Steve Smith, Director of Partnerships at Bluebeam: “AI is great for conceptual work but harder to employ and certify in more practical settings”

Chances are that when you think of cutting-edge technology and design, you don’t think of the construction industry. This interview with Steve Smith, Director of Partnerships at Bluebeam, might just change your mindset.

“One of my favourite things about the AEC [architecture, engineering and construction] industry is how open it is to finding improvements,” he told us. “If you come to a job site trailer or visit and office, and mention that you have a solution that can help them to save time, money and make processes more efficient, most leaders are all ears.”

This open attitude and desire for efficiency means that the AEC industry is now just as open to AI, even if it’s “tough to simply ask ChatGPT to ‘design me this hospital’ and take the design as it is”. But you only need to look at the growth of 3D scanning in the industry, Steve points out, to realise that this is one vertical that is quick to exploit technology that makes a difference.

And there’s a lot going on behind the scenes too. Bluebeam is a great example of this, with a stated aim of helping “architecture, engineering and construction teams connect office and field with a reliable, easily accessible single source of truth”. In short, it’s about keeping data flowing.

There’s one more key driver, Steve explains. “The labour shortage continues to be a challenge in AEC and technology can solve and support these labour gaps we are experiencing.” And if you fancy joining the industry, head to the end of the interview where Steve has words of wisdom for potential newcomers.

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When thinking of your creative process, at what point does technology come in? What role does it play in different stages, from concept to final design?

I am not a practitioner in the design space, but I can certainly speak to how technology has impacted the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) space in recent years. My overall feeling about technology-assisted, but operator-led innovations seems to be more broadly adopted across the industry.

Using technology to support and augment tasks has become more popular in the research and execution phases such as early drafts, research on initial ideas and more.  It is tough to simply ask ChatGPT to “design me this hospital” and take the design as it is. For example, AI is great for conceptual work but harder to employ and certify in more practical settings.

What was the most challenging project you’ve worked on in which technology played a critical role?

I was recently talking to a municipal customer who was asking themselves about how they could more effectively complete a design review. The complexities around their process led them to investigate their design and markup process for potential time and cost savings by leveraging construction and design technology. For example, could they build an integration to save them some time and hassle on double entry? 

This municipal group had certain employees and contractors who were taking the design comments reflected in markups on the drawings and they were responsible for understanding them and moving the feedback back and forth to and from the Building Information Modelling (BIM) manually. There are great tech solutions that help teams save time when it comes to rounds of comments and markups on drawings and it’s a solution we are working hard to provide for AEC professionals at Bluebeam.

In my experience, our industry has far too many situations like this, where data is not moving seamlessly between various important platforms and requires unnecessary manual effort.

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How has technology changed the way you collaborate at work? And in your view, has it improved or worsened navigating creative differences with clients or team members?

I think that the magic of effective solutions must be linked back to improved collaboration. In a perfect world, accurate data should flow where it is needed, decisions should be made and thereafter be distributed to all who need to take action on those decisions.

I know of no other industry where collaboration is as decentralised as in a modern, complex job site. Manufacturing does its work in a controlled environment, with known inputs and outputs. The collaborative experience in the AEC industry has vastly changed, even within the last ten years.

Field users were using push-to-talk devices to coordinate various activities on site, rolling out physical paper plans, whereas today, many of these functions have changed drastically with technology and most of these tasks and solutions are happening digitally. 

What advice would you give to those looking to break into the industry today? 

There has never been a better time to choose the AEC industry than today. Depending on which articles you read, the industry is between 800k and 2 million people short. This is an industry where smart, entrepreneurial thinking is encouraged and rewarded.

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Over the course of your career, what is one technological shift you’ve that really stuck with you?  

One of my favorite things about the AEC industry is how open it is to finding improvements. In my experience, most experts have an open mind to new ideas.

If you come to a job site trailer or visit and office, and mention that you have a solution that can help them to save time, money and make processes more efficient, most leaders are all ears. This industry recognises the need to improve and we simply don’t have enough people to get the jobs done currently. The labour shortage continues to be a challenge in AEC and technology can solve and support these labor gaps we are experiencing.

If those trends were the preponderance of Reality Capture solutions or 3D scanning, the industry moved to implement that technology. Or in the case of “Digital Delivery,” experts see the benefit and invest in changing their processes. Clearly, these technologies could have moved more quickly to realise needed gains, but the initial willingness to embrace new things is one trend that I find super encouraging.

How do you stay updated on the latest design technologies and software advancements, and how do you decide when to integrate new tools into your workflow?

Most experts in this field are very active in learning what tools are out there. They also are aware of what leading technologies are changing, and how. BIM experts in particular are often asked to ascertain how they could harmonise a tech stack better, and there tends to be a closeness between designers/BIM folks and their IT departments.

The ConTech and Design technology space is vast and dynamic and the best way to stay updated on the latest technologies and software advancements is to always keep learning and connecting with others in the industry. Word of mouth and reading will always be essential to staying current.