Where has CA been and Where is it going?

In this episode, Matt Brennan discusses the evolution and future of Construction Administration (CA). He reflects on his recent experiences and insights gained from various conferences, emphasizing the importance of setting goals and adapting to technological advancements. The conversation covers the historical context of CA, current challenges faced by professionals in the field, and the transformative role of AI and innovative tools in enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in construction projects. Brennan encourages architects and construction professionals to embrace these changes and take control of their projects to improve outcomes.

Takeaways

• Setting clear goals is essential for success in CA.
• The history of CA shows a continuous evolution in practices.
• Data quality and management are crucial in today's construction environment.
• Embracing technology can significantly improve project efficiency.
• AI tools can enhance decision-making and reduce errors in CA.
• Collaboration and communication are key to successful project management.
• Innovative tools like drones and 360 cameras are changing the game in CA.
• Understanding the role of contractors and maintaining control is vital.
• The future of CA will heavily rely on data and technology integration.
• Continuous learning and adaptation are necessary for professionals in the field.

Sound Bites
"Where has CA been and where is it going?"
"I am beyond excited with this team."
"CA is not a sexy topic, right?"
"Data is king in today."
"Procore is here to stay."
"How can we be more efficient in time?"
"Let's get back to what matters."
"Keep making those blueprints a reality."

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction to CA's Journey
03:09 - The Evolution of Construction Administration
05:56 - Current Challenges in Construction Administration
08:50 - Embracing Technology in CA
12:06 - Innovative Tools and Techniques
15:01 - The Role of AI in Construction
17:48 - Future of Construction Administration
21:05 - Engaging with New Technologies
23:50 - Final Thoughts and Call to Action

🎙️Website - WhattheRFI.com

🍏Apple Podcast - What the RFI?
🎧Spotify - What the RFI?
🎥YouTube - @WhatTheRFI

Transcript

0:00

So here's the million dollar question. Where has CA been and where is it going? Let's get into it. Welcome to What They RFI. I'm Matt Brennan and this is the podcast all about CA. So it's been a very, very busy week. I literally just got off a plane from Toronto, downtown Toronto, and here I am back in BC. And I am so thankful. I love Toronto. That's great. But I prefer BC better, especially with my 11 degree weather versus minus 20. What a difference. So why was I even in Toronto? Why, you know, what was going on? Well, Every year, every January, basically I connect with my team at Part 3 and we do a strategy kickoff social meetings, determine roadmaps or events and everything. And it really kind of lays out the groundwork what's coming down the future. And let's say I am beyond excited with this team. I am so privileged to part of this team and we've got a lot coming down the pipeline. So I figured for this kind of week's episode and continue the conversation we had from the last episode about 2025 and what goals you want to set is, you know, question for you is have you actually done that? Have you sat down and written your goals? And if you haven't, please do. Again, go back to that episode and have a listen. But if you're kind of getting in the stock of what can you change? Well, I figured this would be a great episode to kind of showcase of where CA has been and where I personally think it's going, right? And, you know, through AI and everything and There's lots to show about this. So back in November of 24, I had the opportunity and the privilege to present to be a speaker for A4LE, the BC chapter. A4LE is a group all about architectural for learning environments, meaning basically school designs. If you're into that field, look up A4LE. You definitely want to be part of your local chapters. Lots of great events, tours, connecting with other architects that share the same passion with it. So like I said, I had the privilege to go meet with this group, talk with this group and basically present a topic all about CA and like I said, where I think it's going. So if you're listening to this is awesome, you know, it was kind of, this is somewhat of a prerecorded session based on the speakers in that sense. If you can get onto the YouTube channel, I encourage you check it out there and you can basically watch the slides and see me presenting that. But overall, I think you can listen to it in your car and you're to get the gist of it. But if you want to go back, kind of find out some of the slides or references I made, jump onto the video side and you can definitely see that. let's get into it. Yeah, basically, like I said, the talk was just about the history of CA and where I think it's going. I definitely run into AI topics and that kind of controversy, you know, where we've seen it, where it's becoming and where, you know, ultimately, where do you stand within? I think that's the kind of the big encouraging point with it. So enough said. Let's get into it and here's where is CA being and where is it going? And we're live. Excellent. Okay. So thank you so much, Steve. Really appreciate the introduction. As I said, yeah, Matt Brennan been in it for two decades and you know, I feel like I'm amongst friends here with everyone, right? So I know a good portion of you. So yesterday there was a number of us went to the KF Center of Excellence. It wasn't the museum because they all took flight. Who went to that? of a, yeah, about a third half, which was really good. I love aviation, you I've always enjoyed the history of it and just, you know, seeing how it goes. But the reality is aviation really hasn't changed. Like we were seeing, you you take back to when it all started, the Wright brothers, you know, the theory of flight hasn't changed and it will not. And that kind of brings us into the point of construction administration. Will it change? That's what we're here we're gonna discover. And the whole point of this discussion at an A4L event is we all deal with the CA. as organizations, as architects, owners, and everything, how can we be better with this? Can we basically change the way, know, pivot, relearn, and do a new approach when it comes to CA, and basically give time to the projects, you know, finish the projects early? You know, we have all these contingencies for good purposes, but can we capitalize on that and basically create a wish list item, and then basically give that back because we did our job so well and efficiently here? So. We're gonna kind of figure out and we're gonna touch on a bunch of different ways into that. And I know CA is not a sexy topic, right? You know, it's just what it is. You know, if there's anyone that loves CA like mine, you know, throw your hand up and we'll go from there. But let's get into it. So the presentation is broken up into kind of three areas. Where we've been, past, where we're going, or where we are now, the present, and then of course, where we're going. So kind of a tale into the Christmas story here. So in saying that, let's look at our history of construction administration. So originally it all started back in the cave-in days, first mankind, first shelters, and then eventually we evolved into ancient Egypt where, you know, that's probably when CA really started. You had, you know, you had the architects, you had the generals, thankfully labor laws have changed since then, and here we are. But eventually, you know, medieval times, and again, the advancement of construction in that sense, and you know. Then we start 21st century learning comes into place where now we've changed, right? 1876, the telephone is invented. Oh, this is fast. This is a new way of doing things. Then we advanced in 1965 with the fax machine. Now this is getting kind of creative. We can actually mail a letter in real time. And then somehow I found myself in the timeline I was born, but also AutoCAD was released as well. you know. Sad that I'm in the middle of this history, but I feel old, but that's okay, here we go. The 90s, email came in, this was revolutionary. We are changing the way that we're gonna be doing this. This is gonna save us so much time. I don't agree with that statement as of today, because we get too many emails in the first five minutes of me speaking, you've probably already got 10 in your inbox, and I'm sorry. 2002, Revit was bought by Autodesk, and that changed the game. That was a disruptive technology. We're going from 2D dumb lines to doing something more intelligent and now we're progressing beyond that. The same year Procore was launched. I didn't realize it was this long when I was doing my homework. But yeah, it's been out for quite some time and it's seen a lot of momentum and we're gonna come back to this quite a bit. 2007, you've got your own personal computer right in your pocket as we've already played with it using QR codes and so on. And that computer today in your pocket is more powerful than what they had 30 years ago. So just incredible. So like I said, that's where we've been. What's next? So I feel like, know, with technology is doing this rapid curve. What is the next way? How can we again, kind of improve this and going forward? What's gonna come up in the next two years? So before we get into that, let's look at how CA is changing. The medium has changed, right? We've gone from the old days of again, just documentation. to spreadsheets, to cloud documentation in that respect. The expectation has changed when it comes to sustainable design. About a month ago, I was in North Carolina, Asheville, it was at the AIA Aspire, amazing conference, and I was out hiking the week before, and yeah, just a blast. There's the road, Blue Parkway, which is just a road that curves the peak for miles, and just incredible. Went to the event, did all our little conferences, different places, different historic areas. came home, Dave's letters on the news, the first hurricane brought up there. North Carolina's never seen hurricanes up there. It didn't make sense. Florida, yes, but why is it traveling up there? And it was wiped away. It was basically a repeat of what happened to us in Abbotsford a few years ago. We're seeing hurricanes out in Ontario now, and again, we're in Kelowna, we always have the fires. The reality is the environments are changing in that. And the last thing that's changing is the data quality. Data is king in today. If you know where you're going, where you're at, you've gained control. Like for example, I always get a kick out when I'm flying to these conferences and I get out of the car and Uber's five times the price, $150 to go for 20 minutes. But if I go to the next day, it's $20. And they're using algorithm to basically to capitalize on that. Data is king in that. So knowing your information is really changing. So over this last year, you know, making a career shift and everything to the company I'm with now, is I've talked to over thousand architects, from conferences to meeting at their physical offices and by Zoom, of course. And these are the things that we found out that were the challenges in today when it came to CA. The duplication of work, we don't have control, quality work, bottleneck, we're a professional emailer. That is not what we went to school for. And in a day, what we took is from this list, is we kind of categorize into three categories, okay? And we'll be blunt, basically we got the laggers, basically old manual process, nothing, you you're not having, everything's just sporadic and that. But a lot of you in this room are sitting around the kind of the followers mark. And this is kind of where you're using some kind of fragment device where you have a leader and you're joining in their party, but you're still not gaining that control in that sense. And you know, it's difficult to standardize in doing so. And then there is leaders, and again, I know there's some of those in this room as well, that are utilizing these tools today's trade, and basically being collaborative and using automated tasks. Because why do you want to do something that anyone can do, right? It doesn't matter if it's a student or someone who's got 50 years of experience, right? How can we be better at what we want to do? So again, not gonna... but in your mind, just kind of pick where you honestly fit in these categories with your firm, your organization, where do you kind of stand from the technology? And we'll kind of keep this question, pause it, keep your mind, because we're to come back to it at the very end after I show you a lot, a lot of features here. So, and I think this quote resonates so well, our goal in construction is not to lose all the money made in design. And I guess, like I said, we're. We've all been there with when it comes to CA, you know, how many in this room can resonate with that quote, you know? Yeah, exactly, it's not fun. is there a better way in that sense? So the thing is, where are we going? We know where we've been, but what is the plan? So in this case, know, tender is closed, we're doing our kicked off meeting, and here's a few practices along with some kind of really cool high level ideas that I wanna share with you. Okay, so first off, let's get into like our daily thing. Let's talk about taking back control. So first off, it starts with the daily site meetings, the monthly site meetings. Is one thing I have kind of learned over the years is you record the meeting notes. You drive the bus, you take accountability. And if it's actually beyond insistent that the contractor runs it, still do your own. You want to have your own records. And the reason is is that you're kind of, again, you're coordinating, you're the CRP in this application. And Get into the notes of like noting long lead items, BC Hydro, Fortis, again, that can screw up a project in matter of months in that sense. And also long lead items. We've gone through so many changes over this last couple of years with COVID and now it's just becoming an excuse on the sides about supply chain issues. And that's something that Steve and Blake and I were talking about last night. It improved over the last year and it doesn't seem like it, not really. So like noting your long leads right from day one, your site kickoff meeting and controlling that, you're gonna basically control the project in a sense. And I think a good example was when we were going to the KF Aerospace building there, I was involved with the KF Aerospace daycare there, right? And again, it's a daycare. It wasn't anything crazy, it was a daycare. But it was almost treated as a school because all the same functions, all the same parts, distribution systems were like a nine, 12 month lead time. Mechanical units were the same problem we had and we're trying to find left-drying center. But we worked with a team together as architects, as the contractors, trying to find the best way to basically fast track this. So how can we do it? And then the last one is shop drying schedules. I know the contractor provides this, but hold that topic. We're gonna talk about that later. And then the other little simple things I learned is it'd be amazing to have a TV's in the conference room, in the site trailer. have it with Zoom because the reality is, you know, people are getting sick or two, maybe you just double booked and, but the reality is everyone should be a part of that site meeting regardless, period, right? And that's a way of just, you know, bringing that into place. And two, use the screen for drawings, right? Bring up your drawings on screen, you've got it there. How many times have I, we've basically issued a closed off an argument in that matter of minutes just by pulling the drawings on the screen. Hey, we're not building that retain wall. Well, Don't just have your drawings, but have your IFT, your IFC, addendums, SI2, CO26, whatever. By the way, that retain wall was issued in tender. We made a change in SI26, and then we issued the stairs in CO27 or whatever the case is. So have your drawings with you. Again, there's a lot of power to that. So continue to take back control. Who loves Procore in this room? Yeah, no hands, surprise. You feel like this gentleman right here. It is a reality. Procore is here to stay. And if it's not Procore, it's eBuilder, it's Autodesk Construction Cloud, which is even worse in my opinion, it's here to stay. The GCs are evolving. The car industry and the manufacturing is evolving even quicker by using AI and functionalities. They can rearrange their whole plant matter, basically become 10 % more efficient. We're doing this, right? And we got to talk about that. So the reality is, and two, like a meeting with all these architects throughout the globe, over 60 % of the jobs are running through Procore. Like it's just what it is. And rightfully so, it's a great, fantastic tool. No doubt about it, but it's designed for them. And the reality when it comes to this kind of approach is the contractors keep taking control of the data. It's not you, they're running the show. They've got all the, you know, the return dates and everything in that. How do you get past that? And two, This tool is inundating us with too many, emails, right? I've got clients that are basically set up brand new inboxes just to manage the Procore and it's a nightmare. And it's not even stuff that's relevant to you. was, you know, I've getting emails about the painter open up the spec. Don't care, let's keep going on. And it is very frustrating. So needless to say, there is a solution to basically do this. So I started using this program about two years ago, or sorry, three years ago for two years professionally, and it changed my world too of how it did it. And basically, part three would basically take that and connect it and automatically do that automation system. would link with Procore and so on. And I think the clear message with this is I don't care what you use, but you've got to control your own logs. When it comes to CA, when the RFIs are coming in, who's it with, when did it get returned to the contractor? You know, did it result into a change order or a CCN in that respect? How many days has that CCN been out there for the contractor price? Having this information at your fingertips is extremely powerful. That goes back to the whole data is king point. You know, even in terms of from a principal owner, what's outstanding, know, how many RFIs, who's buried with CA work right now? There's tools out there that will put you back in that driver's seat. And two, when you return something back to Procore, you know when it was actually returned and when it was closed. And there's nothing worse going to a site meeting where the contract goes on about, hey, I'm waiting for all these RFIs and you go, hey, you got it within two days. They're just responding. Here's the proof. You need to close it. Get to yourself. You're being the bottleneck now. So let's keep going on. We got a lot to talk about. Another kind of neat application that's out there is Material Bank. And this is kind of the Amazon of samples. They literally, that's what they have. They a massive warehouse. And if you need a sample, Order it, prime, boom, it's there within the next few days. So this also plays a role in terms of design, but two, it also plays into the CA. Again, just that proactive approach. When the contractor's pulling up, hey, I need this material, he's not gonna wait for that sub that's having a hard time, he'll get it right from this place. So again, just another medium that really changes the game. The toys, I mean, sorry, the on-site field reveal tools, okay? So first off, drones. They've been around for many, many years and they've become very, very accessible. One thing with drones, thankfully the rules have changed, okay? Before we had to write this thing called an SFOC, which was this massive document of how we're gonna fly the site and how we're gonna mitigate risk and it was very, it was a pain in the butt. Once you made one, it wasn't so bad. And then Transport Canada came out with two rules. Basic license, advanced license. Basics really simple. The advanced, you're going for your pilot exam. So when we're at KF Aerospace, I knew exactly all the stuff talking about and don't quiz me on it. But yeah, it was quite an intensive research. So why get into this? Why get buy into these toys in that sense? Well, the thing is with drones, we use the application called Drone Deploy. And what you would do is you'd map out your site, fly the first time, flies the site, the contractors start moving dirt, they're bringing stockpiles, et cetera, into it. And then at that point, you'd go back next time and you remap it out. Now the contractor says, hey, we had to bring so much cubic yards in this, know, we've gone above and beyond and here's our request for extra. How much did you say you had to bring in? Well, right away my data told me that it's half of what you're telling me. You I'm gonna get civil to confirm it. You know, that's still their obligation. So where is it, right? Same thing with cut and fill. We had to pull out so much fill. The drone will do it. And it's scary because it does it like within. the nearest kind of square inch. Like it's just incredible. And you can even get drones that are gonna get down to that millimeter, right? And two, while you're up there, take a couple of photos of your site. Be proud of what you're doing. Get it for social media, do some videos, throw it on LinkedIn, throw it on Instagram, whatever you guys do for your social platforms. It's a very powerful tool. And then the last caveat with that is, it all sounds very scary with the licensing. Come see me, grab me for a drink, and I'll clearly explain all the fun challenges that comes with it. But they do have the micro drones. Anything that's 249 grams or less, you don't need a license. The only rule is, don't be an idiot. So don't fly next to the airport, try not to, okay? The only cautious with that is they are phenomenal for marketing and great tools. Basically it's your cell phone in the air, but the software that you're hoping to use with it may not work because it's their proprietary software for it. So just keep in mind, come grab me later. 360 degree cameras, amazing. These are like 500 bucks. They were very inexpensive. What a powerful tool for, again, during design and during CA. you know, like if we did any kind of, we were gonna do an addition to this room or something like that, bring your camera and take the photos. Nothing worse. When you get back to, you know, the office and you're like, how did the photos went? they went wonderful. Did you get a photo of that duck? I'll be back. Didn't get it. 360 camera is great. It doesn't matter where you point. You've got. a 360 degree view. You can put this online, viewers can share it. We actually even tendered this for one school and put it out there that, hey, this is what the existing conditions are. Even though we did a site walk, here's every single room in 360 degrees. Not gonna be the best detail, but the reality is the sensors that are coming on these cameras are getting better and better and better, and they're super high resolution. The only caveat with these cameras, if you're photo shy, don't take it because every photo you snap, you're in the photo. On-site field reviews. We all have iPads, we all got Surfaces, your phones, use those tools. Those are great functions to do in the field and issue those field reports before you leave site. And again, working with a lot of clients, they're doing this, they do this the same day. Over 65 % of the people I'm working with, they're doing their field reviews and they're tracking those changes. So again, a simple tool by just kind of pivoting and changing the way we're doing things, you've got that. Site LiDAR. Pretty slick stuff these days, the fact that you can drop a tripod just like here and it just physically scans it in seconds. And one good old friend, I don't know if anyone's worked with Pit Meadows Plumbing, Elwin Pit Meadows, Matthew Robinson, we grew up, we had to go way back in that sense. And what a cool group. They started as an irrigation, because they all on the farm in that sense, and they eventually took those skills and now they're doing full mechanical systems. So what they do is they work with you as the architects work together and they basically kind of put the shop drawings very loosely together during design through BIM and Revit and so on. They go out to site afterwards and they basically 360 it just like this image here. And they get a clear picture of that. They take that data, they bring it back to the office, they load it into Revit and then they correct all the pipes to make sure there's no conflicts. Now they've got this. totally coordinated, even though it should have been coordinated before, but they've caught a couple errors, and now they've readjusted their Revit model, they send it into production. It becomes Lego parts, piece one, two, three, so on. They go to site, snap, snap, snap, snap, and they're done in record time. And where this ties into, you know, as architects can use this, well, again, same thing. Just say you've coordinated it, and site didn't install something right. They put the geothermal lines too low, not in the right location. Too bad, right? What are you gonna do? And now you're measuring the drawings and all that. If you had LightR, you could basically pull that into Revit model, send it you guys in real time. They could make an adjustments and maybe by the end of the site meeting, have a solution of what we could do. Again, just another tool that's available out there. And this kind of ties into the other one. I've really been trying to push this with some firms and I'm really excited about this. And if anything, you come from this and we talk a year later and someone's done this, I'll be thrilled, okay? The reality is this is old technology, but again, it's just kind of thinking outside the box. You give the maintenance manual to the owner at the end of the day, it's this thick book he throws on the counter and it's gone, right? It collects dust. Why don't we digitize that? Well, it's already digitized. Well, rather than relying on the manufacturer's websites, why don't we go on our own web domain, create a custom webpage for the maintenance crew for yourself, this school, and everything's digitized in there. And then all the components in that building, mechanical and air handling units, everything gets its own ID, like a QR code, as we've discovered today. And you slap that code on that piece of equipment. Maintenance guy climbs up the three sets of stairs and goes, oh my goodness, I forgot the Bible of books. No big deal. Pull out the phone, he's got it in his pocket, scans it, right away, there's the whole maintenance manual he needs. It's all digitized, it's all set up, and it's got a whole log record to it. The sky's the limit with this. It's very simple, but. Yeah, nobody's to capture on this. This is old technology. So again, that kind of new way of thinking, can we do it? And at the end of the day, it's an additional service for you guys. Sorry owners, but yes, it's, but it really is. And this ties into Twinmotion, life cycle building and so on. But this is a very simple tool that would take no time to do. You're already doing half the work anyways. AI is here. How many are using AI right now? Very few, I'm surprised. Well the reality in the next month or so, you're gonna be using it a lot more because if you're an iPhone user, ISO 18.1 is putting AI, which is kind of scary because I've asked my son too about AI. like, are they teaching this in schools? No, they're doing coding and that kind of stuff, which is cool, but they're not doing it. Well the reality is if your kids have iPhones, they're going to have AI in their palms, in their hands really soon, which is kind of scary, but it's how do we approach it going forward and then so on. So again, AI is here, do we run? Do we embrace it? What do we do? But when it comes to even simple tools like Chat GPT, you want to make a construction safety plan, type in your prompts, boom. For personal reasons, what's in the fridge? Five things, write it in, Chat GPT, what can I make? Boom, and it's there. It's not being lazy, it's just. trying to think of creative ways. And we're going to kind of go into this because it's all about being efficient in your tools in that sense. And again, going back to the days of Revit, that was an efficient tool. When I was at Reno C. Negron Architects, we had 10 people per high rise, right? Because that's what it took. When Revit came on, the efficiency, we only needed two people. There's nothing wrong. It wasn't putting anyone out of a job. We just became more efficient and we got to work on different projects. And I think that's it. AI is only going to do about 80 % of the stuff for you. And there was an example, it wasn't Tesla, but it was the other kind of driving car scenario where they're out, and I think it was Arizona, and everyone was just doing the self-driving, and they got into a roadblock, right? Just everyone thing. And no one knew what to do, like what I do. And then someone realized, oh, if I put it to reverse, I can get out of this. And then everything was happy, right? So again, it's gonna do 80%, you're still the driver. It is not replacing anyone's job. End of story, it's a tool. So let's look at some tools that AI offers that will help you guys. So Dusty Robotics, saw this one in Vegas at Autodesk University last year, very slick. This tool basically once the slab is basically poured and cured, throw Dusty on there and he maps your whole entire floor plan of that whole entire open space to it. What an amazing tool to basically walk out there with the owner and just say, any last changes? You wanna move that wall six inches over? Now's the time, right? Now we can do it very inefficient. It won't be an extra, maybe an extra stud, whatever the case is. you know, anything, think of your duck layouts, whatever the case is, you can map it out there and overnight. And again, and two, this is again, giving time back to the project, because at end of the day, they're still gonna refer off the drawings, rather than be going, shoot, where's that wall, where's that jog? It's right there, it's on the floor, so just bang, snap it, and it is going to fast track on that. So I think this is one of those tools that's not a gimmick, I think this is something you're gonna see more often over the next few years. The big caveat with this image is I just love how we have four construction workers with Dusty doing the work there. So please explain. Hey? I don't know. We won't go there. Toggle.ai. Now, any QSs in the room? I don't think so. I haven't seen you guys. There's only a select in the industry. So this will be our secret. This program is basically your QS software. You load your plans into it. and it estimates using AI technology and it put quantities to it. It reduces basically the errors, it puts estimating to it, it'll even define the scopes and everything with that. It's a pretty slick program. Valley engineering, you know, you get into tender, something's over there, start bringing it back, right? Have a look at it and just see, you know, what can we do? And I think again, when it comes to CA, now we got an extra, do we? What is it? Well, we got to do this extra and you know, we're gonna do it. Run this tool. and get the actual numbers in, you can compare apple to apples. And you may be able to do it in the same time in that site meeting. Because again, all this stuff's kind of run through the cloud in that sense. So just another tool to kind of automate it in respect to that. Open space. Now this is getting a little freaky, okay? Basically, as this gentleman is right now, he's got a hard hat with 360 camera. We talked about the 360 cameras. Basically he logs in, sets, I'm starting off, walks around his space and it's capturing everything. It's going room to room to room. And it's automating and putting in the system of every touch point. And then you can go back, look in the 360 and navigate it. You can start even doing field reviews from it based on the resolution. It's not gonna get those like fine tune areas. And you're still gonna need your crew going out there. But again, this is something you could hire a student that wants to get in to see. Again, get them excited about this, right? Give them that opportunity. And it captures all this. and it tracks the quality. think what's really cool, and this goes back to the kind of that, you know, maintenance manual and record drawing set, is you can kind of see it in this bottom edge of here, is there's like these sliders that you can do, and you can go, what does it look like? Board it? What does it look like? Unboard it. Board it, unboard it. And now you've got record of all these pipes. So down the road, if you're making any alterations, as we heard Richard Cora go on about why I'm by the third school, well, now if you have all this data. you really know what you're gonna get into. And I think that's kind of a slick system. We add extra conduit there, I know where it is, right? And you can do measurements off of this system. So again, just another tool to kinda change it. And cost-wise, like I don't know the exact numbers, but again, what you get out of it, the ROI, lot of power. And again, you're gonna spark someone, like I said, if you wanted to hire someone as a junior who wants to get sight experience, fantastic tool to get them out on site. And so the one thing that we've been playing over the last year at part three is submittal logs generators. So we're using AI to basically, you upload your specifications to this software, it learns your specs, go for a walk, and 10 minutes later, it creates your whole and shop drawing log for you. To me, this is a game changer. How many in this room have said, contractor, can I have a shop drawing log, please? And you guys laugh because that's the reality of it. We never get it. And if we get it, it's totally out to lunch. And it's basically on their agenda. Well, why we change the game, start off with our first site main saying, by the way, here's the 300 shop drawings I need. And these are the three hot lead items I need, right? Bring it to the attention, the contractor can search that. And it changes the game where you take control of the project saying, I'm sorry, this is what I wanna see now, right? And there's no excuse for getting like six months, know, even 12 months into the project going, All right, what do we got for shop drawings in the meeting notes now? What do we got? And my goodness, we have not reviewed the bleacher. The school's open in four months. Those bleachers are nine monthly time partial occupancy. What are we gonna do? So this really pushes it to a new level in that sense. And then in junction to that, well, AI already learned your specs. Well, when a shop drawing comes in, AI reviews the specs. And immediately within seconds, it'll basically say. This doesn't meet specs. This manufacturer is not what you specified, right? And a good example is take like something that's really complex, like a rooftop room, architectural, mechanical, electrical, structural. And now at this point, you you see it flagged right away. It's not meeting specs. Get on the call with Steve. Steve, are we accepting this alternate? Thank you. So we don't accept the alternate. And at that point, I get right away, revise and we said, boom, contractors gain three weeks versus waiting for, you know, for that mechanical engineer, basically come back to the table and say, yeah, it doesn't match specs, right? These are fast track tools with that. And two, the contractors are taking advantage of these tools because they're involved right, they upload and they go, my goodness, my sub still didn't give me the right specs, right? We've had so many conversations about this. And it also acts as a mentorship tool in that respect too, because you're saying, hey Junior, you wanna learn CA? Jump onto it, use AI to kind of pick up 50 % of the stuff and then we'll meet. Try it out first. So again, just another way where it's data, data, data that's just reviewing and it's pumping back to you. And there's more. There's so many out there and that is the challenge of right now is what is the right solution out there? I'll leave it out to you. That's where the fun discussions do your homework in that sense. But there is some pretty cool things that are coming into place with this. And you know, like I said, what does CA look like? And I think this quote really resonates very well is AI won't replace humans, but three humans using AI will replace five humans. Going back to that Revit efficiency, right? It's the same thing. There is tools out there to make your job easier day to day. It's not cheating, right? You still have to be intelligent, back check it. You you have to be the owner of it. But again, if it can eliminate some of the errors, yeah. Like one thing with like lawyers and stuff, like I could not see how AI can be more perfect than that. Finding cases and all that and picking up those little details of thousands of different files and cases. But yet they've got to change. The ones that will do will thrive with it, right? So that's kind of it. But yeah, definitely AI is here. And I think AI is just progressing at such a steep curve. It's not gonna be like, oh, where is it gonna be in the next 10, 20 years? No, where is it gonna be next month? Where is it gonna be in two years? And it's gonna, you know, whether the, you know, the ones that embrace it are gonna thrive, the ones aren't, we'll see where it goes. So at the end of the day, so where are we going? Where is CA taking us? You know, and I think kind of this defining milestone moment, I encourage you, and I'd love to see, come back next year and find out, you know, how you guys are progressing, is how can you make it better? You guys are go into your kind of leadership planning meetings over the next few months, kind of for 25. 25 is sounding like an amazing year coming up. Even down south of the border, there's a lot of work happening. So how can we be more efficient in time? Do you wanna be doing simple, little tedious tasks, or do you wanna get back to drawing? That's what we went to school about. Who wants to deal with emails, right? Let's get back to what matters. Let's go to our site meetings well prepared, knowing where things are at. and just being proactive and not a reactive approach and driving it home. So that's kind of it, my encouragement, my call of action to you to kind of just be better going forward with it. questions. gotta be something. So yeah, I did I did attend the digital twin session because I've heard about and I've read about it But I wanted to hear it from someone that was actually doing it and this was at the RAC Vancouver I don't know if anyone is at that conference, but they did it it was interesting because they It was relying on one gentleman And I asked him afterwards, I'm like, so if you just quit, you know, get hit by a bus, what happens to this model? Like it's and really what is it offering to? Because it was that you kept coming back and I don't know, I'm being a negative Nellie here, but I just kind of think like you as architects, like, yeah, you're going to have your school just because we're going to do the building. And then again, like what Richard said yesterday, hey, we were going to do an expansion, we're going to update this. Then you go back to your Revit models and you update it. Digital Twin was just kind of making it this model to play with down the road. and at a cost at what reason. So, happy to have the conversation and learn more, because again, I haven't used it personally, but I've seen the presentations and I don't quite understand of why pay for something that we know we can walk in the building, we know it's work or it's not working in that sense and do it. I don't know, care to bounce and counter me on that one? being very careful about that. So query.p pretty much resonates with my stats. Yes. Good. But no, seriously, the fact that you're relying on an outsourced company, and if they say close off shop, then who owns the data? And it goes back to that who owns the data. again, and why give it away? Like you're the architects, you guys can quickly, you know, control that. And again, that's all goes to the extra layer service of this life cycle when it comes to maintenance. I have a list of questions if you want. Anyone else before? Yeah, go for it. Is there a way to control data residency for all those tools? Do your homework. Absolutely. That's the thing is, where does the data is, what's shared, and all that kind of stuff. I can't speak for the other companies that I showed off. I know part three, it's your data in that sense, and it's not shared. stays within the project, stays within the organization. Yeah, you definitely do your homework with that. Is it an outside learning model? In our case, it's an inside learning model. But yeah, I can't speak for the other individuals that are running it. I've a question or more comment. I appreciate your feedback. So I'm totally supportive of the idea. We've all battled this ongoing battle, our whole careers of us versus the contractors. Yes. Yeah, that's right. was one of those comments. Technology is out there now in the AI that we can use to... Improve our position, but they equally have access to that. Yeah those technologies as well So we these are just the same amount of we push and then they just push back again and I don't know it's an answer this question Yeah concept I have that we end up in the same place right and to be salesy and I'll keep this really short sweet But like the thing is procor is here to stay and procor is an amazing program, right? You know, it's meant for the GC when procor came out I was at build X and I'm like this is a solution me as an architect to go and basically use and they just said no you have to buy it per project like we have like 200 projects in the office, right? And only 80 of them are NCA. Well, we take a percentage. That's not how this works, right? And again, it was totally geared towards the contractor. Autodesk Construction Cloud, I thought, Autodesk is coming to the playing field. You know, they're gonna develop a software for architects, because guess what? They got their hands in our pockets, right? You know, they're making Autodesk products for us. But they go and make a program that's a competitor of Procore. What the heck? Right? And that is just, there's nothing out there for a solution. Like I said, like sales outside, like they said, that's why I used the program for two years. And that's why Jump Ship to go to this, because I feel that this is the golden goose when it comes to CITAs. No one's doing it. And rightfully so, it's been really cool. So you still maintain your data, contractors still maintain it, but at least you've got control now. You've got record of your own stuff. If we ever went to mitigations that Steve, that's it, you know, I'm launching a court action. It doesn't matter. You've got your data still in your hands and I've got mine. versus you're relying on the contractor. He cuts you off, I'll procore. You're just based on what you got in your flooded inbox. Well, if there's no further questions, find me. That's my QR code to my LinkedIn profile. I love connecting with you guys. I'm very active in that. You'll see me going for runs and hiking and all that kind of stuff at these conferences. And then I know some of you have seen, but yeah, about a month ago, six weeks ago, I launched a podcast called What the RFI. So check it out, it's all about CA. But definitely give it to your younger crew, your younger generation that are just wanting to get into it. And like, honestly, it's just my knowledge of doing this for so long, hearing all the stories, and just trying to make you pass the knowledge, put it forward. So thank you. So what did you think? You're inspired? Curious now? These are some of the things that you want to try? Did any of the AI inspire you to kind of push a new boundary to kind of try something different with it? Do you agree, feel that CA is kind of stuck with amongst our profession? Right? Do you feel that we haven't advanced yet the contractor continues to advance on the side? You know, should we be letting the contractor to run the job? What is your take? My take is it should be the CRP, it should be you that's running the job and taking control of it. The contractor is going to be taking control, but you should be taking back control. So again, kind of where, you know, part of the conversations that we, you know, and that were noted in this session, where do you stand with it? Okay. And most of all, like, you know, do we need to advance in this area? Again, let's kind of go back. Do we agree just that we're good, we're content, we're happy? Or does this side of things need to shake up? Do we need to change the game when it comes to CA to be more efficient? Half the time, like as you saw in the quote in the speaking session, like the money's already burned. We're trying not to lose money in CA. So is there a better way of doing it? I think so, but I want to hear your thoughts. So again, drop me a comment, shoot me an email, go on LinkedIn, whatever way I'm curious to hear your honest feedback about this controversial topic. That's kind of it. I hope this has kind of inspired, it spurred you on to kind of think of new ways about CA where it could be going and ultimately just be a better you and then kind of your day-to-day practice. Get time back in your life. And that's what I ultimately want to see with it. So to be honest, I'm exhausted this week. Like I said, traveling to and from Toronto, I'm done. I am cooked. I'm probably gonna have a nap after this. But before all that, architects keep designing and contractors. Keep making those blueprints a reality. We'll see you on the next one.