The database

Tools field teams actually use

39 tools, 86 mentions, every one from a practitioner on the show talking about their own work. Founders pitching their own product and sponsor reads are excluded. Each entry links to the episode where it was said.

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Project Management9 practitioner mentions

Procore

  • EP 030 · Michael Zeppieri AI-driven low-code/no-code levels the playing field for small and mid-size contractors who can't afford Autodesk or Procore partnerships, their people knowledge plus a build platform gives them the…
  • EP 033 · Victor Muchiri Procore's DataGrid buy signals a shift from discrete steps to whole workflows
  • EP 022 · John Riggs Even when the GC is in the room before MSAs are signed, the owner-architect-engineer-GC contracting chain leaves each party on their own platform, and integrating them into the Procore home base gets…
  • EP 019 · Joe Wilson Procore's submittal workflow pushes teams to Excel and fractures the source of truth
Heard in: EP 019 EP 022 EP 030 EP 033 RAN Aug 2026 RAN Jul 2026
AI/Analytics8 practitioner mentions

ChatGPT

  • EP 027 · Tim Straub AI will make commissioning agents more efficient, not replace them, it's only as good as the human's prompt
  • EP 032 · Fouad Khalil AI in construction will be a long augmentation phase, not replacement, you can't automate what you don't understand
  • EP 030 · Michael Zeppieri Skanska invested in its data solutions team nearly two years before ChatGPT existed, unglamorous standardization like office decoder rings and subcontractor dropdowns is the foundation AI readiness…
  • EP 033 · Victor Muchiri Match the AI model to the job: ChatGPT to spar, Claude to edit, Gemini to research
Heard in: EP 018 EP 022 EP 027 EP 030 EP 032 EP 033 EP 034
Business Systems5 practitioner mentions

Excel

  • EP 029 · Patrick Murphy and Jeremy Crumley Excel is great but traps precon data and blocks enterprise leverage
  • EP 030 · Michael Zeppieri AI-driven low-code/no-code levels the playing field for small and mid-size contractors who can't afford Autodesk or Procore partnerships, their people knowledge plus a build platform gives them the…
  • EP 030 · Michael Zeppieri Digitalization mostly digitized the paper process, Word and Excel replicating paper forms, and lost the chance to improve the work itself; AI is the second chance to redesign processes rather than…
  • EP 019 · Joe Wilson Procore's submittal workflow pushes teams to Excel and fractures the source of truth
Heard in: EP 019 EP 029 EP 030 RAN Aug 2026
BIM/VDC4 practitioner mentions

Autodesk

  • EP 030 · Michael Zeppieri AI-driven low-code/no-code levels the playing field for small and mid-size contractors who can't afford Autodesk or Procore partnerships, their people knowledge plus a build platform gives them the…
  • EP 007 · Andrew Rener Generative design is a massing exercise, not constructable documents
  • EP 055 · Tim Smith Design engineers no longer spend field time before they design, and the drawings show it
  • RAN Jul 2026 · Reviewed as Noted panel A world where every owner Frankensteins their own platform is worse than the platform monopoly
Heard in: EP 007 EP 030 EP 055 RAN Jul 2026
Field/Mobile4 practitioner mentions

iPad

  • EP 011 · Chris Masse Tech fatigue is the field's rational default: years of half-working apps (iPads that only refreshed in the trailer) mean superintendents open every pilot with 'no,' and EllisDon management had to say…
  • EP 007 · Andrew Rener Robots widen the industry's talent base by making trades appealing to younger workers
  • EP 005 · Mitchell McDonald Reject work-life balance in favor of work-life rhythm
  • EP 017 · a Story the Field Believes with Jackie Guilbault iPads launched globally without field testing failed in rugged, cold conditions
Heard in: EP 005 EP 007 EP 011 EP 017
Reality Capture4 practitioner mentions

OpenSpace

  • EP 025 · Alex Belkofer Connected platforms linking digital tools to physical tools broke BIM out of 15 years of siloed workflows, and every break in the office-to-field information chain is an opportunity for risk.
  • EP 022 · John Riggs Jobsite tech's time savings are a tug of war: tools like OpenSpace genuinely give time back, but over the same period regulatory complexity and more sophisticated clients added administrative drag…
  • EP 022 · John Riggs Photo documentation and site capture is the most oversaturated ConTech category to found a company in, because behemoths with funding and recurring revenue will out-ideate new entrants from their…
  • RAN Aug 2026 · Reviewed as Noted panel Reality capture keeps getting funded because it multiplies the superintendent, not because it's novel
Heard in: EP 022 EP 025 RAN Aug 2026
AI/Analytics3 practitioner mentions

Claude

  • EP 033 · Victor Muchiri Match the AI model to the job: ChatGPT to spar, Claude to edit, Gemini to research
  • EP 034 · Angelo Suntres The next-gen edge is knowing how buildings actually get built, which won't be replaced by a prompt
  • EP 022 · John Riggs Capturing retiring superintendents' knowledge is a data-collection problem before it is an LLM problem, hallucinations make him wary of models over unstructured field knowledge, so the actionable…
Heard in: EP 022 EP 033 EP 034
BIM/VDC3 practitioner mentions

Trimble

  • EP 026 · Al Ricci AccuBit's origin: a contractor built estimating software for himself, then pivoted to a company
  • EP 013 · Hannu Lindberg The Trimble model-to-field breakthrough, extracting model points to total stations, started as a back-office hack before becoming product, and connecting coordinated model data to field layout is…
  • EP 025 · Alex Belkofer Connected platforms linking digital tools to physical tools broke BIM out of 15 years of siloed workflows, and every break in the office-to-field information chain is an opportunity for risk.
Heard in: EP 013 EP 025 EP 026
BIM/VDC3 practitioner mentions

AutoCAD

  • EP 011 · Chris Masse His CM Planner method strips drawings to a blank sheet in AutoCAD, rebuilds them layer-by-layer in build sequence with each layer matching a schedule task and green/yellow/red pass colors, and trades…
  • EP 013 · Hannu Lindberg Going to the field first, against the pull of the 'cushy office', is how theory becomes practice, and his technology conversion came from tools that made his own job easier: finding drawing errors…
  • EP 055 · Tim Smith Design engineers no longer spend field time before they design, and the drawings show it
Heard in: EP 011 EP 013 EP 055
Reality Capture3 practitioner mentions

DroneDeploy

  • EP 022 · John Riggs Photo documentation and site capture is the most oversaturated ConTech category to found a company in, because behemoths with funding and recurring revenue will out-ideate new entrants from their…
  • EP 022 · John Riggs Consolidation, not novel capability, converts practitioner skeptics: he MacGyvered drone capture with a $3 app seven years ago and only saw DroneDeploy's value once it collapsed two or three…
  • RAN Aug 2026 · Reviewed as Noted panel Reality capture keeps getting funded because it multiplies the superintendent, not because it's novel
Heard in: EP 022 RAN Aug 2026
AI/Analytics2 practitioner mentions

Trunk Tools (sponsor)

  • EP 030 · Michael Zeppieri The IP of a construction company is its people, when owners evaluate a bid they are really interviewing the project team, and even global GCs win or lose work on relationships
  • EP 022 · John Riggs Capturing retiring superintendents' knowledge is a data-collection problem before it is an LLM problem, hallucinations make him wary of models over unstructured field knowledge, so the actionable…
Heard in: EP 022 EP 030
Project Management2 practitioner mentions

Autodesk Construction Cloud

  • EP 025 · Alex Belkofer Connected platforms linking digital tools to physical tools broke BIM out of 15 years of siloed workflows, and every break in the office-to-field information chain is an opportunity for risk.
  • RAN Jul 2026 · Reviewed as Noted panel Subs adopt the GC's platform through gritted teeth, and that attitude flows into the data
Heard in: EP 025 RAN Jul 2026
Document/Contract2 practitioner mentions

Bluebeam

  • EP 011 · Chris Masse His CM Planner method strips drawings to a blank sheet in AutoCAD, rebuilds them layer-by-layer in build sequence with each layer matching a schedule task and green/yellow/red pass colors, and trades…
  • EP 022 · John Riggs Consolidation, not novel capability, converts practitioner skeptics: he MacGyvered drone capture with a $3 app seven years ago and only saw DroneDeploy's value once it collapsed two or three…
Heard in: EP 011 EP 022
Document/Contract2 practitioner mentions

Document Crunch (sponsor)

  • EP 017 · a Story the Field Believes with Jackie Guilbault Contract value extends into the field, risk doesn't stop at signing
  • EP 017 · a Story the Field Believes with Jackie Guilbault Founder-market fit: an ex-construction-attorney CEO builds for the persona's real pain
Heard in: EP 017
Robotics/Automation2 practitioner mentions

Dusty Robotics

  • EP 007 · Andrew Rener Robots widen the industry's talent base by making trades appealing to younger workers
  • EP 025 · Alex Belkofer Connected platforms linking digital tools to physical tools broke BIM out of 15 years of siloed workflows, and every break in the office-to-field information chain is an opportunity for risk.
Heard in: EP 007 EP 025
AI/Analytics2 practitioner mentions

Microsoft Copilot

  • EP 034 · Angelo Suntres Overusing ChatGPT for internal emails erodes your professional brand because people can tell
  • EP 022 · John Riggs Capturing retiring superintendents' knowledge is a data-collection problem before it is an LLM problem, hallucinations make him wary of models over unstructured field knowledge, so the actionable…
Heard in: EP 022 EP 034
Other2 practitioner mentions

Microsoft Word

  • EP 030 · Michael Zeppieri Digitalization mostly digitized the paper process, Word and Excel replicating paper forms, and lost the chance to improve the work itself; AI is the second chance to redesign processes rather than…
  • RAN Aug 2026 · Reviewed as Noted panel Hire for problem-solving persistence, not AI proficiency, the tooling is already table stakes
Heard in: EP 030 RAN Aug 2026
AI/Analytics2 practitioner mentions

NVIDIA

  • EP 032 · Fouad Khalil Hyperscale data centers have achieved 'China-level speed', a giant microchip on the earth
  • EP 032 · Fouad Khalil Optimal modularity sits on a diagonal: standardization must be matched to required flexibility
Heard in: EP 032
Scheduling2 practitioner mentions

Primavera P6

  • EP 022 · John Riggs Back-office schedule updating is low-hanging fruit for agentic AI right now, a chat-based agent reconciling what should have happened against what did and adjusting tied activities should be…
  • EP 055 · Tim Smith A GC's A-team or C-team is visible within 30 days, and the tell is a milestone schedule that is actually followed
Heard in: EP 022 EP 055
Business Systems2 practitioner mentions

Salesforce

  • EP 030 · Michael Zeppieri Cloud value has stagnated because SaaS providers grew so many layers of customer success that people who never touched the problem are building for it, losing the developer-to-user intimacy that made…
  • EP 026 · Al Ricci The customer success model was pioneered by Salesforce as a subtle way of selling
Heard in: EP 026 EP 030
BIM/VDC2 practitioner mentions

Tekla Structures

  • EP 013 · Hannu Lindberg Fabrication-driven trades prove model-driven construction already works, steel detailers model 100% accurate in Tekla, MEP and now framing and reinforcement follow, so the missing link is how…
  • EP 013 · Hannu Lindberg The Trimble model-to-field breakthrough, extracting model points to total stations, started as a back-office hack before becoming product, and connecting coordinated model data to field layout is…
Heard in: EP 013
BIM/VDC1 practitioner mention

Hexagon

  • EP 025 · Alex Belkofer Connected platforms linking digital tools to physical tools broke BIM out of 15 years of siloed workflows, and every break in the office-to-field information chain is an opportunity for risk.
Heard in: EP 025
Project Management1 practitioner mention

Kahua

  • RAN Jul 2026 · Reviewed as Noted panel Subs adopt the GC's platform through gritted teeth, and that attitude flows into the data
Heard in: RAN Jul 2026
Scheduling1 practitioner mention

Microsoft Project

  • EP 022 · John Riggs Back-office schedule updating is low-hanging fruit for agentic AI right now, a chat-based agent reconciling what should have happened against what did and adjusting tied activities should be…
Heard in: EP 022
Communication1 practitioner mention

Microsoft Teams

  • EP 011 · Chris Masse Field adoption of technology at a major GC only flipped from 'nice to have' to 'benefit' around 2018-2020, with COVID forcing digital collaboration that had been technically possible since 2015 but…
Heard in: EP 011
AI/Analytics1 practitioner mention

Palantir

  • RAN Aug 2026 · Reviewed as Noted panel Ask how you exit an ontology partnership before you sign it
Heard in: RAN Aug 2026
Other1 practitioner mention

Python

  • EP 030 · Michael Zeppieri AI-driven low-code/no-code levels the playing field for small and mid-size contractors who can't afford Autodesk or Procore partnerships, their people knowledge plus a build platform gives them the…
Heard in: EP 030
BIM/VDC1 practitioner mention

ArchiCAD

  • EP 013 · Hannu Lindberg Going to the field first, against the pull of the 'cushy office', is how theory becomes practice, and his technology conversion came from tools that made his own job easier: finding drawing errors…
Heard in: EP 013
Reality Capture1 practitioner mention

Leica

  • EP 025 · Alex Belkofer Connected platforms linking digital tools to physical tools broke BIM out of 15 years of siloed workflows, and every break in the office-to-field information chain is an opportunity for risk.
Heard in: EP 025
Communication1 practitioner mention

LinkedIn

  • RAN Aug 2026 · Reviewed as Noted panel Vendor noise has trained innovation leaders to ignore the first eight emails
Heard in: RAN Aug 2026
AI/Analytics1 practitioner mention

OpenAI

  • EP 030 · Michael Zeppieri Skanska invested in its data solutions team nearly two years before ChatGPT existed, unglamorous standardization like office decoder rings and subcontractor dropdowns is the foundation AI readiness…
Heard in: EP 030
Other1 practitioner mention

Photoshop

  • EP 022 · John Riggs Consolidation, not novel capability, converts practitioner skeptics: he MacGyvered drone capture with a $3 app seven years ago and only saw DroneDeploy's value once it collapsed two or three…
Heard in: EP 022
Other1 practitioner mention

Pix4D

  • EP 022 · John Riggs Photo documentation and site capture is the most oversaturated ConTech category to found a company in, because behemoths with funding and recurring revenue will out-ideate new entrants from their…
Heard in: EP 022
Other1 practitioner mention

Revizto

  • EP 025 · Alex Belkofer Connected platforms linking digital tools to physical tools broke BIM out of 15 years of siloed workflows, and every break in the office-to-field information chain is an opportunity for risk.
Heard in: EP 025
Other1 practitioner mention

Safety Sidekick

  • EP 030 · Michael Zeppieri With AI the build-vs-buy pendulum swings back to building in-house: vendors should secure the environment and provide the build tools rather than every native feature, Skanska's internally built…
Heard in: EP 030
Other1 practitioner mention

Sherpods

  • EP 013 · Hannu Lindberg Prefab has no magic button, it only pays where there's repetition and the right job (bathroom pods, exterior panels and skid-mounted electrical rooms for remote data centers), it requires design…
Heard in: EP 013
Other1 practitioner mention

Vico

  • EP 013 · Hannu Lindberg Going to the field first, against the pull of the 'cushy office', is how theory becomes practice, and his technology conversion came from tools that made his own job easier: finding drawing errors…
Heard in: EP 013
Other1 practitioner mention

Visual Basic

  • EP 030 · Michael Zeppieri AI-driven low-code/no-code levels the playing field for small and mid-size contractors who can't afford Autodesk or Procore partnerships, their people knowledge plus a build platform gives them the…
Heard in: EP 030
Communication1 practitioner mention

Zoom

  • EP 011 · Chris Masse Field adoption of technology at a major GC only flipped from 'nice to have' to 'benefit' around 2018-2020, with COVID forcing digital collaboration that had been technically possible since 2015 but…
Heard in: EP 011

Built from the show's episode knowledge base. Updated as episodes are processed. Hearing a tool named is not an endorsement; it is a record of what someone doing the work said.

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