Advancing Preconstruction is like the Super Bowl of construction events.

It’s the largest strategic preconstruction conference in the country; one where 1,000+ owners, general contractors, and designers come together for two days to chat about strategies on cost certainty, collaboration, and how they are thinking about tech adoption. 

We went to listen, learn, and demo what we're building and we left with 3 big takeaways about the current state of preconstruction.

1. AI had a massive asterisk

As you would expect, AI was everywhere. But conversations didn't have this undertone of "AI is transforming preconstruction!" (despite what the LinkedIn hype machine might suggest…) 

Real, in-person conversations sounded much more like: How do we actually get ready for AI?

Discussions about AI data governance, cleaning legacy data, and laying the groundwork for AI far outnumbered conversations about AI's capability. The sessions backed it up — "Laying the Groundwork for AI to Ensure Maximum Efficacy," "Cleaning Legacy Data to Enhance Accuracy of Forecasting," "Establishing Your Data North Star." Mainstage and packed.

Any anxiety in the room wasn't about adoption or robots taking jobs. It was about something much more unglamorous — whether our cost data is clean enough for AI to do anything useful.

And the honest answer (based on what we heard) is: not quite yet.

2. Preconstruction actively wants new technology

Builders have an unfair reputation of being averse to change.

But they aren’t actually resistant to new tools. They are frustrated with what they have, but haven’t been offered something better.

“We deserve better, we need better, and we pay a lot of money for software that only allows us minimal exposure to our data,” wrote one attendee post-event.

The proof was on the expo floor. Passersby turned into hour-long conversations. Estimators who glanced at the screen ended up pulling up a chair. Their questions were specific and pointed and were clearly based in a knowledge of exactly what was missing from their current setup.

The appetite is real. The industry just hasn't been given enough reasons to trust that something better exists.

“One thing became very clear: the technology wheels are certainly turning in preconstruction.” — Jeff Gerardi, Director at Autodesk

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3. Cost certainty is becoming the thing that wins work

The through-line of the whole conference was about cost. Who owns it, who controls it, who gets the call when an owner has a new project.

The GCs winning work all seem to be investing in building systems for their data. They are the ones answering the budget question before it's asked.

The reality is that most teams don't have that. Cost data lives in multiple systems, estimates don't talk to each other, and institutional knowledge walks out the door when a project closes.

“Costs will move; the frustration is that people don’t know why they moved because the story gets scattered across emails, meetings, PDFs, spreadsheets, and memory." — Trey Darnell, Head of Sales at Ediphi

Then, CEO Dustin DeVan said it from the stage: "If we can make GCs the first person a client wants to talk to because they understand the price, and can talk about their options more intelligently, we can really change the paradigm in this industry."

👉 Watch his full talk here.

It felt like all the estimators in that room already knew it. They're just waiting for their tools to catch up.

We demo’d Cost Trendline at the event as a new solution to the “cost story” problem. Here’s what we built.

The industry knows what it needs

We chatted and laughed and had great catered chicken fried rice, but what struck us most was the openness of the attendees and their willingness to say it out loud.

This is not an industry in denial, we know what we need — better data, better tools, and systems that actually capture what happens between budget and GMP.Advancing Preconstruction left us with a lot to think about. If you want to see what we're building toward that future, we'd love to show you.