Nick Nickitas, GM, Local Independent Grocery at Instacart, describes today’s evolving grocery shopping experience. He encourages an experience driven by technology that enables personalization while supporting local, independent grocers. Our hosts and Nick discuss innovation and ethics in technology, all while enhancing and streamlining the grocery shopping experience.

Instacart is the leading grocery technology company in North America, and works with grocers and retailers to transform how people shop. The company partners with more than 1,800 national, regional, and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 100,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace. 

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“ What makes it great for these grocery stores is they don't have the time or the energy to look at a lot of different vendors and try to figure out how these technologies are gonna work seamlessly together. And so Instacart has created this platform that makes it easy for retailers to be able to handle each part of how they build their digital business. And I think like, bringing the in-store environment to life has been a huge priority for us.”

“Technology, I think, can be extremely productive. But I think we also know that it is destructive, right? There is a certain creative destruction that comes from technology, but I think if we are doing our jobs the right way, if we're doing good, technology can really unlock a tremendous amount of equality, and access to food in ways that maybe are not currently well served by our existing food supply chain.”

“ One of the things that's been super delighting is we've got customers who have told us that they are shopping at the store because it has Caper Carts or they're shopping online from this retailer because of how great the retailer's online experience is. And when you hear that, it's like, great, I'm, I'm making an impact in the world. This is something that people really want and encourages you to go deeper and figure out what are more problems that we can do to solve for the customer.”

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00:25 - In the News

06:25 - Nick’s take on AI

09:54 - Nick’s experience

12:20 - Embracing tech in new ways

25:54 - The ethics of influencing

27:39 - Rapid fire

34:13 - Final takeaways 

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In this episode of Beyond Built, Niall Foy describes developments in AI for diagnosing and prescribing treatments, as well as the benefits and challenges of AI in data analysis. He emphasizes the need for clear problem statements, ethical business processes, and scalable solutions when using new technologies. Eric and Niall explore the importance of continuous learning and adaptability, especially in fast-paced environments like healthcare and pharmaceuticals. 

Niall Foy is the Digital Business Product Owner at Johnson & Johnson. Johnson & Johnson  believes health is the foundation of a vibrant life. For more than 135 years, their healthcare innovation has empowered them to prevent complex disease, and create smarter, less invasive treatments.

00:22 - In the News

09:03 - Niall’s journey

12:18 - Niall’s role and responsibilities

20:17 - Defining problems

30:20 - Technology uses

35:08 - Rapid fire

38:26 - Eric’s takeaways

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Miranda Mair and Craig Walter of ENGIE Impact discuss Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) in our industry. They dive into linking executive compensation to sustainability and the importance of top-down responsibility in implementing sustainability initiatives. They also discuss bringing social governance factors like workforce diversity and safety into ESG targets, as well as the role of carbon offsets and practical sustainability strategies.

ENGIE Impact delivers sustainability solutions and services to corporations, cities and governments across the globe. Comprised of existing and proven ENGIE Group portfolio businesses, ENGIE Impact brings together a wide range of strategic and technical capabilities, to provide a comprehensive offer to support clients in tackling their complex sustainability challenges from strategy to execution. ENGIE Impact is part of the ENGIE Group, a global leader in the zero-carbon transition.

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• 00:25 - In the News
• 11:55 - About Miranda
• 15:00 - About Craig
• 19:44 - The pressure to reduce carbon footprints
• 24:12 - Rolling out ESG guidelines
• 31:43  - Helping customers get it right
• 34:57 - Rapid fire

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Sam Ramadori, CEO of BrainBox AI, helps us explore the evolving landscape of AI and its practical applications, especially in energy management and sustainability in built environments. He says AI has the potential to significantly reduce energy waste. 

BrainBox AI uses deep learning, cloud-based computing, algorithms and a proprietary process to support a 24/7 self-operating building that requires no human intervention and enables maximum energy efficiency.

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SAM:  It's like driving your car: instead of going 50 miles an hour on the highway for several hours, which is the efficient thing to do, Imagine you drove that car and you go zero to 80, and then you bring it back down to 20, and then you go back to 72 and then you bring it back. If you did that, your gas consumption would be a disaster. Right. And that's what systems do today because they don't know what's coming.

 SAM: Tt's exciting times, uh, to be in a firm like yours or ours because what used to be an impossible task to justify the investment to A CFO is now getting easier every week because they're seeing examples we had that connected to this, and we were able to collect that data in efficient manner, and so on and so forth. 

 SAM: That's where I see AI being able to help us leapfrog; it's going to not necessarily replace people as much as it's going to make us so much better at decision making by presenting us all of the relevant options  in order to make a change.

SAM: Buildings account for a huge amount of emissions globally, period, right? Huge percentage. And then number two, there's studies out there—some of them might be a little bit dated—but on average, your average building wastes about 30% of energy. Right? Literally wastes 30%. Maybe things have gotten better in the last 10 years, let's say, and it's 20%. It's still a huge number. AI will allow us to go and tackle those problems so that buildings—we don’t have the average waste of 20%—we have the average waste of 2%.

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00:19 - In the News

12:54 - About Sam

19:42 - Today’s AI capabilities

39:04 - Tech integration

45:55 - Rapid Fire

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There are some major actions organizations should be taking today, but they aren’t. Today we’ll speak with Katie Mason, Sr Manager, Development Systems at Jack in the Box. She describes which processes are most important. In today’s episode, we’ll uncover the gaps and provide insights on overlooked opportunities for you to improve operations and strategies. 

Jack in the Box pioneered a number of firsts in the quick-serve industry, including menu items that are now staples on most fast-food menu boards, like the breakfast sandwich and portable salads. They have over 2000 locations.

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00:58 - In the News

08:41 - Katie’s journey

10:00 - Katie’s role

11:15 - Construction and expansion

20:48 - Keeping project management efficient

23:34 - How to improve collaboration

28:46 - Rapid fire

33:18 - Final takeaways

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In this episode of Beyond Built, Eric and Richard speak with Luke Knapp, Senior Manager of Corporate Real Estate at the IDA. They dive into the challenges of securing distributed energy infrastructure, the importance of standard protocols, human error management, and the evolving nature of cybersecurity threats. 

The Institute of Defense Analysis is a not-for-profit corporation that operates three Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) in the public interest: the Systems and Analyses Center, the Science and Technology Policy Institute, and the Center for Communications and Computing.

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LUKE: It's in your best interest to provide security updates. It's going to be catastrophic to your reputation if the sensors that you're providing have known vulnerabilities and they're not doing anything to protect their customers.  That's one side of the house. The other side of the house is I think still inherent or  incumbent on whoever the buyer is, to make sure that you're buying from reputable manufacturers, and you're using certified supply chains that you have a high confidence  are not going to be tampered with. You're limiting your exposure to counterfeit goods. You're limiting your exposure to tampered with goods. You've got a clear supply chain from the manufacturer to your doorstep.

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ERIC: What do you think some of the common concerns are around capital planning, and around actually executing on those? Do you have any words of wisdom for those who are listening who are going through that process now?

LUKE: The most important thing is to determine what the ROI is. Particularly if it's changing from the baseline. So you're introducing some sort of green infrastructure. Are you able to articulate what that return on investment is? 

The second part is you have to be able to sell it. So you can articulate the ROI, then you have to sell it to the right people. That would include your, your CFOs, your boards. Normally most boards want to see those improvements.

The third part is, can you actually execute it? Do you have the plan in place that when you say you're going to do a sustainability project, It's not just going to be a great photo op. Having that good execution plan that can actually be pulled off, I think is of paramount importance. 

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00:20 - In The News

09:52 - Luke on green energy and cybersecurity

15:18 - Luke’s journey

19:52 - Major cybersecurity concerns and focuses 

25:03 - Where to focus in real estate

31:14 - Common capital planning concerns

34:57 - Rapid fire questions

38:23 - Final takeaways

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Today we speak with Rudy Salinas, Senior Manager, Marketplace Strategic Partnerships & BD at ServiceChannel. ServiceChannel is the leader in facilities management software and contractor sourcing. Their software lets you manage all maintenance activity from a single platform.

Rudy discusses the biggest trends and challenges of facilities management. Rudy says that challenges include underused spaces, lack of candidates for facilities roles, and a need for greater sustainability. The industry’s strengths, however, lie in the people behind the scenes, higher efficiency thanks to AI, and new methodologies.

Key quote: 

“The heart of facility management, if I had to pick one of the many things, would be trades. If we don't understand the trades, if the people operating the facility management don't understand the trades, it's very hard to move forward.  I think at a very simple level,  we collectively need to make trades the core of what we do. Understanding the trades allows us to understand the workers, understanding the marketing materials, understanding the technology and how companies and leading companies like Accruent and Service Channel can look to connect multiple things, to make the life of the people that play in our space happier. So they can help us build better experience in this space as well.”

00:42 - In the News

05:32 - Addressing the labor shortage

08:12 - What to do with vacant space

15:28 - Rudy’s background

17:32 - The heart of facilities management

22:58 - Pairing technology with teams

38:02 - Rapid fire

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What is the future of AI and maintenance? Todd Beckerdite, Sr. Manager of Maintenance Foundation at Ajinomoto Foods, gives some predictions. Todd emphasizes that while AI can't perform physical tasks, it offers potential for aiding in maintenance and troubleshooting. Eric, Richard, and Todd expand the discussion to include the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), highlighting how these technologies can predict issues before they occur. Join us as we explore the upcoming revolution in industrial maintenance.

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TODD: The one thing that I see a lot of technicians saying is, AI can't turn a wrench.  Yeah, AI can't turn a wrench. But I don't see AI taking people out of the equation when it comes to the physical maintenance and troubleshooting of a piece of equipment, at least anywhere in our near future. But I do think that it has some great merits and I think that the possibilities are there. 

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RICHARD: When you broaden that out to the Internet of Things and the industrial Internet of Things and other automation, and how these may interplay with each other, not only to help once something is broken, but before it is broken. And how it may help to take elements of these different technologies and predict what's going to happen. How are you seeing that evolve over time from your perspective?

TODD:  That's a really good  place that most maintenance departments want to get to, is as close as you can to true predictive maintenance. There are systems out there that can get you fairly close already… What I would love to see AI do is take the information. And build its own upper and lower limit.  If you go above the upper limit, that triggers an alarm to say, hey, you need to go look at this, or below the lower limit, same thing.

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TODD: That's the sweet spot right now for those older pieces of equipment is saying, is there something out there that can connect? And without having a human write down, well I started the equipment this time, I stopped the equipment this time, and this thing happened when I stopped it.  Nothing against humans, by the way, because I'm one of them. There's bound to be errors.  In that scenario, and an error,  you know, the quality of your data in will equal the quality of your data out. So when it comes to that kind of information, you want it as accurate and as unbiased as possible.

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TODD: When equipment works as it's supposed to, it should,  you should have a reasonable expectation that it's going to bring down your utility bills. When equipment does not work well, you should have a reasonable expectation that your utility bills are going to go up. 

All of these things are intertwined where you say, now you've got AI that's helping you troubleshoot and bring that downtime down. You should reasonably expect to see your utility bills come down. 

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00:28 - In the News

06:41 - The argument for AI

10:14 - Moving towards predictive maintenance 

18:33 - What to do with your data

23:24 - Sustainability initiatives

29:18 - Rapid fire round

36:25 - Find Todd on LinkedIn @ Todd Beckerdite

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The built environment is everything that we interact with – from the spaces we work in, to the technology that powers those spaces, and the assets we manage every day. 

It impacts everyone and everything, from efficiency, to security, to the financial bottom line. This interconnected web keeps our facilities and spaces running.

Welcome to BEYOND BUILT. We're here to help you innovate and learn everything you need to know to manage facilities of every kind.

BEYOND BUILT will help you stay on top of the most important developments and innovations for every type of built environment.

Join your host, Eric Cook, Global Go-to-Market Director at Accruent.

Join us as we talk with the brightest minds in the industry about best practices and cutting-edge automations in retail, manufacturing, petro-chemicals, and more. Let’s cut through the noise and focus on changes that really work. 

The future of your built environment starts here.

Beyond Built: The Future of Facilities and Asset Management.

Brought to you by the experts at Accruent.