A few years ago, Mortenson's own leadership group told them they were treating innovation "kind of like a hobby".

This year they're No. 10 on ENR's Top 400, running a 90,000 sq ft R&D facility and about to launch a joint venture with Goldbeck.

So we asked Gene Hodge, their VP of I4 and Innovation, how he proves the ROI on all of it:

"I think anyone asking what's the ROI on innovation is not interested in innovating, most likely."

CFOs, we'd love to hear you push back on this one.

#construction #constructiontech #aec #ai #bricksandbytes

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00:00 - Teaser

00:43 - Intro

01:36 - Who is Gene Hodge & Mortenson Overview

02:31 - Quick-Fire Questions: Builder vs Technologist

03:10 - Sponsors

06:19 - Is Most Construction Tech Worth the Money?

06:49 - How Has the Jobsite Changed Since 2005?

07:43 - The Reality of AI on the Construction Site

08:29 - Autonomous Equipment & Robots in 5 Years

09:30 - What Actually Moves the Needle on Projects

10:04 - Mortenson's In-House R&D & Innovation Spending

11:39 - Data Sovereignty: Which Tech Mortenson Refuses to Buy

12:33 - Goldbeck Joint Venture & Industrialised Construction

14:57 - Real-Time Jobsite Visibility vs Manufacturing

16:03 - Standardisation vs Bespoke Client Architecture

17:27 - Data Centres & the Hyperscaler Effect

18:56 - Industrialised Construction Across Resi & Defence

21:19 - Day-to-Day Role & The ROI of Innovation

23:04 - 30 Years After VDC: Why Has Productivity Stagnated?

25:35 - Lessons from 2003: 18,000 Punch List Items on Paper

28:29 - Precast Duct Bank Innovation

30:24 - Building a Corporate Culture of Innovation

32:38 - BLUvera: Scaling Offsite Manufacturing

34:38 - Redesigning the Jobsite Trailer & Field Wellbeing

36:41 - AI Hype vs Real Jobsite Workflows

38:46 - Machine Learning in Pre-Construction & Estimating

40:44 - Measuring AI ROI & Enabling Growth

41:49 - How to Pitch Tech to Mortenson

42:57 - What Keeps an Innovation VP Up at Night

45:19 - Cross-Industry Collaboration & The Future Contractor Model

48:19 - The #1 Tech for 2035: Generative Design & Real-Time Costing