Description
Key Learnings
Speakers
- Allison ScottAs a “technology translator” and seasoned innovation manager, Alli leads construction thought leadership and customer marketing worldwide as a part of the Autodesk Construction Solutions team, helping customers to harness the power of innovation and activate customer success into powerful stories that transform the way we design, build and operate. Prior to this role, she supported the national Innovation group of Skanska USA's construction division helping to investigate and integrate game-changing tech like virtual design and construction technologies, wearables, IoT/sensors, and drones onto the jobsite. Alli cultivated her career working in disruptive technology as a go-to-market specialist for renowned inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, and spent six years in architecture, where she shaped niche services for energy-efficient data center design during the advent of cloud computing. Alli holds a BA in Theatre and Arts Management from Emerson College and an MBA in Innovation and Design Management from Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School.
- JXJohn Lim Ji XiongIn 2023, he became the Group Chief Digital Officer. He's also been Executive Director - Digital Innovation of Gamuda Engineering and Gamuda Land since 2022. His journey with Gamuda started in 2013 through the Gamuda Scholarship. In 2021, he founded the Gamuda Excellence Transformation (GET) team, uniting diverse technology talents to enhance the Group's digital excellence, including BIM, Digital Engineering, Gamuda Land Digital, and Tunnel R&D. His career began as a tunnel engineer on the MRT Putrajaya Line, leading the development of the world's first award-winning autonomous tunnel boring machine (TBM).
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ANNOUNCER: Welcome Senior Vice President and General Manager of Construction Jim Lynch.
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JIM LYNCH: Wow. Good afternoon and welcome everyone to the 2024 Autodesk Construction keynote. Now I don't want to date myself here, but I've been coming to AU for nearly two decades. And even after all that time, I still look forward to it every single year, honestly.
Now, for those of you who know me, it should come as no surprise that I love talking to people. Just ask my team. I'm always calling them to chat about what's on my mind. Sometimes, maybe more than they want to hear from me. I know where you are.
It's true, though, connection is the most important part of AU for me. And I've had the absolute privilege to catch up with so many of you, hear about your families, your latest travels, and watch firsthand how your work has expanded and grown in ways that are truly astonishing. This year is no exception. Each of you have accomplished so many things you should be proud of. And I know these accomplishments are hard-fought. Because despite steady progress in the industry that we serve, you're still working in an environment that throws you challenges every day.
Your supply chain is chaotic. You can't find the labor you need. Your projects are becoming more complex. Yet you're not only still getting the work done, you're beating expectations, delivering projects in record time, collaborating in exciting new ways, helping solve big problems, like in Wellington, New Zealand with a byproduct of wastewater treatment were reaching crisis levels.
Becca designed a new facility that runs on its own, biogas and acts as a pressure cooker. That's a hard word to say for a Bostonian, by the way. Rapidly decomposing the materials and reducing waste by 90%. Well, the company start campus, taking on an ambitious project in Sines, Portugal, the largest data center in Europe, powered by 100% renewable energy. It will cycle water in from the Atlantic to cool the facility, then release it back to the sea, all with zero-water usage.
In British Columbia, Modelo Tech Studio is providing BIM services for a new $16 billion hydroelectric dam. This will power 450,000 homes a year. And the team at Mobilist turned a city center into a surfing destination. This year, their team finished converting an old canal into a wave pool in the heart of Rotterdam City. I honestly can't wait to check that out. Yeah, there you go. We got some of the team here. Fantastic.
So these are just a handful of stories I've heard this year. I could go on, but it's these stories that make AU so special. And when you think about it, every construction project is a story. At the beginning, there's a call to action, a looming problem that needs solving, like aging infrastructure or lack of affordable housing. Now, this call sets everything in motion, drawing in different characters, all those people working on your project at different times, facing unexpected twists, misunderstanding, external pressures and forces.
This, hopefully, a happy ending, not just a creative solution, but stronger relationships forged through challenges you've overcome together. To an outsider, it's one project. But to each character in it, each of you, the project looks different from your own point of view.
Now, does anyone here remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books from the '80s? Yeah? Yeah. So those of you who are not familiar, the book featured one story, but every few pages, you were given a choice on what the main character should do next. To fight the monster, turn to page 64. To make friends with the gnome, turn to page 115. Everyone was reading the same book, but depending on what choice you made, the outcome of the story was different.
See where I'm going with this? Maybe it feels familiar. Approaching a project from our own point of view, each of us choosing our own adventure can work. But imagine how much better it could be if we were all on the same page if we could work together as partners, owners, designers, and contractors, to make choices that lead to outcomes we desire. At Autodesk, connected construction has always been our vision, to empower teams with solutions that connect all stakeholders across all phases of construction, to enable strong partnerships. And we have over a half a million builders, engineers, designers, and owners rely on Autodesk Construction Cloud each month.
ACC is the platform that connects your workflow, your people, and your data. Each year, we work to strengthen the platform and provide you with the depth of capabilities you need to get your projects done on time and on budget. This year was no exception. For pre-construction teams, we've added a new plan room to Bid Board Pro. Subcontractors, this helps you win more work and build new relationships with general contractors. For VDC teams, we're making it easier to unlock the rich data within models for use in construction for BIM managers. This allows BIM managers to quickly decode complex models right in BIM Collaborate.
And for the field, our new mobile model viewer is five times faster than before. Check it out. Now for students and educators, Autodesk Construction Cloud is now available for free educational access.
And let's not forget our acquisition of pay apps in GCP earlier this year. We know you struggled with automating payment cycles. That's why we added a robust payment management solution to ACC and its broader portfolio. Together, they mitigate late payments and cash flow constraints and improve transparency, which ultimately builds trust. I'm really pleased to have welcomed these teams into Autodesk.
We're focused on building the tools you need to get the job done today, and the partnership you need to envision where your business is going tomorrow, so you can take advantage of the next generation of technology like AI. You can't go anywhere at AU without hearing about AI. That's because Autodesk AI is here. It's already helping teams drive efficiency and better decision-making.
And it's one reason JE Dunn decided to standardize on ACC this year. Growing rapidly with nearly $6 billion in revenue last year, the US-based general contractor knew that investing in a single platform would be critical to their future. They wanted the AI-powered automation already baked into ACC in our design tools. Now they're using their design and make data to build custom AI capabilities. It's possible because they're building a foundation of data. They can trust data that starts in design and moves with integrity into construction. Stronger connections to your technology, your data, and your project stakeholders yield better results.
So how do you move forward? Today, I've invited John Lim, Chief Digital Officer of Gamuda to share his company's technology journey with us. Founded in 1976, Gamuda is a Malaysia-based engineering and construction firm. They're leading the way with truly awe-inspiring, sustainable infrastructure solutions and property developments around the world. In the past year, Gamuda has been recognized as Malaysia's company of the year, as a most honored company by Institutional Investor Asia, and for women's empowerment by HR Excellence.
Now, last month, I had the opportunity to visit John and his team in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and see some of their innovative work firsthand. Honestly, I was blown away by the massive scale of the projects they have under way and how they're using technology as the backbone to connect their teams around the world. So please join me in welcoming John to the stage.
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Welcome, John. It feels good to sit down. It's a long walk from the hotel. John, it's so great to have you here. Thank you for joining us in sunny San Diego.
JOHN LIM: Jim, Thank you so much for having me. And it's an honor to be here. San Diego's a fantastic city. It's my first time in this part of California. This trip, I brought my wife and baby daughter with me as well. And we're seeing all the sights.
JIM LYNCH: Awesome. I'm so glad you got to bring your family with you. And I hope they're having a fantastic time. And I hope you get to join them after AU. So again, thanks for joining us. I want to jump right in.
So Gamuda is a company that was founded with an innovative mindset. But you shared with me when I was visiting that in the last seven years or so, you really found yourself at a technology turning point. Can you tell the audience about that?
JOHN LIM: So Gamuda is a company of nearly five decades. And throughout this time, innovation has been baked into our DNA. But the form of our innovations have always been in very physical things, like the smart tunnel in Kuala Lumpur, which you got to visit, the world's first roadway and stormwater tunnel.
10 years ago, we started thinking about the future. We said we have to be more digital. Let's try BIM. We had some initial success. And five years later, we said digital innovation needs to become our strategy. So we started pioneering things like digital forms, the common data environment, GIS, laser survey. We started winning quite a bit of awards. And soon after COVID hit, I'm sure it affected us, like how it affected many of you here in the room. But it was a time of reflection for us.
Dato' Lin, our managing director at the time, made a very bold move to revamp the board of our subsidiaries. So both Gamuda Engineering and Gamuda Land now have a board with the average age of 35. And that brings a lot of new thinking, a lot of new energy. And from there, we started establishing the Gamuda Innovation Hub, centralizing our tech talents for the group. And after COVID, we embarked on our global expansion, where digital is now a necessity, so we can continue to scale our work across the world.
JIM LYNCH: Thanks for that, John. And I had a lot of highlights during my visit, but definitely visiting the Innovation Hub was really, really cool. But one question came to me after I left, tell me how the Innovation Hub works with your teams that not only spread out across Malaysia, but spread out across the globe.
JOHN LIM: So the Gamuda Innovation Hub is a center of excellence that supports all our projects across the world globally. We have subject matter experts that we've cultivated across a number of key themes, whether it's digital engineering, whether it's BIM, whether it's GIS or software development or AI, cloud, et cetera. It's worth noting that this team is a separate team from the IT teams. It's staffed by engineers, people with mechanical, civil, electrical background, who understand the tech, but also the needs of a construction site.
So we provide the technical leadership for our tenders and our operations. We specify the tools that our projects use. And we cascade best practice that we see across the world. And this best practice that I'm talking about is embodied in our technology stack called the Gamuda Digital Operating System. It enables us to scale the Gamuda way of delivering projects across the world.
JIM LYNCH: So it was really interesting to learn about the Gamuda Digital Operating System, or GDOS. I think it's a rather unique concept, and I think it would be great if you could share more with the audience about the structure of GDOS.
JOHN LIM: So GDOS is our data first approach to running projects. And by the way, ACC is the data environment, the common data environment that powers GDOS.
JIM LYNCH: I'd love to hear that.
JOHN LIM: It's a clearly defined technology stack, which includes a data warehouse and some other common tools that we use in construction, be it in finance or planning. But the idea is to manage our data. Now, the real problem that we're trying to solve is that we were starting to see different tools on different projects in different parts of the world. And every team obviously also had a favorite tool. I'm sure many of you guys can relate. But it doesn't lend itself to being scalable, improving our data collection, our support and maintenance, or even driving transparency.
Now many of you might have bosses who say, we have lots of data, let's do something with that data. But when you get into it, a lot of times it's a mess, the data is absent, or it's siloed. And before you can even complete the task, your construction project is over. So we decided to standardize a stack. It is one team supporting one stack that continues to evolve and adapt. And with AI being such an important thing today, data is really key to our success.
JIM LYNCH: That's awesome. But given the size and scale of Gamuda, how do you go about getting everyone engaged in that model?
JOHN LIM: Yeah. As you know, transformation is never easy, let alone in an industry such as ours. Our approach has evolved along the way. And now our key philosophy is that change involves everyone. It's not as simple as hiring one transformation guy and saying it's his job, or hiring one BIM manager and saying, he's the digital guy. Instead, we take a top-down, bottom-up approach that meets in the middle in something I like to call the Golden zone of innovation.
I call this the convergence approach, and the key is communication. Top-down, what we do is we educate our management, our senior leadership teams. When we say AI, when we say cloud, when we say BIM, what do we actually mean? And creating that common lingo or terminology around the work that we do. That lends itself to the next point, which is developing our group-wide digital strategy.
So when we talk about the Gamuda Digital Operating System, that's an embodiment of the strategy where we say data is key to running projects. And finally, our strategy leads to a form of governance, making sure that people can't simply buy every single tool off the shelf or whatever they like.
But it's not complete without a bottom-up approach as well. And from the bottom up approach, we're saying we educate people through our community programs, whether it's our tech talks, our masterclasses, our data hero program. Again, the idea is to create this common language in the organization about digitalization transformation.
We highlight success stories. So when people do very well and they get success on their rollouts of ACC, we make sure that we highlight them through our blogs, through our newsletters, so that everybody feels included and that they feel that their success is recognized. And finally, we also recruit people to join us in the Innovation Hub from our grassroots. So people who have been there, done that, who have seen it firsthand, we bring them together and form our best practice for the group.
Now we recognize we can't win everybody over. Some people are just too set in their ways. Hence we need to engage the entire organization because success in one area has knock-on effects because construction is very much a team effort. So we meet in the middle. We create this alignment and momentum for the organization. And the crux of it is helping everyone along the journey, not just a select few.
JIM LYNCH: I love the top-down bottom-up approach. And I think it's really important. It's important to get that right balance in order to translate vision into execution. And it's very clear just that Gamuda has is executing and getting it right. And I saw that firsthand when I toured the industrialized building system facility, which blew me away as you know. I mean, it really for me, it was really seeing industrialized construction come to life. So can you share more with the group about how that facility works and what you're building with, what comes out of there?
JOHN LIM: So the Gamuda industrialized building systems facility is our precast facility. We start off with the 3D models in BIM. We deconstruct those into flat panels for manufacturing on our carousel. And we bring it to site and we assemble them like LEGO pieces.
So you can imagine the factory being a large carousel. There are robots around the area and robots are laying the formwork. They are putting in the rebar, they are pouring the concrete. They are moving it to an oven to cure until it's ready for delivery.
We also do things like volumetric casting of bathroom pods with fully fitted sanitaryware. Now, as a concept, it's not to say new, but our focus is on full digital integration to drive efficiencies from procurement to production to installation.
Now to give you a feel, we can run seven projects at once in our factory. What used to take 2,000 people to complete. Now it's 200 people across many shifts, working 24/7 hours a day, six days a week. We're able to reduce our wastage to less than 1% and body carbon by 40% because we're manufacturing in controlled environments.
So for example, of our speed, we're able to complete an eight-story data center in just eight months. So IBS is our take on robotics for construction. And we're doing it at scale in places like Gamuda Cove, which you got to visit.
JIM LYNCH: I did.
JOHN LIM: It's a 1,500-acre township, featuring 20,000 residences, slightly larger than the size of Balboa Park here in San Diego. And Gamuda builds built the entire town from residential to commercial to the schools, the hospitals, the hotels, even a theme park and nature reserve.
Now, Jim, I must apologize. We didn't get you on the water slide this time, but it means you got to come back and we'll get you on the water slide.
JIM LYNCH: I'm definitely coming back. And I love a water slide, so you'll see me there for sure. But it is-- if you think you may have misunderstood what John said, an eight-story data center in eight months. The facility was just amazing to me.
I want to chat about another important infrastructure project that your team has been working on, which is the Rasau Water Treatment Plant. It's a really cool project, massive project. Can you share more about that?
JOHN LIM: So the Rasau Water Treatment Plant is a project by the Selangor State Water Company. The aim is to process 700 billion liters of clean water a day and increase our reserve margin in the state by 20% Now, why it's near and dear to us is because it's the first project to test the full suite of ACC from build to cost management.
As you can appreciate, it's quite a complex project with a lot of civil, mechanical, electrical, and architectural work coming together, integrate it together. And we use a lot of Revit, Plant 3D, Navisworks, and they're all managed in ACC. Now these are some really great models that we've created, very detailed. And we've been able to engage the supply chain to use ACC for things like issues, correspondence, forms, even claims for subcontractors. And this has become a template for us to deploy ACC globally.
Now, of course, nothing is perfect. And as you know, Jim, we work with your team a lot to improve the features in ACC. I hope they still love us. Now I'm sure the audience can relate. We love a lot more features in Forms to make it more robust and usable. We need better, more flexible form workflows. There you have it.
JIM LYNCH: Oh, boy. You're starting trouble, John. You're starting trouble.
JOHN LIM: And this must extend to even 2D markup reviews and things like that. But I'm sure Autodesk will get it right.
JIM LYNCH: No, absolutely. Listen, message received loud and clear by me. And I know by our teams out there in the audience and watching from home. And we know we have gaps to fill. We are 150% committed to filling those gaps. So thank you for that.
I want to switch gears slightly as I look at the clock. Something I know Gamuda is really passionate about is empowering the next generation of talent in construction, really important for everybody in the audience. Gamuda has some unique ways of maintaining the talent pipeline. Can you share with the audience some of the things you're doing?
JOHN LIM: Talent is absolutely pivotal to what we do. And once upon a time, our young talents used to say to us, I want a career in technology. But our standard reply was, well, we're a construction company, right? And over time, with being at the forefront of technology, with our Gamuda Innovation Hub, we're now able to say to them that we're able to offer an alternative career path in an industry as exciting as construction, where they can also express their interests and passions with the group.
We also run a scholarship program, and this has been going for three decades now. I am a product of the scholarship program as with many of the senior leadership team in Gamuda. And the company sponsors our education at top universities in the world, whether it be at Imperial College, UC Berkeley, University of Bristol, or even local universities. We're guaranteed a job with the company at the end of our graduation.
Now, this has enabled us to tap brilliant talent that otherwise would not have considered this industry. And in fact, this industry is the ground zero for innovation. We've also established the Gamuda AI Academy, in collaboration with Google Cloud, to build our next generation of AI talents for the nation.
Gamuda with our forefront use cases of large language models, we have some great use cases around construction. We're making that available to our cohort. They join us for a three-month course. It's open to all, fully sponsored by Gamuda, by our own faculty. It's a community project under our foundation, which includes a diverse group of young people such as underprivileged communities and people with disabilities.
JIM LYNCH: That's awesome. And it's really super inspiring that you yourself came through the scholarship program, and now you're the chief digital officer for Gamuda. All right. To close this out, John, what advice would you give those in the audience who are where Gamuda was, say, three to five years ago?
JOHN LIM: So I think, to everybody who is on the journey, what I would say is everybody starts from somewhere, even us. And tech is moving so fast, it's disrupting industries. The risk of not doing anything is very high. Now we're all at AU because I believe we want to be agents of change, and we all have a part to play. Society is depending on us as an industry to solve some of our greatest needs, whether it be it climate change or building the next generation of infrastructure.
But we can't do it if we don't transform the way we build to be more efficient, safe, data-driven. And I believe technology has the potential to change the paradigm of construction from risk to certainty. And I think this has profound implications for society. I mean, imagine with me, more metros that provide mobility to millions daily to access jobs and opportunities that they otherwise would not, or more infrastructure to deliver clean energy to homes and to industries. So
I say to all take risks, be bold, engage your organization, and don't let someone on a construction site say, I've been doing this for 20 years. There's only one way to do it. And this won't work.
JIM LYNCH: Awesome.
JOHN LIM: Prove them wrong. I think you'll find yourself on the right track.
JIM LYNCH: Awesome. Sage advice for sure, John. And I personally can't wait to see what the future holds for Gamuda and for the industry. So thank you, thank you, thank you so much for joining us today. It was great hearing your perspective. So thank you.
JOHN LIM: Thank you so much.
JIM LYNCH: All right. Honestly, I can't wait to get back to Kuala Lumpur and try some more of the incredible cuisine. Although there's something called durian fruit that I would really, trust me, I-- no, thank you.
So now let's give a warm welcome to Lalith Subramanian, head of product for Autodesk Construction Cloud. Lalith joined us just about two years ago, and I've been deeply impressed with the discipline and creativity he's brought to the organization. So please join me in welcoming Lalith.
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LALITH SUBRAMANIAN: Wow. Another year, another AU. The energy that you guys bring to this event is absolutely incredible. I just love it. Now, unlike Jim, it's not my 20th AU. It's just my second AU. And unlike Jim, what can I say? I actually do like this durian fruit despite its smell. And one thing I got to say is you got to try it at least one time.
But just like Jim, though, I also had a chance to visit Gamuda last year and their tunnel boring work is nothing short of amazing. Now, I'm sure some of you can relate to this, but when I was a kid, I used to always wonder, how do these big tunnels get made through these giant mountains of rock? And I got to say, I definitely wasn't expecting autonomous tunnel boring machines powered by AI.
Now that's Betty up here on the screen, and I'm told that she has a little sister called Dorothy as well. Both incredible examples of innovation. And the next time I visit, we're definitely going underground to see Betty and Dorothy at work.
Now, the innovation by Gamuda is absolutely incredible-- constantly finding new ways to get challenging jobs done with better efficiency, higher quality, and fewer safety incidents. And most importantly, because this is innovation, bringing their people, their workforce along with them, upskilling the teams to operate these new tools and work with new technologies and AI. So reinventing how they built not just for Gamuda's sake, but to inspire the entire industry.
Now, my team will tell you that I'm always asking them for links to the latest new tool or the viewer that's running five times faster than it did a year ago just to play with it. I think I'm going to hear a few boos from the audience, if there are from my team here. But the thing that I love the most about my role, though, is visiting your job sites and hearing all the stories that you share of overcoming huge challenges through innovation.
So how you make something that is seemingly impossible actually possible. Because these stories are what inspire me and the entire R&D team here every single day to understand these challenges, put ourselves in your shoes and build the tools to help you solve these challenges. So whether these stories take us deep underground or to your desktop, they all share a plot line-- the value of connection and collaboration.
So today, what I want to do is to share with you how ACC is helping deliver connected workflows across these teams and processes and connect the work done by designers, constructors, and owners on a solid foundation of smart data management. So let's start with connected workflows.
Storing data in a single place is the basic expectation one has. It's common sense, helps boost productivity, eliminates all of the double entry and the errors that can come with it. Of course, it saves time. But when data from various parts of a project come together, connected workflows have a huge impact on improving project outcomes.
So let's take a look at how something like this looks. Meet Jose, a regional project exec at United Construction. Now, as with all construction professionals, he keeps a close eye on all his project KPIs. Now, numbers don't lie, right? And he keeps seeing that one project manager, Leah, is always on track. So he's going to find out what's going well here.
So Leah explains that with her teams all on ACC, she is able to make better everyday decisions. And she can also measure the impact of these decisions. So she gives Jose a recent example. The delivery of a switchboard to a job site is delayed. So what does the foreman do? He creates an issue and alerts the team. And because Leah is the project manager, he adds her as a watcher for the issue.
Leah pulls up the progress of the electrical system and sees it's almost complete. In fact, the job crews have almost left the site. They're going to leave soon. So what does she do? This is where she has to choose her own adventure. So she calls her foreman to keep the crew on site until the switchboard arrives. And of course, she has to communicate the decision. So Leah adds the issue as a reference to the planned task in the schedule and adjust the timelines and suggest a change to the master schedule, all without ever leaving built. That's right-- without leaving bill.
And one more thing, she saves the snapshot of the project budget for analysis later. So the revised plan is confirmed, the issue resolved, and everyone on the team from the scheduler to the field teams is alerted of the decision instantly. So they're all on the same page.
But that's just the beginning. Because all of this activity is tracked in ACC, though, Leah can see the exact impacts of all her decisions. So later that week, she takes a snapshot of the past schedule and compares it to the current one to see if she's lost time. Takes a snapshot of the previous budget, looks at the current one to see if there are any changes.
So what does this all tell her? She can instantly see trends in the project, make adjustments as needed, and keep our KPIs right on track. No wonder Jose is so impressed. In fact, he's probably wondering, gee, why didn't I have ACC when I was a PM? But for this project, her quick decision to extend the cruise time on site was absolutely the right one. The forecasts are looking great. Connected workflows in ACC makes all of this happen.
Now letting teams make snap decisions, all while keeping the big picture in mind. Now, Leah's story showed us how to deal with a plot twist like a delayed delivery. But you know what's even better than that? Avoiding those plot twists altogether. And that can only come from the ability to make informed decisions way earlier in the project. That's what happens when you begin to bring design and construction together.
And this year, we've built more connections to ACC with more products across Autodesk than ever before, providing new value to you no matter what role you have on a project, whether you're a designer or someone else, whether you use desktop software or cloud software, bringing project data together to drive better collaboration across the project team, not just file sharing. It's like deepening the relationship between Revit, Navisworks, and ACC.
A small thing you might think, but shared access to models and shared issues means that changes can flow from the design phase to construction and back in a heartbeat, making it easier for everyone to access and use the information that they need when they need it in the moment. So Instead of worrying about getting information from here to there, everything works efficiently without introducing errors along the way. It's all connected-- design to construction, desktop to cloud.
The connection of design and construction gets far stronger with our vision for Forma. So today, Forma development is focused on cloud connected design across the BIM lifecycle. For construction, we remain focused on delivering on our vision of ACC as a comprehensive, connected set of capabilities that span construction workflows. So ACC and Forma are connected development paths. And over time, they'll converge.
But rest assured, we're also listening to you, not just giving you our vision. You've told us how important it is for you all to stay on a platform, not to have to migrate data, not to have to retrain all your teams. So we hear that. And we will bring you along the path that we are on. In fact, Autodesk Docs, as you've heard in other sessions, is central to both ACC and Forma. So if you're using it today, you're already on that path today.
To connect design and construction, there has to be this common foundation to store data. This is the power of Autodesk Docs, a shared centralized pool of files and data, together with all of the security, the standards and controls that you all need to run your projects safely. And with bridge, you have the ability to enable the entire ecosystem of partners that you work with on any project to share that data and contribute to it in a controlled, collaborative way that benefits everyone in that ecosystem who's working on that project.
Now think about it, all of this data in ACC is great, but only if you can learn from it. So I'm excited to share three new ways in which we're making this possible. First, we're giving you faster, better access to your data with our new AI-powered Autodesk Assistant in ACC. And it's now in beta. You can see it in the Expo Hall.
No more spending hours and hours sifting through thousands of pages of specifications to find the information that you need. Just drop in a prompt in a natural language, English, and soon other languages as well. Get the relevant answer along with, get this, links to other contextual documents and a summary of what exactly it found. This is cool. But this is just the start, because we are already working on going well beyond that.
So imagine going from querying specs to including drawings, models, and any other project-specific data in ask. Querying the same way everything that you have in ACC together, and combining all of your data to get the deeper, comprehensive insights that you need, whether the data lives in ACC or elsewhere.
So second, we've released the ability to connect ACC data into Microsoft Fabric using the data connector. What does this mean? You can now bring all of your ACC data directly into all of the Microsoft tools and use things like Power BI for visualizing your data, analyzing your data. And by the way, that's not just it. You can use Microsoft Copilot and all of this data, ACC plus external data, to query your complete data set.
And last but not least, we've delivered the beta of the new Insight Builder tool. We've heard you. And so with Insight Builder, with the new Insight Builder, you're no longer limited to just the reports and dashboard templates that we ship with ACC. With this one, you can pick the data, the layouts, the visualizations, the level of detail that you need, and prepare a dashboard or shareable report exactly the way that you want it.
So with the new Insight Builder, you get the power of custom analytics right within ACC, right within ACC. That's right. You're not going to be needed to move data outside to a third party tool, sacrificing all of the permissions and standards that you have to adhere to. AI-powered answers, data interoperability, and reporting the way you want it. So that's how we are helping your data work for you.
A world with better partnership between designers, constructors, and the owners is no longer just a hopeful story. You all are reinventing the way you work. And we want to be at your side, helping to connect all of those workflows to drive better project outcomes, shed those decades-old barriers around data sharing and collaboration, and deliver better intelligence that lives within your data.
So we're in this story together with you. In fact, maybe the next chapter will be written partially by AI. Who knows? Now, please give a warm welcome to the person who helps, make sure my team hears all of your stories and all of your feature requests. Of course, Allison Scott. Thank you.
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ALLISON SCOTT: Every project story has one character that makes the happy ending possible. At Autodesk, we call them champions. Often overlooked, champions take on the status quo to find solutions that bring value to their teams and projects, partnering with our customer success team to make a positive impact. Champions show up in our forums and online communities, in beta programs and advisory groups. They tell us what your teams need from our tools.
In 2024 alone, your feedback inspired 250 new features going live in ACC. And our products and services are better for it. Your feedback also helps us be a better partner, shows us where you're struggling to make the tech work. We've heard you need help integrating your teams on ACC, that the sheer amount of data you generate makes it difficult to use, that you need change management plans to align people and technology with the business strategy.
These are big hurdles. And today, I'm going to share three stories from around the globe that illustrate how champions are your secret weapon in overcoming them-- stories like the one from Kraus-Anderson, a Minnesota-based general contractor founded at the turn of the 20th century. Not too long ago, Kraus-Anderson used two project management systems, PlanGrid being one of them, and requiring teams to switch between tools when entering data. That sounds familiar, right?
And while using multiple systems was the norm, it was moving Kraus-Anderson further away from its goal of using data to drive better decision-making and leverage AI. Many of you are facing the same challenge of consolidating solutions or moving from legacy BIM 360 or PlanGrid, and no one wants to test a new system on a complex project with a tight schedule. I mean, I get nervous every time I have to update my phone's operating system.
But that didn't stop Kraus-Anderson CIO Tony Peleska. Tony saw the opportunity to modernize en ACC, integrating their entire tech stack on a shared platform, saving their teams time and giving them a more holistic picture of project and business health. But it was hardly easy. Tony faced resistance early on. Most folks were fine with the current tools, so he rallied the team, listening to feedback from executives and the field about how they wanted to work, bringing his team and Autodesk together to show the similarities between Autodesk Build and PlanGrid, along with unique features like bridge, schedule, and correspondence.
We created tailored plans to get teams onboarded quickly, empowering folks with the tools in the way that they were familiar with. Kraus-Anderson made the switch from PlanGrid to Autodesk Build in 2023 and hasn't looked back. With every department using Autodesk from design to construction, projects are integrated from start to finish. And people are collaborating better, resolving issues 50% faster, getting updates between teams 75% faster, and communicating in real time with designers, subs, and owners, making everyone more accountable. And that accountability builds trust. This is a prime example of a legacy company writing its next chapter with the right technology and a committed partner to secure their place for the next century.
In any construction story today, data is both a friend and a foe-- an opportunity to work better, smarter, faster, but only if you can crack the code. The construction industry today generates about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. That's 2.5 billions worth of data, a quantity so astronomical, it may feel impossible to wrangle, especially when data is captured with so much variation. For instance, who knew there were so many ways to write Autodesk?
To make data source of business intelligence, it must be captured consistently. And a great example of a company writing the next chapter on data is Royal BAM Group, one of Europe's most successful construction and engineering companies. For the last 12 years, BAM has partnered with Autodesk to make data powerful asset. Their challenge wasn't the volume of data, but decoding it, fighting the patterns and the insights buried within. And together with BAM's digital champions, Paul Brennan, Michael Murphy, and Simon Tritschler, we built a comprehensive view of BAM's construction data to see the big and small picture.
Together, we created standardized folders, forms, and templates to capture data consistently, allowing teams to filter and analyze information in the ways that work for them. And with a clearer view of project execution, BAM believes quality issues can be reduced by up to 30% And with the maturity of their data now, they've begun to predict and prevent challenges like work sequencing clashes before they occur. It's like solving a puzzle before all of the pieces are even on the table.
But the journey doesn't stop here. The next chapter in BAM's adventure involves harnessing AI to optimize project schedules, reduce carbon footprints, and identify safety hazards before they become incidents. BAM's journey shows us how embracing and decoding connected data can redefine an organization's narrative and unlock hidden potential. And these efforts don't just improve project outcomes either, they engage employees, strengthen client relationships, and ultimately fortify BAM's bottom line.
Every champion, at the end of the day, is a champion of change, probably the hardest part of the job. Doing something new can be scary and uncomfortable, but how much more effective and collaborative could your people be if you showed them how to embrace it?
Hansen Yuncken, 106-year-old company and one of Australia's largest commercial builders, gives us a roadmap. Hot off the heels of our AU 2022, their chief financial and information officer, Rexine Jones, saw the value of adopting ACC to centralized project design, modeling, documentation, and data. And while she was excited about adopting ACC, she recognized her organization needed to address operational readiness before implementing new technology. In fact, they were already charting a course using legacy tools that she realized they needed to stop before they sped forward.
Rexine looked at the process like a train journey through the Outback. Each business unit is a car and the strategy is the track. You need to lay the track faster than the train is moving to stay ahead, and you need to have the right people on board in order to keep the train running. You can't slow down too much if you want to stay on schedule. But move too fast, you risk derailing the entire operation.
The first part of Hansen Yuncken's journey was realignment. Working with Autodesk to assess their business needs, we gathered a picture of their goals, current state and input from their teams. That gave us the clarity to align people, processes, and technology to the business strategy. And now with a customized program in place, they are upskilling their teams with a standardized approach to ACC. And what's more, they're bringing their subcontractors and partners on board, ensuring everyone is a part of the same journey. By next year, they will onboard 6,500 people to the ACC platform, doubling that number by 2026.
Rexine's approach was courageous. When she left AU in 2022, her peers were making the jump to ACC, but she had the patience and fortitude to stop, reassess, and move at the pace that would make her organization successful. Now, Hansen Yuncken is charting a new course and gaining speed. They've built a digital track to secure their future, creating a whole new group of champions focused on driving the HY way.
Rexine from Hansen Yuncken, Tony from Kraus-Anderson, Paul, Michael, and Simon from BAM, they are all here today. Please join me in giving these champions a big round of applause.
They remind us that people are key in construction. People manage projects, not technology, not systems, not even the best-laid processes. Success hinges on empowering your teams to know how to use the tools to your advantage.
Everyone can be a champion. To move the construction industry forward, we need more people to step up and challenge the status quo and write a new construction story. With that spirit in mind, let's welcome back Jim, our fearless leader who embodies the champion mindset.
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JIM LYNCH: Thank you, Alli. Owners, designers, general contractors, subcontractors, each of you, the hero of your own story, and I can tell there's a lot of main character energy in this room, have the opportunity to move the industry. But as the people who design and make the world around us, you're part of something bigger, too.
Now, I hope today made you think more about the role you play in the epic shift that's happening in our industry-- how we don't want to choose our own adventure, how we can write the next chapters together, a shared journey toward greater connections and collaboration across the entire project life cycle. To learn from each other's stories, best practices, newest innovations, even our biggest headaches. And we share in successes, too.
When Gamuda took a data-first approach to running projects, they shared knowledge globally. When Kraus-Anderson shaved time off of issues and BAM improved quality, they won, and so did their partners. When Hansen Yuncken took on change, they spread the learnings to their supply chain.
To arrive at a future where on time and on budget are the rule, not the exception, we have to walk this journey together. At Autodesk, we're committed to providing you with the tools you need to get the job done with AI powered capabilities like Autodesk Assistant that dig through your data, so you don't have to. With commercial and connected workflows that speed decision-making on minor problems, so they don't become major problems.
And with connected data, that speaks the language of design and construction, so everyone has access to the information they can trust. And we'll be on your side each step of the journey to help you realize your future goals. We have an incredible opportunity to change the way construction gets done, and I know that our story is just getting started. Let's build the future together.