The AI Opportunity In Construction with Julie Adams

Reece sits down with Julie Adams of Sage to talk about how AI is changing the way builders manage jobs, data, and decision-making across the business. They get into why this matters right now as builders face labor shortages, pricing pressure, and a market that still has real opportunity for firms that can see their numbers clearly. This episode covers the economic headwinds hitting construction, where firms are actually investing in AI, and how better visibility across estimating, operations, and finance can lead to smarter moves. If you want a clearer picture of how technology can help your business run leaner and make better decisions, this one is worth the listen.

https://www.sage.com/en-us

Show Notes:
00:00 Show Intro
00:54 Meet Julie Adams
02:15 State Of Construction
03:53 AI Builds Demand
06:01 Industry Headwinds
09:25 Better Decisions Faster
11:36 Why Builders Resist
13:01 Mindset And Adoption
20:18 Tech Provider Responsibility
27:09 Where AI Lands
31:14 Finance Gets Clearer
35:32 End To End Visibility
42:41 Final Takeaways

Find Our Hosts:
Reece Barnes
Matt Calvano

Podcast  Produced By:
Motif Media

Transcript

0:00

It's not just financial data, it's operational data, it's estimating data, and by bringing all of that together, the insights that you can gather from having a end to end view of what's happening on your business is super powerful. Welcome to builders, budgets and beers. I'm Reece Barnes and I started this podcast to have real conversations about money in the building industry, the wins, the mistakes and everything in between. I believe builders deserve to feel confident about their finances, and that starts by hearing from others who've been through it too. This industry can be slow to change, but the right stories and the right tools can make profitability feel possible. Let's get into it. All right. Julie, mics are hot. We're rolling. All right. Thank you so much for joining the podcast before we get going into the wealth of knowledge that you're going to bring to the conversation. I always like to give the listeners, or rather have the guest give the listeners, a little background on yourself, who you are, what you do, your background, your expertise. And we'll just start there. So I'll let you take it away. Sure. Julie Adams and SVP of construction and real estate here at Sage. And what that means is, basically, I own a portfolio of products really targeted towards the construction and real estate industry to help them work more efficiently and more effectively and build better, you know, and build profitably. So that's, that's my role here at Sage. I love it. I love it. And just for the listeners, when we talk about sage, we are talking about the ERP, the project management, the construction centric platform for builders, for contractors. Yeah, Sage is known for financials and software, and, you know, really being an innovator in construction and real estate. I mean, we've been in construction in real estate for like decades. Yes, we've been innovating in the space for decades. And so it's really cool to see how the technology has evolved over that time. Yes, 100% 100% okay, very cool. So in terms of your background, I think Julie, you guys just released a pretty interesting topic, or at least the AGC did, just in terms of, like, the general state of construction, kind of, where the winds are, where the concerns are. Let's go ahead and open up there. I mean, I guess, like, generally, like, how would you summarize, like, the report and a few general thoughts in the industry. Well, I think that just like any other industry, it's been affected by some of the macro economic concerns that are out there. So it's definitely a theme that carries in this this industry as well. But there's really a lot to be optimistic about as well. Do in that there's a lot of investment and a lot of excitement around AI from two very different situations, one in terms of how AI can really change how construction companies work, but also AI in terms of all of the investments it's driving in data centers and power plants and things like that. And so there's a huge amount of optimism and growth in that area. And even though there are certain sectors within construction where they're a little less optimistic than in the past, backlogs are still pretty healthy. But people are being a little bit more cautious these days, for sure. But fortunately, construction is a big industry, and there's a lot of different aspects of construction, and so there is still a lot to be very, very optimistic about. Totally, totally well. And even, like, the twofold kind of to your early comment, right, is like, not just like the application of software, of AI, right in the business, like the solution itself, but even more so, like the inputs call it from the construction industry to actually build the infrastructure that's going to be impacting or that's going to be required for those solutions to be delivered, right? Primarily, like the data warehouses, yes, absolutely. So I'm even, I'm curious to know, like, okay, so I think it's like, pretty like, it's a simple correlation, right? It's like, AI is everywhere, right? And anyone who reads some type of news sees it, AI takes and requires a ton of energy, right? A ton of power. So you're like, Okay, we need the energy, right? So that's like, easy correlation. We need to build power plants, right to get that right, or some form of energy right, and then we need the data warehouses right, somewhere to store the servers for that AI to actually have the capacity to compute and do all the things that AI does. But I'm curious if you have a perspective, like even from like the residential side, like the sprawl that's going to come. Come from these power plants that are going to get built in areas that might not have the housing, or, like, even the infrastructure. Like, how far do you see that spreading? And, like, what's just like your general, I guess, like, forecast or vision of how that's going to spread? Oh, well. I mean, it spreads. And I mean, when there, whenever there's investment right in any given area, and you have data centers going up and all of that infrastructure going up, that typically means that there's a growing community around that. What do they need? They need they also need housing. They also need infrastructure. They need shops. They need, you know, commercial space. All of those types of things start to kind of, you know, be the follow on from there. So again, there's a lot to be really optimistic about, because although there are economic headwinds and there is economic uncertainty, the AI boom is real, and there is real money and real investment going into that, and so that all of that follows on, totally, totally. Well, we'll dig into, like, just some of the opportunities. But what are some of the, what are some of the headwinds that you're hearing, or that you're that you're seeing specifically? Yeah, well, I mean, I think that everybody is talking about it, that the fact that there isn't enough people, they can't find people to do all the work that needs to be done. And so there's a there's a labor shortage, especially in the trades. And so there's a lot of things that are going on around that in terms of, how do you help educate and grow and evangelize the next generation of workers, skilled workers, trade workers, etc. And you know that, again, crosses all functions as well, but trades, I know, is a very specific area where there's some labor shortages. So in any case, the Can you repeat the question again? Sorry, no, no, you're good. You're good. It was, it's primarily like, what are some of the headwinds that we can experience? And then you were, you were talking about, like, the obvious labor shortages, right? We're the people. Yes, labor shortages are a key concern. And then, you know, with the tariffs and the macroeconomic things that are going on, like prices going up, inflation, what we're seeing is that sometimes the owners are pulling back on projects, or they're canceling some projects. And I think that there's a stat in in the just, we've got a guest, we've got a guest. Is that a chocolate lab? Yes, he is a big he is a big lab. Somebody at the door. No, Julie, you're fine. This is, this is the color that we're looking for on BBB. You know that it's live and it's not scripted. That's right. That's right. Go ahead. So, headwinds, headwinds, labor shortage. You were talking about tariffs, macroeconomics, pricing, inflation, yeah. And so the owners are like, you know, is this the right time to invest? Do I have enough funding? Am I going to be able to execute on this project? So there's a little bit of uncertainty around that. And there were some stats like, you know, 60% of the survey respondents had an owner either scale back, postpone or cancel a project, right? Postpone Is that what you call that postpone? Owen didn't land with me. I don't know. I was like, why there's a new term, postpone, okay, yes, yes, exactly. And then, you know, they've had to do some hedging, because they're not sure what's going to happen with the materials, and so they've had some to adopt some strategies around that, you know, are they going to be able to get the financing right? Those are some of the things that are going in there that are affecting how how much appetite there is. But I have to say that even despite that of significant portion of the firms out there, they still see have a very, very healthy backlog of projects, yeah, and so although they are somewhat concerned about what's going to be happening in the future, because they don't know what, they don't know the work that they have to do, and their pipelines are still very, very healthy. It's just not as optimistic as they used to be, right for those who are involved in building data centers, of course, yeah, those are the ones with, like, the lot of zeros behind their backlog. Yes, exactly. But with that said, I think like this like and correct me if you think differently. But I I speculate that the lack of optimism is primarily due to, like, the skepticism of opportunity. There's a lot of big words in there, right? But essentially, like, your optimism goes down when you're skeptical. If you can win, right? You're optimistic, of course, if you're like, This is a home run job, we're going to crush it. There's a ton of opportunity. We're going to do it. But with the amount. Amount of money to your earlier comment that's getting pumped into AI and how that's going to be impacting the data centers, the power plants, the infrastructure, the community, everything that comes around it. Yeah, it's like, more of that has to do with Okay, the money is there. Now, how do we just capture it and ensure that us as businesses are looking at these opportunities the appropriate way. And that's where I think including AI, not just on like the building and infrastructure of AI, but the actual solutions of AI can help, right? Because so much of AI, especially in the financial arm, is like it's exposing opportunities. It's giving you cleaner data, it's getting you clear pictures, it's getting you better forecasting all of these different things that are going to help you be more optimistic on these opportunities. What's your take spot on Absolutely, and that is why you know when, when there is an economic downturn and when there is pressure and caution, that's actually the right time to start to invest in technology, because technology is the enabler for you to be able to weather some of that, to be able to have that visibility, to make the right decisions, to have that technology that's going to make you more efficient, give you that insight, to make those data informed decisions right, predict what's going to happen and just make sure that you're doing everything optimally, so that when the boom times come back, or whatever, sectors are really where you should be, you have that visibility to basically take advantage of that opportunity. So, yeah, absolutely spot on. Yeah. So, and even, like, even just to, like, break it down, even a little bit more, is like, Okay, so the software and efficiencies and like comfortability and data and the numbers. I think there's two pieces here. Like, first, I want your perspective on, like, the antiquated nature of construction and their adoption of technology. But then even the second, and we could just make like, a riff on this is like, just primarily what being antiquated and not adopting technology actually looks like, and what actually means, and where I'm going on that thread is, is, well, I guess, just to round it out, antiquated construction, vertical, right? A lot of like, this is how we've done things, very traditional, very old school, very archaic. And this isn't to be in a negative light. It's just like the reality of the vertical, and it works a ton of our GDP comes from the construction vertical, right? So when you break that down, it's like, is the bloated overhead office, like huge processes that require a ton of manual steps? Is that going to get you the timely enough and accurate enough information? But then second, in terms of, like, the adoption, like, what are you seeing the best contractors do in terms of staying ahead of this curve? Because they get inundated with calls, they get inundated with advertising, they get inundated with all these solutions. But what are you seeing the best contractors do to stay ahead of this, to prevent them from falling back, not having the data, not having the information to make these bets and be optimistic in the opportunity? Yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with that openness to look at, how do you do things differently? And you know, it is your real right? It's absolutely hard to change something that's working, right? I've always done it this way. This is how I built my business. And why would I stop or change what I'm doing because it's already working. But I think that what's happening now is that there is a growing recognition that these things are antiquated. You will process. You don't do things on paper anymore. And I think a lot of what's driving some of the change, if you think about it, is that the kids that grew up in the digital, digital age, you know, they've always had technology at the depth at their fingertips are the ones that are now going into the workforce. And they're like, what, what are we doing? Like, how, how could this be? And so they're really infusing a different perspective on how you should be doing things differently, and I think that that's helping to drive some of the change in perspective on Okay, well, we really need to be able to take advantage of these new technologies to do things differently and more efficiently than before. Paper and manual processes just aren't going to cut it. And a lot of the you know, there's that generational shift that's going on right now. So construction companies, or construction firms, they kind of have a family business oriented tint to them, and now their next generation of kids are coming in, and they're taking over the business, and they're totally rethinking how things are done. So just having that open mental model, mindedness, that of embracing new ways to get things done, I think is, is one of the things that I see as a key. Element of contractors who are really focused on growth, right? It's it's about growing their business. It's about doing things differently. So mindset is probably number one, yeah. And then looking at the technologies that are out there, is, there's a lot out there. Now, construction is pretty hot from a tech perspective, very much so investment going into tech, I think that, you know, sage, for example, it is the fastest growing vertical for us. And so yes, maybe construction has been a laggard in terms of, you know, digital technology adoption, but I think that the appetite is definitely growing, and they are starting to embrace it. And what does it mean you I mean, you said it really nicely. It's about getting rid of those manual processes and being more efficient, and then having that visibility, because all of that information is now in a system, and you can take a look at all of your projects. You can take you can learn from your history. You can gain insight into what's going on in your business, much easier, more easily now than you have in the past without that technology. So those are some key things that that, that you can realize from that. And then the other aspect of it is okay, now you have a whole workforce, and there's a lot of change management there too, right? Totally, you know, I, I always did my time cards on paper, right? Now, you want me to do what and learn this thing, but you know, you have to really kind of bring them along, tell, show them specifically how that technology is going to help them do their job, free up their time to do what they like to do, which is not doing administrivia right and entering data, it is building the project and seeing this, this building come to life, right? So that's another element of technology adoption. There's kind of the central visibility, operational effectiveness that your CFO may care about and your finance team may care about, but also making sure that the operational side of your business is brought in and buying into that technology transformation and making sure that there are clear wins for how this technology is going to help them do their job more effectively. So it's bringing all of that together, I think, which is super key. I totally agree. Go ahead. Yeah, no, no, that's okay, okay, no, well, and I think so. I think that that's fantastic. I mean, like, like, really, it's like, the the generational shift, right, younger people coming in the business is much more tech forward, right? The openness right from the organization to really be just open minded, right, to change, new opportunities, new technology, but then the third, the change management side, and like, the first, for sure, like, that's like, kind of, again, like the clear win of like, new generation coming in. Like, like, in my generation, like, the, what would it be the late millennials, not the early, yeah, late millennials, and then the Gen Z's coming in, right? Is, like, computers have been a part of my education since elementary school, right? And then you get this new generation where it's like, it's been iPads and iPhones and like, AI, like, they're actually leveraging AI probably better than like, you and I are right now. They're 510, years away from being in positions to take over these businesses. Like, that's one component. But I think, like the open mindedness and the change management, falls a lot on the technology providers that have been in the space leading up to this, and that plays well into your point of the amount of investment and how hot construction tech is right now is kind of like you have to give empathy towards the consumer. They never really had this before, right? So it's like there's certainly, like, an overwhelmingness to it, to where they need to, like, Okay, we've never really had this. We've only ever had like, one or two, or call, like, half a dozen really key players or options to go for, right? And now we get all these companies coming in, and they're AI forward, and they're focusing on, you know, specific verticals, specific workflows. Are they all in one? Do they do this? Like, how do we piece it together? I think that's a lot on the providers that are at hand, right? Like, to your point, make it clear, right? Make it extremely clear. What are the wins? What workflows are we doing? You use the payroll example, right? It's like, I'm running as a business owner, let's call it. I'm talking like $100 million a year business, right? And let's say I got 50 million in payroll a year, or whatever it might be, right? You start sitting there and you're like, that's a lot of money going in and out of the door. And 50 million might be high, but it's just rough numbers. Why would I leave my antiquated person? Process that I have a team trained on and into, into this new solution that if that person brings in, it could be a fireable offense, right? So a lot of it's on us to be like, extremely clear and articulate. I'm curious to hear your take on it in terms of, how do you make sure that your technology, what are your options are clear to contractors. Let me. Let me frame this up like, how much of a responsibility is getting construction into new software on or technology on the technology provider? Like, how do you pick that apart? Yeah. I mean, yes, I think that it is absolutely critical for any technology provider to be able to speak to their customer in terms that they understand, you need to really focus in on, what are the problems that your technology is going to solve for them? How is it going to make their lives better? So absolutely, and it's interesting, you know, I am in. My background is in, you know, computer science and engineering I coded back in the day, yeah. And one of the things that is that I've that I saw that got me more into the product and definition side is that there's this big chasm between all these people that know this technology and how great it is, and the people who really have a problem that this technology can help and bridging the gap, of like, it's they're like, speaking different languages, right? Totally, totally. And so making that, bridging that gap, and making sure that it's clear so that the technology is in context of the problems that it solves and how it's going to make the end user or the company better or more effective, and the benefits that it delivers, is absolutely a key challenge, if you will, because there's a lot of technology and it's really cool. I can I fall into that trap too sometimes, right? I want to tell you about all this cool stuff, but it doesn't necessarily land unless you really put it into the into the terms of the customer who is actually consuming it. Ai, for example, like all this buzz about AI and, okay, well, okay, how am I supposed to be using this? How is it going to change my my life? And it really goes to, you don't really get it. We can talk about all the technology and learning models and, you know, all all these things, but until you start talking about, well, AI, you know, this whole takeoff process that you have where you're trying to estimate this project so that you can win this product that won this deal, or win this project. You know how the estimator used to have to go and trace those blueprints so that you can take off the quantity, so that you could, AI could automate all of that, right? Like nobody wants to go in and trace blueprints, okay, like that is not something that you look forward to AI totally simplifies that problem. So AI power takeoff is one of the key hot areas that we that we're including into our functional footprint. Love it. Then when you start to talk about the operations team, well, okay, so you have the operations team. They're out in the field and they, they encounter a problem, they need to submit an RFI. Well, you know, instead of calling and, you know, doing all this stuff, you just put it into the system, and it's immediately the person who needs to respond is notified. They can go ahead and start to take action. And it's basically coordinating all of that complexity that used to take a lot of steps to kind of reach the right person and have the right conversation. It's all just right there, right? You don't have to do anything, drawings, managing drawings, making sure that you're actually looking at the right version, not the old version, right? You know that results in so much rework, wasted time, wasted money. Technology can solve that problem for you totally. Well, keep going. Go ahead. Yeah. So I mean, and there's, there's, there's a lot of AI in how managing, how do you manage drawings, right? And then from the finance team, it's really about visibility into into progress and and making sure that you are billing appropriately. You're not under billed, right? You know that you're you're agile in terms of trying to figure out how to drive profitability with that project, and you're coordinated cross functionally with your operations and your project management team, so and then the project management team when they need information from Finance. Is they have to call somebody who has then go pull a report, and then, you know, here you are a few hours later, right? You can just have visibility instantly, like those are really impactful technology, things that are enabled by technology, right? We just need to make sure that we're communicating and and opening the eyes that it doesn't have to be the old way, right? Totally, totally, well. And that's like, just going back to the threat of like, the responsibility of like, the tech provider, like, you aced it, right? Is, it's like, from a product standpoint, it's like, okay, you've got, like, all these software engineers, right? And these people that are, like, typing code, and they're like, they're like, nerding out over like, the large language models and the capabilities and like, what can we do with agentic workflows and like, all this stuff that just makes, like, contractors or people that aren't in this world just glaze over, and they're like, Okay, like, explain this to me in a way that actually makes sense, that's palatable as you explain it with the product side is it's like they are, like, filling that chasm of all this incredible technology that we have into a palatable, reasonable action, solution oriented, deliverable, right software to the end provider. And that's the important part, because there's, again, to your point, there's so many products out there, and it's like, AI this, AI that we can solve this, we can solve that. But if you're not, like, actually understanding what the problem is and what they're trying to do, and the flows and the application of it, it all falls on deaf ears. And you, I mean, you touched on the point even, like, just going back into, like, the headwinds conversation, right, when we're talking about, like, you know, pricing and inflation and confidence and optimism and, you know, the jobs that we take on or we pursue and that we win, and how are we going to make this work? And how are we going to do it? Do you have, like, any data because I know that, like we were talking a little bit before we started going, like, the AGC report, I was curious if there's anything in there that's like, super data oriented or like that we could kind of dig into relevant to this conversation of, like, AI and infrastructure and the opportunities it's going to build for contractors, but then also, from like, a solution standpoint, I know I'm kind of putting you on the spot here. Yeah, no, no, no, there's definitely, there's a ton of stats in that study. It's, if you haven't seen it and read it, I mean, it's really, really insightful and interesting. So I can share a couple steps. So for example, when we talk about AI and AI investments, the firm there's 61% of firms are now using or planning to use AI or increasing their investments in AI, and that is up 44% last year. Insane. That's a huge, huge leap in terms of how they're embracing these technologies to do work better, right? Yeah. How are they using it? It's 4540 let me look at 45% of of where they're looking to deploy AI is really around Office and administrative tests. So those whole manual things. 23% is like in the estimating world. 20% is in the design and pre construction world. And then here's what? Here's a topic that we haven't covered yet. 16% is for recruiting, training and HR. And that directly speaks to the whole idea of, you know, the labor shortage, right? You need to go and find good talent, and then make sure that you you recruit them, you train them, you keep them, you know, things like that. So, and that's actually a really good segue to like, from a from a sage perspective, one of the things that we're doing is we're investing across all of those pillars. So we are absolutely in construction financials, but we have solutions that span pre construction and estimating. We have solutions that span operational capabilities, so construction management and we also have a really amazing suite of HR and Payroll solutions to directly, kind of complete that picture, right, right? There's so many elements of a business, and what you want is a solution that kind of covers holistically, how all of that comes together. And that's what we're really finding that, you know, our customers are wanting from us, and is what we're building, because totally we, because we listen to our customers and we want to solve their problems. You've got a great product team, but there's a fearless leader at the top. But no, I'm pretty awesome. My team is pretty awesome. No, that's that's awesome. And I think, like, yeah, just hearing the data around where people are investing and where they're spending in terms of ingraining AI into their business is super interesting. So it was 61% the very first one about like the office and administrative tasks, 45% so 61% of companies are looking to increase their. Got it AI, or they're already using it totally, okay, so, and that, so the 61% are increasing, right? Like, that's just like, that is, like, the data driven, factual side of this. Ai, boom, right? So it's like, when people are like, talking about, like, oh, is this a fad? Is this like, is this real or not? It's like over half of the firms are, like, leaning in, and it's like, how can we actually apply it? And then it was 45% is more on, like, the administrative tasks. Like, where do you personally automating things, right? And that's just like, that's, that's even stuff, just like in the office, like, you know, it's super popular, like, AI driven inbox, you know, and like, email writing and stuff like that, just like cleaning up those tasks, like at Adaptive Right? Like we're totally focused on, like the the back office tasks of managing AP, expense management, budgeting, receivables, vendor compliance, right? Approval workflows, communicating through the office, right? That's where that bucket sits in. And then you kind of go down the list. What are you the most bullish on? What do you think is like, the the most slept on opportunity to apply AI and construction firms? Gosh, the one you could do a couple you could do a general summary, yeah. I mean, I think that, like, you know it, and we it kind of proved out in some of the the stats that I shared with you. It's not really one, it's like across all of your functions. So if you think about it in terms of the pillars right finance, I think you hit the nail on the head. It's all around, like some of those menial tasks around AP workflow and getting the bills in, as I phrase it, those are, those are half two tasks. They're not get to tasks Right exactly. And so it's, it's, it's taking the administrivia out of it so that you can focus on things that really impact the business and grow the business. And so those, those elements, I'm very, very excited about. The other thing in finance, which I'm also super excited about, is, with all of the data that you have, gaining insight into your business, right, like real visibility to drive action and strategic directions. And you know, where should I be investing? You know who, which projects are most profitable, things like that, and, and how do I drive profitability? Those are things that are, I mean, we've been talking about it for a while, but with AI, it kind of really changes the game. You don't have to build a bunch of reports. You can leverage a co pilot like experience to ask questions. Yes, the data deliver insights. Should I be paying right now? Right? How do I maximize my cash flow? You know, things like that, like you can ask it more in a conversational way, and so the business doesn't have to get a report built to answer a question. They can ask AI to surface that insight and really take action on that. So I think that that is a really, really interesting area, especially in the world of finance. I 1000 that spans everything, that spans everything, but, like, especially in finance, right? Like, that's like, the most clear, like, binary function in a business, right? Like, ones and zeros, as you call it, right? Like, it's like, very like, that is a very excellent application for AI, and to your point of like, being, like, being conversational with AI and asking it questions, as I explain it is, it's more of like the reporting that we're looking for, and it's always like eye rolling. I have to get this data from here, and then I have to put it in Excel, and then I have to put that here, and then I have to build the report, and I have to talk to these people, and I have to get their insights, and like, this entire effort leading up to getting the report yes now then to get to the questions that you actually want to ask. Yes, that's what AI is accelerating, right? And AI is sold to death with save you time and money, right? It's like the RO is are absurd, and it's honestly like, again, to be empathetic towards the consumer is like you. It's easy to be skeptical when people like, we're gonna save you 50% of your time. We're gonna save you 80% of your time. Like we're gonna take these tasks that take you days, weeks, months, and turn them into hours, minutes, whatever, right? That's like when you think about when you are exploring and you are being open and looking at these technologies, understanding that what AI is doing is it's taking all of that tediousness, all of that work that leads up to gather the insights into a palatable fashion to then start asking questions. Ai just accelerates that and gets you to asking the questions in real time that much more quickly. Yes, exactly. And I think that that is just magic, really literally. And I know that. You know, it's, we have a co pilot experience in our application, where you literally can start to ask it questions, and it can actually answer the questions without having to go and build those reports, right? So it's fantastic. So I think that's one of the real key areas on the finance side, and then on the operational side. I mean, there's so much on the operational side, but you know, some of the immediate that co pilot experience that I talked about will also be relevant for the project managers. Yes, I want to hear more about that, because the AI and project management, like my world is like, a lot of like, AI in the construction accounting and finance, right? But just like, like, is this like project management, like going into copilot and saying, Hey, like, I want to see my three worst performing jobs with the most slippage on their schedules. And I don't know why these are the cases in X, Y and Z, quite literally, the application Exactly, exactly, exactly. And so you know, all of that hunting and packing and having it be data driven. It's, you know, it's, it's hard, because it's really hard to pull out that insight, you know, if you're, if you're trying to, yeah, well, you can do it, because the data is there, but the process of getting the dashboards and the reports and, you know, the right drill downs and all that stuff put into place, coded right? It takes time. Now, with AI, it does shortcut that process. And so the other power of how this all comes together is that it's not just financial data, it's operational data, it's estimating data, and by bringing all of that together, the insights that you can gather from having a end to end view of what's happening on your business is is super powerful, and that is what we're building. We're building that framework to bring all of that data together and then leveraging AI to make it super accessible to the end user to gain the insights that they need. So yeah, and, you know, there's also things that it can do in terms of, how do I questions, which I don't want to trivialize either. Okay, there's this idea of, well, how do I pay a bill, right? That goes in a trainer, right? Like you talked about with your HR modules, yes, yeah. And so actually, you the copilot experience not only helps you gain insight from your data, but it also helps you use the software, the technology, better, or learn things. And so there's a whole element of that that we're bringing together as well. Yeah, that's fantastic. And I think, like, generally so like, like, even if we just, like, start to recap, like, what all we've covered, like, we kind of look like AI and the impact and construction both in two channels. The first being like, the, we'll call it like, the hard aspect of AI, data warehouses, the power plants, the communities, the infrastructure, the opportunity that is going to be brought to construction from just winning work standpoint, right? But then the second is, like the solution side, more so on the solution side, like I trust the listeners out there. You guys know how to build data warehouses, power plants, houses, communities, you guys, you got that taken care of. But when you're looking at from like a solution standpoint, it's not just thinking about AI as chat GPT or Gronk or whatever, right? Like looking at it from a standpoint of it is a place that is digesting all the data that you've captured on your business in the platform, and it's surfacing those insights and making that data that much more applicable on a much quicker timeline, that's where you can start to ease and drop that guard of maybe I wasn't so open minded, and maybe I should be open minded now that it's not that intimidating, like it is actually quite simple, right to understand, but Just start recognizing that it's going to touch every aspect of business and in terms of, like, eliminating jobs and doing all these things, like, I'm going to believe it when I see it, but I also think that, like, kind of, to our earlier comment with the infrastructure side of things, it's going to bring new opportunities. Humans are not going to become obsolete. There are just going to be opportunities that we have no idea what they're going to be, and these solutions are available, and they hope businesses an incredible degree. End of rant on my end, what's your take? Yeah, I totally agree. I know that there is a lot of fun out there, like, you know it's going to replace people. And you know what? There really is some danger to that. So I don't want to totally trivialize it, because it is a very powerful technology. And with any powerful technology, you have to be careful with it, because it can burn you right if you're not, if you, if you, if you're not careful. Technology can be good or bad, depending on the application, but the I see more opportunity than you know. And how it's going to help people do their job. I mean, it's, it's, I think it's pretty amazing. So, like I said, like, nobody wants to do those tracing of those diagrams, right? Nobody wants to be sitting here entering bills into the system, doing, you know, like, it just all these manual tasks. It's no longer on your plate. What that means is it frees up your time to do things that really, are truly impactful. How do you grow this business? You know, what are some of the ways in which you can work with your project managers to make sure that you're you're in sync and helping to drive project profitability? You know, those types of things like those are more require people to think about things, right, and people to work together on things. And so, yeah, I totally agree. I think that there's definitely going to be changes. It's going to shift. It's going to change everything. And what you used to do may not be what you're going to do in the future, but I think that the the with any change, it creates a huge amount of opportunity to do something more interesting. So yeah, totally again, it just, it removes the have to tasks, right? And it puts you in a position of the get to tasks. And I even like to just, like, round this out, and as, like, a sense of reminder, I guess, for the, I guess the US working force is we're operating on this, like, 40 hour work week concept, which is generally, like, 100 year old concept, right? Like this, like, it wasn't always like this. And before that, it was like, you start working when the sun's up, and then when the sun goes down, and then here comes Henry Ford, right? And all the industrialists and all the, like, huge innovators, and they're like, no, like, we could do 50 hour work weeks, and then people are like, Oh, what am I gonna do with all my time? Right? I think, like, you're going to see these types of concepts, like, get shifted and changed. And like, we could be like, the generation where it's like, God, you remember when we had to clock in nine to five from Monday through Friday, we had to do all this stuff. It's not to say that you're going to do nothing, right, but it might just look different, right? Definitely will look different. I it's going to augment and help us, not replace us. And I think that, I think that based on what I've seen and what we're building, it's that is the promise, and that is something to be really excited about, yeah, totally, Julie. It was an absolute pleasure having you on the podcast. I think this is an extremely valuable conversation for the audience. Do you have anything I mean to put you on the spot again, but you have anything that you would like to leave the audience with in terms of things to consider? Words of the wise, anything from from Julie Adams, sure. Some closing thoughts. I mean, construction industry. I mean it's a big industry, lots of diversity here. It's resilient. It's adaptable. History has shown that. History has proven that out there's a lot to be excited about and a lot to be optimistic about, and technology is going to help fuel and transform that industry into what's coming next. Things are going to be different. Things are going to change. What you're doing now may be different than what is will what you will be doing in the future, but it's the way forward. And as this industry transforms with technology, I think that it's it's going to create all of those opportunities for for all the people who are really open to embracing these new ways of doing things, and being there at the front so that they can see these opportunities unfold, and then they are in a position to take advantage of it, and having that technology platform in place is going to be critical for you to be able to see it and then leverage it and take advantage of it, to take to go into the future. So I'm excited about what we're building. I think that we can really, we're really changing how things are going, how things work in construction, and so it's really exciting time to be part of it all. Totally. Mic drop from Julie, I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. And again, obviously you and I, we may be, we may be a bit biased or skewed, just towards software technology, AI, but I think this is generally like the mess. Message that needs to be shared, that needs to be discussed, that needs to, you know, at the very least, like, prepare the industry for the amount of shift and change that's happening. And there's a lot, I mean, I, I've been in the construction software games since 2018 and I just the leaps and bounds of the industry has made has been fantastic. It's just like, like the show is literally just getting started. So I think there's a lot of things to be optimistic about. Change is scary, but you're in good hands. You're in good hands with a lot of people that really care about delivering premium, premium solutions so completely. Well, I really enjoyed our time. Thank you so Yes, it was an absolute pleasure, Julie, we'll stay in much. touch. I appreciate you.