Our friends at Togal wrapped up Advancing Preconstruction 2024 perfectly in their new LinkedIn newsletter:
Team Togal has an expression we use when we refer to the people we meet at Advancing Precon: The Big Dogs.
You can feel it in the air that attendees of Advancing Precon are genuinely there to learn and grow their businesses. This event always draws out the best of the best, and this year was no exception! The most discerning and innovative minds all came together to help advance the preconstruction industry, and Togal.AI was (of course) there to be part of the movement.
Here were the themes attendees and advertisers were talking about most at the 2024 APC Sumit in Denver, CO:
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the Construction Industry
It's fair to say we know a thing or two about AI (it's literally in our company name, after all!) and we've been at the forefront of pioneering advancements in artificial Intelligence for the construction industry.
But a point that gets missed far too often when talking about AI is that the human touch is still absolutely necessary for maximum efficiency, productivity, and profitability.
At Togal, we compare having AI to having a co-pilot; it's an extremely helpful assistant that saves you time, effort, and money - but you're still the one flying the plane.
At Advancing Precon, we heard a lot of conversations about AI, with many well-meaning companies using the term to attract potential customers to demos. (To be honest, we saw this mostly as a marketing tactic and didn't see a ton of evidence of actual advancements in the field). This is NOT our strategy at Togal, in fact, we go out of our way to tell people what our AI doesn't do as much as we talk about what it does.
At Togal.AI, we spent two years developing our AI tools before we brought them to market, and we've spent a year and a half since perfecting those tools and innovating new ones according to customer feedback.
For example, our proprietary AI Image Search allows Togal users to instantly search up to thousands of pages of documents and plans for any image, then immediately assign that image a classification. This one tool saves our customer an average of an entire day's work (think about how much that adds up over multiple bids per year!)
But AI Image search is just one of the tools in our AI toolbox!
2. In with 'Cloud-Based', out with downloaded software
Togal has been cloud based from the beginning, and the reason for this is simple: we want to be the most convenient, most helpful "no brainer" tool for estimators and precon pros.
At Advancing Precon, we heard from so many folks how much they preferred cloud-based software! The folks we talked to who had tried cloud-based tools NEVER wanted to go back to having to download clunky, outdated software - not to mention PAY EXTRA for updates! Plus, especially for students and younger folks in the field, being able to use a Mac vs PC was a big plus.
Being cloud-based also allows users to work together in real time, which brings us to our next hot topic of discussion:
3. Collaboration
Being able to collaborate with multiple team members and stakeholders on a construction project is absolutely essential to succeed in today's fast-paced, digital environment. But from what we heard from folks at Advancing Precon 2024, sending multiple PDFs back and forth over email simply isn't cutting it; it's inefficient, it's confusing, and it ends up costing companies a lot of money and time.
But at Togal, we didn't stop there; as usual, we asked the question "what would the DREAM solution be for an estimator or GC when it comes to collaboration?"
Togal.ai's answer: Cloud-based Internal and external collaboration capabilities, complete with the ability to control viewing and editing permissions for multiple takeoffs at once.
What does this mean, exactly? Essentially this:
- Internal Collaboration: Togal.AI users can collaborate and share documents, projects, and takeoffs with multiple team members in their organization in real time. Mangers can set permissions for editing or viewing takeoffs, so no one's work gets "messed up" by anyone else.
- External Collaboration: Want to collaborate on a takeoff with someone outside your organization? No problem. Togal allows users to share projects and plans with subcontractors and partners outside their organization - even if that other person doesn't have Togal.
Think of Togal's collaboration tool like the "Google Drive" of Estimating; you can share inside or outside of your organization, but you also have complete control over who can see or edit what.
