Data Chat

In this episode of Data Chat, Iain Curtis sits down withJordan Connachie, MD of Kori Construction, a specialist main contractor in the later living and care home sector turning over around 120 million pounds and running about 15 projects at once. Two years ago Jordan took a punt and hired a data engineer before he could prove the return. This is the story of what happened next.

Jordan walks through Kori's move from Sage 50 and spreadsheets to a single, governed data platform that now answers plain language questions in one click. He is refreshingly blunt about why he started with the boring layer underneath the data rather than chasing AI, why he bans the word AI in his own product meetings, and how a clean data set turned into faster, better decisions on snagging, safety, workforce and margin.

If you lead a construction business and you are wonderingwhere to start with data and AI, this conversation is for you.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Why Jordan hired a data engineer, not an analyst, and why the difference matters
• The two phase journey: four years of point solutions, then stitching the data together
• “This is not an AI strategy, it is a data strategy with AI sprinkled on top”
• Building Lumius: a clean, governed data set with an LLM layered on top
• Standardisation and running construction like a manufacturing environment
• Data backed decisions: snagging trends and the move from three point to five point PPE
• Workforce and programme tracking from man hours by trade
• Bringing the team on the journey: transparency, adoption and the culture piece
• Buy versus build, and why Kori had to build until now
• Commercial discipline: protecting margin and growing only on the right work
• Cost versus value, the growth mindset, and the haves and the have nots
• What is next: predictive alerts and the outsourced brain

In this episode of Data Chat Iain sits down with Allister Lewis, an architect who moved from private practice into the software side of the industry and now works as a “technology translator” for architecture. Allister curates a database of roughly 1,900 pieces of AEC software, co-founded AEC Tech Hub, and runs technology-strategy programmes for practices.

The conversation explores why construction remainsthe last great trillion-pound industry yet to digitise, the cultural inertia holding architects back, where data and AI genuinely add value (and where it’s still theatre), and the disruption that could reshape the profession — frommass-housing software to AI-generated “auto-drawings”. Along the way Iain draws parallels with the contracting world and SPS’s own InsightsControl data platform.

Key subject points discussed included:

·    Construction is the last great trillion-poundindustry still to digitise — and why that’s a massive opportunity

·    The cultural inertia holding architects back: perfectionism, “craft over efficiency” and a leadership gap

·     Data-driven design — hype vs reality, and the untapped value sitting in every practice’s back catalogue

·    Where AI genuinely helps: automating the admin vs reshaping design (rendering, auto-drawings and beyond)

·    The coming disruption — mass-housing software and construction’s long-awaited “Uber moment”

·   Why small, nimble, AI-native practices are set to outpace the big firms

·    Evolve or die: what technology adoption really means for architects and contractors alike

·    The catch with AI — subsidised models, data governance and the environmental cost

Eddie Short returns to Data Chat — a former Chief Data and Analytics Officer at BAT, Aon, and Telefónica O2, and builder of Capgemini's and KPMG's data practices — now embedded at Foster + Partners, taking the world-renowned architecture firm through a data and AI transformation.

In this episode, Iain and Eddie cover:

• Why "context engineering" is replacing prompt engineering — and what that actually looks like in practice, from architectural design options to construction as-built data
• Why architects (and by extension, contractors) are sitting on huge amounts of reusable data — and why treating everything as bespoke is costing the industry efficiency
• The "faster horse" trap — why automating existing broken processes with AI just gets you a faster horse, not the car, train, or plane the business actually needs
• Why AI transformation has to be CEO-led, not delegated — and why most C-suite leaders got to the top as brilliant operators, not change leaders
• The case for a Chief Decisioning Officer (CDcO) — a role above and different from the CIO/CTO, focused on decisions and outcomes rather than platforms and infrastructure
• The retail parallel — how a Romanian retailer went from nascent digital capability to outperforming Tesco, Sainsbury's, and Asda in a single year, and what that means for UK construction
• Breaking the "month-end" habit — why waiting six weeks to see payment runs and contract certificates is a rear-view-mirror approach construction can't afford, and how other industries moved to daily, near-real-time decisioning
• The GP surgery provocation — Eddie's analogy for why "industry knowledge" can sometimes be a barrier rather than an asset when reimagining how work gets done
• Corporate inertia — why it's the real enemy, not the technology, and how outside perspective can ask the "why" questions insiders are too close to ask

A candid, no-nonsense conversation about what it actually takes to build an Intelligent Enterprise — and why construction is roughly 20-25 years behind where professional services was in the 2000s.

Iain is rejoined by Bill Schmarzo — “the Dean of Big Data,” author of The AI Human Edge — for a wide-ranging conversation on how data and AI can transform the construction and house-building industry. Bill makes the case that AI should elevate people, not replace them, and shares practical, field-tested ideas drawn from sports, healthcare and education that apply directly to construction teams.

Key discussion topics in the episode include:        AI should elevate, not automate — why the real opportunity is amplifying human domain expertise and unleashing ingenuity, not cutting headcount (and why “productivity” is a race to the bottom).        

Build your own “Yoda” (Your Own Digital Assistant) — training a domain-specific AI on your problems, the Socratic method and ethical guardrails so it challenges your thinking instead of giving generic answers.

Don’t start with data — the fallacy of leading with data, and why the conversation must start with the decision, the stakeholders and the desired outcomes first.

Causal AI vs Predictive AI — understanding the factors that actually drive outcomes, and why causal AI is ripe to be a game-changer for construction cash flow, scheduling and subcontractor risk.

From competency to mastery to elevation — how AI can act as a personal development guide at every career stage, and the opportunity for construction to leapfrog other industries despite a shrinking, ageing workforce.

The first Episode for 2026 of Data Chat - The Construction Data & Analytics Podcast - will be out at the end of this week.Our CEO Iain Curtis is joined on the show by 2 guests:

⁠James Garner⁠ and ⁠Yoshi Fabyan Soorna from Gleeds.

⁠⁠James is Head of Data & AI whilst Yoshi is an Associate Director for Data & AI.ck⁠ from Gleeds.

This episode includes discussions on the following main subjects:

· Data as an Asset

·  Data Strategy - What is it?

·  Legacy Data vs Starting Anew

·  Data as a Cultural Challenge

·  The "Excel Dilemma"

·  AI Limitations and Risks

·  Practical AI Applications

·  Future Trends (Intelliware and AI Agents)

·  Industry Adoption and Training

In this episode of Data Chat we talk to James Florey - Data Architect at Kori Construction Ltd.

James initially outlines is background before outlined the WHY, the HOW and the WHAT - as to Kori's decision to leverage their data and invest in developing a data platform.

James outlines some of the key business drivers that infuenced the decision to employ him and to invest in the development of a data platform.

He also talks a bit of tech, they are using Micorsoft Fabirc as the basis of their platform, before highlighting some of the results the business are getting from implementing their data strategy.

In the latest Episode of Data Chat, Iain Curtis talks with Eddie Short.

Eddie is an executive level digital and AI transformation leader who excels at working across the organisation and connecting the dots to deliver deep, lasting, and meaningful change.

With over 30 years' experience as a Global 1000 CIO/CDO and ‘Big4’ Consulting Partner, he helps clients to harness the power of people, AI, data, and technology to create digital businesses, target customers and improve operations across industries, ultimately delivering step change improvements in revenue and profit.

His last 5 years have been spent primarily partnering with CEOs of Private Equity backed businesses to deliver tremendous value, driving change in accelerated timeframes, enabled by Digital, AI, data and technology.

During the episode Iain and Eddie explore the the following subjects:

· Defining the Intelligent Enterprise and Strategy

· The Capability Flywheel and Competitive Differentiation

· The True Power of Data: Context and Decision Making

· Data Velocity and Balancing Speed, Quality, and Cost

· Resistance to Technology Adoption in Business

· Transformation Success: 70% Change Management

· Holistic Approach: Connecting Risk and Performance Data

· Initiating Change: Defining Competitive Differentiators

· Case Study: Data-Enabled Healthcare Transformation

· Business Architecture: Information Flow vs. Monolithic Processes

· AI as the Next Rapid Industrial Revolution

· AI Accelerating Creative and Retail Processes

The latest episode of Data Chat features Rosanne Werner - CEO of XcelerateIQ.

Rosanne was the Digital and Data Strategy Transformation Lead at Coca Cola before setting up her own consultancy business (XcelerateIQ) to help other organisations to progress through their digital transformation journeys. Rosanne has seen first-hand the measurable impact of Data and AI fluency and culture on organisational performance and engagement.

She is an Internationally recognised Data and AI Culture Change Leader, known for her innovative approach that addresses both the human and technical facets of Data and Digital transformation.   She helped establish an influential legacy at Coca-Cola, reaching over 2,000 Data Catalysts worldwide. Rosanne has over 20 years of transformation experience across different countries worldwide and multiple industries such as Mining, Oil and Gas, Biotech and FMCG. Her mission now is to help other organisations drive a positive culture shift through habits, behaviours and mindsets.

She uses a science based approach as part of her methodology for delivering results within organisations:

1. Neuroscience learning strategies to embed Data and AI values into the longer term memory

2. Social Learning principles to drive cross functional data enablement and adoption

3. Behavioural principles to build Data and AI habits and behaviours

4. Nurture Catalyst Communities to drive sustainable change and innovationDuring the episode, our CEO Iain Curtis discusses with Rosanne, the important area that is so often neglected in many digital transformation programmes – PEOPLE.

Without people technology is just technology and data is just data. The “human in the loop” is critical to generating the data in the first place and to then actioning the insights that the data might bring. It is how people interact with the technology and use it’s outputs that will change the business, not the technology on its own.

The latest episode features Matthew Ayres, Group MD of the Bennie Group.

Matthew has taken Bennie Group on a digital transformation journey over the last 4 years and has a wealth of knowledge and experience that he shares will be of great value to any businesses who are thinking about, or have just started on, their digital transformation.

Matthew sees technology and data as a fundamental part of his operating model and indeed sees them as an asset within the business and not a cost!!

Mtthews says - "Without strong digital foundations Binnie would not have been able to grow how they have done over the last 2 years."

In this episode of Data Chat, Our CEO Iain Curtis talks with Jordon Morrow - the "Godfather of Data Literacy!"

Jordan created what is now known as data literecay back in 2016 and has since written 4 books (another one is on the way) about the subject, has been on a TEDx talk with nearly 200k views on You Tube, and has worked with some huge orgnisations (US Army, United Nations amongst others) to help them develop their people and their processes to leveage the value held within their data.