face time with a client, more face time with a candidate, more, we want them doing more better things. Yes, research is key, and automation is now a necessity. You can't get away from it, but we want our recruiters doing the more better things more often. And we hope that AI is that thing that makes them able to do that.

Sarah McGuire 

That's a great segue. Let's talk about the actual concrete industry today, taking AI out of it for a second and what we're facing today. So can you talk about, you know, what are kind of the current state of the labor market in the concrete industry specifically, the biggest opportunities, the biggest challenges just on a high level of what jumps to you first?

Robert Litton

The first thing, especially in ReadyMix, is definitely the shortage and the inability to retain quality ReadyMix drivers. Secondarily, there’s a lack of talent at that level as well. Our industry is growing. Our industry is innovating, especially from a technological viewpoint.  But we aren't on the talent side. We have not learned how to broaden our horizons enough to attract the amount and the quality of people out of industry into our industry. and thirdly, COVID really accelerated that retirement curve. So there are a lot of people that kind of went, I put in my time, I'm moving on. And yes, from just a functional way of thinking, we lost a lot of really good people to retirement. You know, when I talked to leaders that asked that sort of question, those are really the three points that I talk with that right. ready-mix drivers finding and retaining.

You know, that middle management above, we don't have enough talent and how do we attract that talent from similar industries into ours? And thirdly, there are lot of knowledge gaps that left us in COVID and what do we do? Because ultimately, we're all in a service industry. It impacts our clients, our customers. How do we, how do we keep that knowledge? How do we retain that knowledge and make it something that we can pass along to our leadership and to our frontline people that do such a good job of taking care of our customers.

Sarah McGuire

And when we've brought people together to talk about the different things that are being impacted by the driving landscape, people have said to us, what do you get Giatec is learning about our grievances on driver retention, recruitment, et cetera? But at the end of the day, if we don't have the drivers out there delivering the concrete, none of us really have anything. It doesn't really matter what part of the ecosystem you're touching on the concrete manufacturing side. That is still a really, really crucial part.

But I think the debate here is how to manage that situation with new drivers coming in and what's being expected of them compared to what it was in the past. Obviously on the Giatec side, we have a slump management system now that goes onto the truck and see your slump in real time. Because one of the biggest challenges that we're having is expecting those drivers to be mini-QC operators on wheels and the 20, 30 year season folks when our engineers went for ride-along with them.

One of their biggest takeaways was that, you know, they're sitting in the truck with Phil here. Phil's been working in the business for 20 years and he goes, hey, Robert, you hear that? Yeah, that's a sixer back there. They can hear the slump. They know that. And we've relied on that. We've benefited from that, but now we don't have that anymore. So, do we try to build that or are we now supplementing that with technology? And I think obviously Giatec is kind of looking at the ladder because we don't see that that's necessarily realistic at scale, especially with things growing and the more infrastructure that's required. But that's where that technology aspect is hopefully playing, it's able to bridge that gap. Now, aside from the driver aspect, I'm curious what has been some of the biggest challenges in recruiting the younger workforce for our industry specifically, because we hear a lot about, well, it's so hard to find people that know the industry.

I'm curious how that's being approached by your company, especially on the recruiting side, because I'm sure you feel that pressure all the time to bring people in with concrete knowledge, but we all kind of feel that that's just not realistic.

Robert Litton

So what we get a lot is, you know, Sarah's retiring in two or three years. We want to bring in her replacement. And this is such a normal thing to want. So, I'm not, this is not a negative thing. There aren't a bunch of Sarah's just waiting to move around. And so what we have to tell people is they want Sarah 10, 15 years ago. Well, that person did a lot of growing and, and, and learning and failing and you have to be patient with that.

You have to, part of what I say when I speak to people is sometimes you have to buy talent. Sometimes you have to go outside and say, listen, this is a critical fill. We have to have this person in the next 90 to 120 days. We have to go find them. But those positions that you can identify in your company that are real key that you know, hey, either a, if Sarah leaves, we are, we are in trouble or B Sarah's awesome. Someone's going to come try to take her away from us. The companies that are, you know, really proactive in keeping their people and the people that are really active in finding those people before they get taken or before they leave are the ones that really don't have those immediate problems. Everyone has talent problems at some point, that's life. But what we found is that the companies and the people that are proactive in keeping their people and identifying their key talent, those are the ones that don't have those problems that are immediate, that need.

We've got to have somebody in 30, 60, 90 days because we didn't know she was leaving. That's those are the kind of the people that ride the wave of recruitment, and they ride the wave. They finish where they want to finish. go where they want to go. And they aren't carried by that wave where they don't want to go. The people that don't look around and go, my gosh, we didn't even know Sarah was looking. Well, you didn't know Sarah was looking because you weren't taking care of her. You can't assume that no news is good news. Some people suffer silently until somebody like concrete careers comes along and says, Hey, here's another option for you. And they go, my gosh, thank you.  there's one thing that you said earlier that I want to say, we ask people all the time, you know, who are some of your most important positions? And it's always the driver. Our drivers are, there are frontline people, there are salesmen, there are QC people. Well, how much do you pay them? $18 an hour. Really? And they're your most important people. So I'm not saying that money fixes everything. It doesn't. If it did, it would be an easy problem.

companies like ours wouldn't exist. But there's an idea that you have to take care of your people where they are. And that position, money is important to them. As you go up, other things are more important. So just learning and having a holistic view of your company and how you interface with your talent as a company, it's not the answer to everything, but it's the answer to most of the problems that we've seen with our clients.

Sarah McGuire

We know that on average, ReadyMix companies across the US have about 30 % of their drivers are new every year. So if you're under that, fantastic, but that is still high. That is a lot of time and effort that's going into those things. And so, you know, that's something that technology just is not going to replace. Are you seeing with any of your clients today in terms of training, retention, how people are using technology, even just basic online tools that are already available to them.

How are you seeing that technology is playing a role in that recruiting and retention and bringing people up to speed in an industry that there's so much knowledge to be passed on?

Robert Litton

So when we talk about technology and where it sorts of interfaces with ready-mixed drivers especially, I think of people like Manny from Rocket Start  to where gamification is something that really impacts producers and how they interface with their talent. If you've got a driver who you reward their good behavior, they deliver literally and figuratively on all of their KPIs. They're safe, they're on time, they're consistent.

If you can find a way to monetize that and engage the driver to where they feel that real time impact when they, when they do a good job, I mean, that's as good as it gets. And so the frontline is always going to be the more consistent battle just because of the way the world works. You know, frontline workers are always going to be harder to keep retrain, you know, and keep, keep them where you want them. But as you get into that middle management and into this C-suite side of things, AI is a tool to just kind of help you gather yourself and keep yourself on track on what you want to do and help you with some new ideas. like you said, AI isn't, and it's going to shepherd the things you're doing.

Sarah McGuire 

So that's a good segue again, because now we're going into kind of C-suite overview of how they need to now start thinking about this transformation that's coming to them. I'm curious to know on the recruiting side if you're seeing any significant trends in what people are looking for managerial positions or hire in roles that are pertaining to the concrete industry and how that might be changing due to the technology landscape.

Robert Litton

think it's less of a bullet point on a resume or a bullet point on a here's what we want out of this person. It's more of an attitude and it's more of the ability to take on things as they happen. think the thing for those of us that would look at AI because this is kind of where you guys live, so you think about this a lot. The people that don't think about it as much, as long as they have that ability to go, yeah, we'll try that out. Let's see how, let's make it work.

That's the part of it that we see because we, mean, candidly speaking, you're a professional in your realm and you're an expert and I am too, and we don't know what's going to happen in the next five years. So how could we expect someone newer to the industry or younger to come in and go, we can't expect them to do something that we can't really fully flesh out yet either. So I think it's more of an idea and a character sort of set that they have of.

Yeah, let's try it. Let's see, let's make it work. And, you know, that person that's, as you talked about earlier, that's been a savant technologically, or that's what they've had to do, that won't be such a problem to them. It's the people sort of my age that go, hold on, what are we doing here? I think it impacts them more, but I think from the talent side of it, just having that willingness to adapt and try and fail and get better at it the next time you do it.

is the thing that we see that our clients want. And I think that's a really healthy need and a really healthy characteristic to have, especially in our industry where one day doesn't look like the next, even though it's the next day.  AI is very similar in that regard.

Sarah McGuire

Yeah, and I personally have seen that I think there's a lot of the industry kind of looking towards technology providers right now to kind of help them through this transition. And I do think that in general, our industry may not be super prepared for the technology landscape that's going to change and how it's going to impact the labor force, because it's really easy to not be paying too much attention to it and be thinking about how it's touching your systems but not necessarily how it's going to touch your people. And even internally at Giatec, we've started pushing people to say, tell us how often you're using AI. it's okay to tell me that this can be done with AI because if you tell me that we can automate more of these things, that we can work on some more creative things for you to do. I don't know that there's enough of a push happening there in our industry because it's very easy to just not pay attention to the day to day, we're getting the concrete out the door, we're doing what we have to do, business as usual, we know that this industry adopts very slowly, but simple things like learning how to process data analysis by using AI quickly as opposed to doing it on paper the way that we've always done, that in itself can now open somebody up to do something more impactful that can actually move the company further and tighten up our margins in other ways. But I'm not seeing that a lot at organizations today.

Robert Litton

When we have a doctor, the doctor goes to school for however many years they go to school. We don't send the scalpel to school. The scalpel is the scalpel, and the doctor learns how to use it. So, AI is a lot like that. AI is the tool that we're going to use. Focus on your people. The tool is going to be the tool, and the tool is going to evolve. And we, like we said, we don't know what it's going to look like in five years. We're going your people. Train your people. The scalpel is going to be the scalpel. Train the doc.

Sarah McGuire

Right, I agree. When it comes to the fear of AI replacing our jobs, know, going back to your previous experience in the service industry, we are now seeing robots delivering our food to our hotel room. And you know what? I will tell you right now, as somebody who has ordered room service before, I like the robot bringing me my stuff to my hotel room because I don't really want to interact with anybody. If I've decided to order room service, I've decided to be recluse that night. So, I think that's a good use of it. Right. But we are starting to see kind of those shifts happening there. Are you seeing similar things happening in this industry where something that people, know, some companies may be looking to do a human for this, other companies have decided I'm replacing this with technology and I'm now going to focus on other aspects.

Robert Litton

Two things that come to mind are testing from the QC side and then drivers. Everyone is scared that automated mixture trucks are gonna take away jobs from everyone. And I think your analogy of Uber Eats is really apt here because will robots in 15 years be the only ones delivering food? No, of course they won't. Never. That will never happen. Will they gain market share? Maybe, probably.

Same thing with drivers. I just don't know if in the next 20 years, and this can be a really ignorant statement, so it'll live on the internet and people can come back to it and laugh at me. I just don't know if in 20 years we're gonna have the technology and the culture of the industry will be to where we say, yeah, we have a fully automated fleet and we don't have drivers anymore. I just don't know if our industry will ever get to that point because there are just so many human variables that you can't account for with coding and with programming. And maybe the technological side of things outpaces our creativity as people. But I just can't think that driver that's been there for 20 years that rolls up to a site is gonna be replaced by something Giatec will ever do or any of these other companies will do. And I could be wrong. A, because I don't know if it's possible because of all the things. And B, because I don't know if it's wanted.

There's that human side of what we do that is just so invaluable that that mix driver can hop on site and interface with the finishing crew. And I just don't know. I just don't know if those two things are fully compatible. So, I would say, yeah, once again, adapt, but don't worry. You know, AI will help solve things and it'll cut some of the fat out of the things that need to be cut out of. But I don't think it's going to take over anything because in the end where are people business? that make things, we provide a service. And because we're a people business, you can't take the people out of it. Because people have to make something and be a part of it.

Sarah McGuire

I do agree with you. There's a couple of interesting things that are happening right now though. First of all, the episode that we had before this was Chris works with Digital Fleet and obviously, we've partnered with them preliminarily when we were bringing out our technology. They looked at what we were doing with the slump management, water management side and they said, this is the missing component to a possible truck automation future. But it's still a... possible future because at the end of the day in order to have automation you need to be able to control all the variables things have to be working in a controlled environment in order to truly have anything automated because otherwise a new variable comes into play and Then we don't know how to respond to it because we haven't programmed for it or we're not prepared for it but it's interesting right now because 2024 was really the year for self-driving vehicles most self-driving vehicle cities that really started to ramp up started to surpass safety specifications and we're starting to see that now happen with flying colors. There now, we're now seeing that wave happening. So, are we going to lose an entire generation that naturally learns how to drive? And now how is that going to impact all of these, not just ready-mix all of these industries that rely on driving? You'll be at the front line of that because you'll be on the recruiting side yourself. So I think even things like that that are happening, I'm curious what you think of that.

Robert Litton

Think there's such an interesting cultural sort of conversation to have here because where are most of those self-driving cars? They're in bigger cities. I just don't see a ready mix company in Tallapoosa, Georgia using automated drivers to get from Tallapoosa to Atlanta or Union City. I think maybe that's possible, but I don't think it's probable in the next decade plus. We will integrate the self-driving part of things into things, but it won't be the thing.

The drum, we know what's in the drum. We know what's going on from a mix sort of thing from A to Z. We know everything that's going on. The person will go there and deliver and be the face and do those things. But the actual everything automated, is it possible? Yes, obviously one day it will be possible. Will it be wanted? I think that's the key part of this. And I can hear QC and QA managers partially rejoicing in a way that the mix we make is what's delivered because

Drivers love to say, I've been doing this for 25 years, I'm gonna add water here and do this. And they're like, no, hold on. No, it's not what we want. I think that part of it can be helped. But I just think that there's a part of our society and a part of our human nature that has to have community and has to have a person involved. And there are people like, and this is where you and I are shared, I wanna be a recluse sometimes. I don't wanna deal with the person. There are gonna be companies that say, we don't wanna deal with driver problems.

We'll do this thing, but there's too much human element involved just because we're people. I just can't see that being something that we do in our industry as the rule, not the exception.

Sarah McGuire

What I've also noticed is, yes, people talk about their drivers tampering with it, but it's deeper than that. It's the pumpers, it's the finishers, it's the contractors. They look at it and they say, I want this. And we see that all the time. We see our customers' data and we see these mixes are consistently being delivered out of spec. And like, well, the customer decided to do that because they wanted to pump it better. You that's just the way that it goes. And so maybe we're going to see that with these bigger data sets that maybe the drivers...job does get easier, and they don't tamper with it at all. But now that frees up the space for them to then go and talk to the customer to make sure that nobody else is tampering with it and their job kind of changes. And I think the transformations of people's jobs and how they're the new problems that they're having to solve because automation is fixing certain aspects, but it opens them up to do something different. We're always going to see that we've always seen that with technology adoption. So I think that that's a really good way to kind of ask a couple of questions to wrap up here. I mean, when you're looking at the ReadyMix community and the companies that you're working with, for employers right now that are listening to this, whether they're on the provider side or whether they're in the ReadyMix side themselves, if they're not thinking about this at all today, what are some of the things that they should be looking at to future-proof their workforce as they're kind of taking on this AI-driven change?

Robert Litton(32:41)

I think the thing that I would say is the best time to invest your money is 20 years ago. The next best time to invest your money is today. Let that sort of be your same sort of process with AI. Maybe you don't have a plan. Maybe you haven't addressed it. Maybe you've just said, we just keep on keeping on and it is what it is. That's fine. But I think the thing that I would say is because of the way that the world is moving,

AI will be part of everything. It already is more than we, more than the average person knows that it is right now. Is this gonna be around in 10 years? Yes, it will be. AI will be a part of your work and a part of your personal life. Yeah. If you don't have a plan for onboarding that and including those processes and tools into what you do with your production, you'll fall behind. And obviously no one does that on purpose, but it's the intention behind.

the integration of talent and technology that the successful producers will learn how to do for them. And those will be the people that come out the other side of this happy, healthy, successful, profitable, with great reputations and all the things that producers want.

Sarah McGuire

Yeah. Are you currently seeing any labor trends in other industries and how technology is creating efficiency or changing the labor landscape and how that compares to ours in construction, I'm sure, as a whole? Like, is there anything that you're aware of as you're kind of looking at how we're doing compared to other industries right now?

Robert Litton

So because concrete careers exclusively works in the concrete space, we don't do a ton of looking outward into other industries. The only other one that we obviously work in is construction because concrete constructions is the same thing. For what we see engineering, AI plays a role in QA, QC, batching, mixing, the add mixes, all those things. That's where we see it. We don't really do a ton of out of industry qualification, quantification on the AI side of it. Our main thing is trying to get producers and others to see similar people in other manufacturing worlds as how they can fit into our industry. that's a good question. I just don't think we have a lot of data on it.

Sarah McGuire

It's interesting. Then I'll pivot instead to kind of wrap up on the younger generation as they come in. You talked really about at the beginning of this about how the retirement, COVID really pushed an early retirement surge and that's what we're seeing in every industry where we're losing people in the workforce kind of left and right here. But there's a huge push to encourage young professionals to come into the ready-mix space in any capacity, in any level.

Do you have any advice for them and then also employers to make themselves more appealing to that workforce, what they can be doing now?

Robert Litton

Sure, to candidates that want to get into concrete. There is a perseverance. There's a resiliency that this industry has. And so you have to have that. People are willing to help you. They see that there's a need for qualified people to come in and help out, but you've got to be worth their time. Another guy I'm going to shout out is Jeff Engrudel and Inform. People like that that have the knowledge, and the experience want to give it. want this industry. One of the best parts of this industry is how healthy the competition is here. Everybody wants everybody to do well. Yeah. So that would be the first thing I would say from a candidate perspective, from our client perspective. There are so many wonderful people that come from industries like hospitality or or manufacturing or other things that will fit here if they had a company or if they had a mentor or a leadership group that could help them interface and take their experience and their education and their qualifications and interface into what we do in the concrete industry. So people want to do well. They want to come to work and do something that they can believe in.

Sarah McGuire 

I want to take that, of course, because this is all about AI and technology. I want to take what you've just said there about finding people with the soft skills, with the resilience, with the passion, with the drive to actually do something that they see a tangible reward in. Because I have to say personally, even though we're on the tech side, I get a sense of pride when I say, that building went up with our sensors. But there are ways that we can be using technology to be building that database, that library for people. And I think the more we can be doing as an industry to be building up all of that knowledge and to be sharing that, creating more training courses for people to be able to access that, then we focus on the soft skills that are a lot harder to build. Those are things that come from life experiences. So you find the right people, you put them into that job and use technology to allow them to ramp up super quickly with training programs and libraries. They can get out there and do their job faster. And that's how technology can kind of be used to bridge that gap.

Robert Litton

Well, the thing that I love about you, and I is we've had this conversation before. We want people to come into our industry. How do we lower the bar, not in quality, but that initial jump into the industry and technology has to be at the forefront of that. It has to be intentional. These training programs, they don't just happen because we want them to. Leaders in our industry need to see the problem, address the problem and fix the problem. And you fix it by trying, you fix it by doing on purpose.

AI is here. Everything that we do, technology is here in our lives. Talent is the same way. Be intentional with it. The best plan is the one you have. And if you try and it doesn't work, at least you did something, learn better on the next one. That would be the thing that I would say when it comes to bringing people outside of the industry is you and I have talked about how do we make it easier? Whatever we do, as long as it's intentional and informed, we'll be better than if we did nothing. And so those companies that really see that broad horizon of people out there and try to bring them on, that's half the battle is the want to and the trying. That's kind of where I am.

Sarah McGuire 

I love that. think that's a great way to end it off. Robert, do you have any final thoughts or comments that you want to share before we end it there?

Robert Litton

No, I'm very appreciative of the platform.  You and Giatec have been so kind to us at Concrete Careers. We love the relationship we have. I think if you're a leader in the ready-mix space, you would do yourself a disservice if you didn't know Sarah and Giatec and what they do and their heart for blending technology and the sort of operational interface that they have with you. At Concrete Careers, we just really believe that there's a right and a wrong way to do talent acquisition. We have a heart for the industry. We have a heart for the people.

And when it intersects with technology, trust the people, train the people, the scalpel will take care of itself. And if you need a partner that loves the industry and loves the people and will make that sort of process as easy as possible, we're here for you. Thank you for the platform. Appreciate you as a person and as a professional and glad to be on the podcast.

Sarah McGuire

Thank you, Robert. It's always a pleasure picking your brain and talking to you. look forward to the next time.

Robert Litton

Thank you, Sarah.