Buildots launched the Buildots Intelligence Lab on June 25, an AI-powered research center with project data ranging from metrics to programming scenarios.
Buildots VP of Industry Transformation, Amir Berman, says the lab’s mission is to provide construction with freely available data to help individual contractors and the entire industry achieve operational excellence and support decision-making with objective, real-world benchmarks.
“We serve the industry and see ourselves as part of it,” he says. “Construction is honestly one of the biggest industries that, at the same time, is one of the last to really run on data. We have feelings based on intuition and experience, but at the same time we have benchmarks and statistics that are decades old, and what we noticed, Buildots as a company, is that we’re giving better access to data and intelligence to construction first and we just have better access to data and intelligence to construction.”
Buildots’ flagship product uses head-mounted cameras to record site conditions and delivers insights through AI-based reality capture image analysis. Berman says the AI-backed construction management platform anonymizes all project data entering the lab, and all predictions and recommendations derived from it maintain user privacy. Users will be required to register in the lab before Buildots will add their anonymous information to its database.
Questions such as “how much MEP [mechanical, electrical, plumbing] Can the work realistically be delivered in a week?” and “How do you rate the productivity of your trades?” are answered in the lab based on aggregated and anonymized data from global projects.
“The construction industry has always lacked a source of truth at the macro level,” said Roy Danon, co-founder and CEO of Buildots.
“We believe this is a fundamental drag on performance and a key driver of productivity stagnation,” Danon added. “After all, organizations don’t have the data to answer even relatively ‘simple’ questions about production, business productivity, scheduling, etc.”
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The Lab’s published findings are structured around three pillars: metrics, standardized metrics that replace subjective estimates with rigorous data; reference points, global comparisons categorized by sector, region and trade; and Insights, “nuggets” of information that reveal hidden patterns and early warning indicators.
The laboratory’s first investigations have already shown results: Data center construction faces a large gap of 20-50% between MEP’s expected weekly output and what is actually delivered, revealing a major cause of delays. Another view that could be a well-known metric is that the final 20% of an activity occupies 27% of its duration.
The lab will publish the research periodically. Academics, analysts, media and construction professionals are invited to present hypotheses, share on-site observations and solicit data-driven answers to specific questions.
By remaining neutral and freely sharing what the data shows, the lab serves the entire industry, giving everyone a common and objective language for the first time.
