INNOVATING THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY. Cherryann Lee Angoy (in photo), along with her colleagues in Eve (not shown in photo), is set to launch the first artificial intelligence-driven construction management software made by a Mindanao-based tech startup on June 21, 2022. The group aims to revolutionize the construction industry by introducing AI software that aims to improve human work. (PNA photo by Christine Cudis)
DAVAO CITY—A homegrown startup wants to become the first local company to bring innovation to the construction industry with its artificial intelligence (Al)-driven construction management platform AIMHI (Artificial Intelligence Meets Human Intelligence).
AIMHI is a landmark product of Eve on Top (Eve), a Tagum City-based women-led tech startup.
During Wednesday's press briefer here, Eve co-founder Cherryann Lee Angoy said the technology addresses most construction woes and at the same time ensures a 10 percent profit increase in construction projects.
“AIMHI is developed to mitigate the long-standing problems in the construction industry such as delayed projects, over budget, and falling below the target profit margins,” Angoy said.
As chief executive officer of the construction firm SECKKA Empire Builder, Inc., Angoy said she has extensively explored the causes of most problems in the sector.
She said contractors suffer profit losses and delay due to lack or poor cost management, planning, estimation, monitoring, and control, poor risk and resource management, and a host of other problems.
“Project delay average is 20 percent to 30 percent while the average overrun is 28 percent,” she said.
She added: “For a 10-million project with an end date of 9 months, an additional PHP3 million in unnecessary cost will be incurred due to delay and PHP2.8 million in overrun.”
She noted that the Philippine construction industry is expected to record a 14.4 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) reaching PHP871.1 billion by 2024.
In 2018, the growth rate of the construction industry in the Philippines was about 15.9 percent and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) share of the construction industry to the total GDP was 6.8 percent.
In the same year, the number of Filipinos in construction rose to 4.02 million compared to 3.55 million the previous year.
Despite its promising contribution, she said it is still an industry with a low-profit margin that continues to plummet, not to mention the number of Filipino workers relying on it.
“Construction is among the largest sector in the world economy, spending about USD 10 trillion on construction-related goods and services yearly. But in the past 20 years, we have only seen a one percent increase in productivity,” she said.
Making things worse, she said the shortage in skilled workers is causing construction projects an additional 10 to 15 percent loss.
Eve said AIMHI is more than just a schedule organizer, cost tracker, or inventory manager.
“It enables its cost footprint capability that aids in cost planning, monitoring, and controlling. Meaning, our data-driven platform uses real-time and historical data to learn project inefficiencies, manpower productivity footprint, and overall cost behavior,” she said.
With AIMHI, she said users can upload project estimates, track actual spending versus budget, track manpower and equipment allocation, project schedule, proactive suggested tasks, an overall dashboard for a progress report, timeline, overall budget, and project ranking.
She said the platform is easy to use and provides clear information because it uses construction management principles and reliable workflows.
The platform, which will be launched online on June 21 via their Facebook page AIMHI by Eve, will cost each user only PHP1,014.51 or USD19 per month. (PNA)
