Future of Construction

Provizual’s John Andres on Standardizing Today or Wasting Your AI Investment Tomorrow

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John Andres, Founder & CEO of Provizual is transforming how construction teams visualize project data by refusing to force them into rigid, office-centric workflows. In his conversation with Chloe on this episode of The Future of Construction, John explains why construction software must adapt to the messy realities of job sites rather than forcing standardization. 

 

His comparison of construction to a "reversed assembly line" fundamentally reframes how we should approach project visualization and management. Drawing from his experience on both sides of the construction tech equation, John offers practical wisdom on data strategy, AI implementation, and why standardized processes are the critical foundation for future innovation.

 

Topics discussed:

 

  • Whereas manufacturing moves products through stationary workstations, construction moves trades through stationary locations — a fundamental difference that requires completely different visualization approaches.
  • Why locations change throughout a project lifecycle (from pours to levels to trade-specific zones) and how this dynamic nature creates visualization challenges that traditional software fails to address.
  • How John's "backwards" path into construction technology — focusing on field operations before VDC — created an advantage in developing practical tools that work in the "imperfect world" of actual job sites.
  • Capturing inspection histories that cities and municipalities don't preserve, enabling performance analytics that can inform future subcontractor selection and project planning.
  • Why construction teams don't need to understand AI's inner workings — they just need tools that function consistently regardless of how they're built.
  • Providing just enough customization for project-specific needs while maintaining data integrity for meaningful KPIs and cross-project comparison.
  • The "Walmart fear" that prevents general contractors from sharing performance data across the industry, despite potential collective benefits from transparency.
  • Why establishing consistent processes today, even without perfect digital tools, is the essential first step to leveraging AI and advanced analytics in the future.
  • Despite advances in BIM and 3D modeling, why PDFs remain the "lowest common denominator" that everyone on a project understands and will continue using for the foreseeable future.
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    Future of ConstructionBy Mercator.ai