Would Apple be Apple without this? They own the rails out into the field. Would Apple be Apple without this? I submit the answer is a hard no. It's a chart that has probably some degree of controversy with that chart and that data measures it at a total industry level, but not at the task level.
50 billion dollars of venture capital, where where has it gone?
I think for the ones that don't work is often when they build a feature not a business. Trillions of dollars of committed capital programs run through Trimble systems. Hundreds of billions of construction financials run through our systems and we have millions of users of our software around the world and hundreds of thousands of instruments and machines in the real physical world operate on Trimble.
Is a company like Trimble worried about the foundational companies like Open AI and probably Google and to some extent Palantir entering into the industry?
These companies are moving fast. They're powerful, they're compelling. So I do think you have to be humble.
So Rob, thank you for joining us and welcome.
I want to I'm glad to be here. Thanks for the invitation.
Awesome. Let's do this. So yes or no answers. Try your best. Let's see where this goes. Um is construction productivity going to improve in the next 5 years?
Yes, it will improve over the next 5 years and I think it'll happen at the intersection of the physical and the digital world to drive that productivity.
Yeah, nice. Um will fully fully autonomous excavators be on job sites by 2035?
Survey says no. Um I think about this from a global perspective. Level five fully autonomous, I think we're further away, but there will be for sure workflows and work types that get automated.
Both. I'm going to go with both and it's easier to get better at the buy. I'm more impressed with how we've gotten better at the build.
All right now, okay. Most underrated technology in construction right now.
I think it's that layer between at the intersection of the physical and the digital in the office and the field. So I think about this intersection of progress monitoring meets the scheduling and the sequencing.
It's got to be a couple of the buzzwords. Let's go with digital twin means everything and nothing. I also think a lot of AI is over hyped at the moment. The generalist view of AI. So it's under hyped and over hyped simultaneously.
Very very very. I was when you said buzzwords my initial reaction was he's going to say AI and then you didn't and then you said it. So cool. Okay, last one and just to give people context to this question. You have a partnership with Liverpool FC and they've just I think today was the announcement of Andoni Iraola but as a Chelsea fan I have to ask you would you rather have Xabi Alonso who is the now Chelsea manager or Andoni Iraola as your coach?
Team Liverpool my friend. Come on.
Okay, one sentence. What's the single most important thing a construction CEO needs to understand about technology in 2026?
You need to be in the weeds. Need to understand it not delegate it and I think a lot about getting senior people in organizations to in construction companies to convey the context and that knowledge that they have before you know we lose this generation of workers.
Very nice. Okay, well Everyone knows the famous productivity chart. Why in your opinion do you think that uh the has not improved within within the industry.
You know, that's a chart that has probably some degree of controversy with it but it's also helpful. That chart measures at the total industry level, not at the task level. We have driven a lot of task productivity into the industry through technology. For example, machine control and guidance makes earthworks 30% more productive. Robotic total station surveying turns a two-person operation into a one-person operation. Use our software and you eliminate rework. Task productivity is delivered. System productivity is a different topic—it's the linkage of bigger workflows. That's the delta and the unlock opportunity is to get to more systems thinking and systems optimization.
I have to actually another one I think I could put in there is construction itself has gotten a lot more complex in the last few years. Think about the nature of some big projects these days: reshoring, data centers, nuclear projects. There's a lot of complex work happening.
Mhm. Mhm. So, would you say that the opportunity exists within this systems thinking now? Right now?
I think the opportunity is to actually link people, data, and workflow. Link that work between the office and the field. Link stakeholders across the lifecycle continuum: feasibility, design, bid, build, operate. Link the value chain and you unlock the system.
Mhm. Okay, very cool. So between 2020 and 2022, maybe $50 billion of venture capital came into this space. At the same time, productivity didn't change much. Where did the money go?
Where will it go or where has it gone?
Um okay, fair question. I don't have the full taxonomy, but thematically, I love that money comes into the ecosystem. It's helping us all get better. We participate with our own corporate venture capital, startup accelerators, universities, joint ventures. I would characterize most venture capital comes at tasks, at features, often building a feature not a business. The nature of venture capital is high risk. Most won't work. For the ones that don't work, it's often when they build a feature not a business.
Mhm. Okay, cool. Um so I you maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong here, but I have here roughly 120 acquisitions in the last 20 years at Trimble.
And then this - and you let M&A when you're at the company in 2006. Uh when you joined the company in 2006.
Yeah, that was my first job. I worked in strategy and corporate development. It was a great way to learn the company and the business.
Yeah, and I know there's been a relatively exciting acquisition of recent times of Document Crunch. So I'm hoping we can get on to that in a little while. But before we do, um when you sit down with a CEO of a top-tier contractor, let's say Skanska, Suffolk Construction, Bechtel, Turner, whoever, you know the big names. Um what are they consistently telling you that they need from a technology partner?
