Rewire Your Brain

Episode 1: Rewire Your Brain

Why construction has to think big on AI

Bassem and Ellis open the series by naming the problem: most contractors treat AI as a side project. They explain why small, bolted-on pilots fail and why this is a replatforming moment as big as the move from CD installs to the web.

The Big Picture · 8 min

Opens October 27, 2026 at 9:00 AM ET

Read the transcript

Bassem, we're back. I know. In studio. It's been years. It's been years. Okay. So, in a couple years ago, maybe three years ago, we did a series called the future of work.

I think it was three years ago. I think it was like somewhere near mask mandates dropping. It was actually it was before ChatGPT before Claude it was 2023 probably 2023 and we called it the future of work and we called it the future of work and we are back in studio talking about the future of work talking about the Future of Work: Rewired. We're calling this series the Future of Work: Rewired. Yeah.

And the timing could not be better for this conversation. If we had done it a couple years ago, it might have been a little bit too early.

It's a confusing time for a lot of people. It's a confusing time for a lot of people. Let's start. Why are a couple questions here. Why are we doing this series?

What is this series? What does Rewired mean? Who is it for? What should they expect to get out of it? Sure.

Let's maybe start like why did we want to make this series? I think that there is enough FUD and confusion and a lot of buzzwords and a lot quite frankly a lot of BS as it's related to AI right now specifically in construction. And I think this is the first time you're seeing an inundation of ads around construction AI. And there are all these like kind of micro problems that you have that are trying to be solved by AI. And I think it's just creating a lot of noise.

I spend more of my day now educating the market than actually talking to the market. I hate the fact that I always have to preach and explain. And it's not that they're, you know, they don't get it or they're not understanding it, but what is actually happening, I think, is that in some cases they're in that trough of disillusionment where they're getting to this point where, yeah, I used ChatGPT for something. I vibe code something and Claude Code. Ah, it was okay.

Now, let me go back to my work. So, they see AI not as part of their life, their work. They see AI as adjunct to it. It's going to help me a little bit. I'm in control of it. It's a single user AI system. And I think the education component of this is how do we look at AI as an enterprise class game changer and disruptor. So you know, I've been in this industry 27 years. In this I love this industry. Obviously, it's the only industry.

I always say this the only industry in the world where you can touch a physical thing that your software helped build and that's really exciting. You know, you go in there and you're going to touch a building. That building might be there 100 years. Yeah.

100 years. And your software was a small component of that. Obviously, the blood, sweat, and tears of the folks that built it are what really matter. But it's something that as a technologist, which I've only worked in this industry really, as a technologist, it's it's that physical component of this industry that really makes exciting. And I think it's giving something back there. There is, you know, I we obviously have a company. There's obviously advertorial in here. There's obviously a point of view of view, but at the same time, I'm going to try to keep it as educational for folks to see what can they really get out of value because the three things we want you to have.

We want you to have more profit, we want to stop fee erosion, and we want to control your overhead. Forgetting about all the fancy AI words, that's the goal because the more construction companies that are successful, the more we can be successful. So, you know, what do they say? Even though you might buy some competitor's tool down the road, a rising tide lifts all lifts all lifts all boats.

Yeah, that's it. Is that And I think this is just our contribution to that rising tide.

Yeah. And I think the other thing is that, you know, AI is obviously going to impact every industry, but it will not impact every industry the same. Correct.

And construction is a uniquely challenging industry. And the way that AI impacts you know health care and technology it's not it will not be the same in construction. So the other reason you know I'd say we're doing this series is that like we are at a a transformational moment at right now there is a we're at the nexus of of a technology that will change how companies are run.

Yep. How work is delivered and you know really the livelihood of the entire construction community.

There's no hiding from this. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So we've chosen the name Rewired.

Yeah. What is that why the word rewired? What does that word mean?

I actually think it first of all it has a great construction connotation but it also I think it is you have to rewire your brain at this point. Yeah.

And it there's two classes of people that I see right now. Those that think they know that AI is revolutionary, but it's more of a theoretical concept and those know the practical outcomes of AI. Maybe not how we get there, but the outcomes. It's those there really are two buckets. Those that think they know what AI is going to do and those that have seen it happen. Yeah. And unfortunately, right now, the vast majority are in the first bucket.

Yeah. I think that it's important in this context as well to think big.

I agree. And I think sometimes it's scary to think big. I agree.

And you know I think there's a lot of confusion with not just in the construction enterprise space but I think a lot of enterprise spaces like we can see we've seen how AI can make an impact for the consumer.

Y but it's yet to be understood exactly what impact it will have the I think big is the you know should be the title of this section honestly. Yeah. Because what I see happening is there is this AI tourism approach where I'm going to bolt on one little piece of functional agent and that tourism is that's what's contributing if you look at the stats a high degree of failed AI projects are happening because of that AI tourism trying something that is too small too insignificant also understanding that you need to rewire, replatform your company.

Yeah. And replatforming is a scary thing. Replatforming means that way you think of your email server, your accounting system server, your cloud PM system, your cloud CRM. We are now replatforming. We're at that replatforming moment. It's it's as significant as you know, going from a CD install to a web install. And that is a big difference.

Yeah. So, the goals of this series, you know, we're going to cover we're going to cover our journey as Briq. I think we tell the story a lot of the technology, but this is a great opportunity for us to kind of tell our journey and our story of how we how we see the world.

Good, bad, and ugly. Good, bad, and ugly. We are also going to kind of look at a lot of the technologies and that we always say this AI is not a monolith. It's like saying vehicle and you could mean jet ski and ferry. There's a lot of different things you mean. So, we're going to talk about the actual AI applications that we see in construction being useful. We're going to talk about critical workflows lead to award contract cash in your vernacular. Yes.

In the construction in the construction vernacular where we're seeing this make a big impact and then we'll do a little future casting. What do where do we see AI looking in two to three years? It's hard to predict five 10 years out but 100% two to three years I think is manageable.

Changes every day. Okay. All right. Well, buckle in. This should be required watching agree for anyone in construction looking to grasp the concept of AI and usher into the business. So yeah let's let's get started.