What was the challenge?
The UK construction industry faces significant operational challenges. Site managers juggle multiple responsibilities: coordinating workers across trades, ensuring compliance with certifications (CSCS, SMSTS, CITB), tracking site attendance, and maintaining communication across teams, often using fragmented tools like WhatsApp groups, spreadsheets, and paper records.
Key pain points include:
- Compliance complexity: Managing worker certifications, expiry dates, and training records across multiple trades
- Communication fragmentation: Critical information scattered across WhatsApp, email, and verbal conversations
- Manual attendance tracking: Paper sign-in sheets and manual timekeeping prone to errors
- Information accessibility: Difficulty finding project photos, plans, and documents on-site
- Decision-making delays: Site managers lack instant access to project data and team status
What was our solution?
As Founder and CTO, I designed and built Builders AI from the ground up: a mobile-first platform with an AI assistant at its core. The app transforms construction site management by putting an intelligent, context-aware assistant in every site manager's pocket.
The AI assistant understands construction workflows and can access all project data, enabling natural language queries like "Who's on site today?", "Show me photos from last week's foundation pour", or "Create a task to inspect the scaffolding tomorrow".
Core Capabilities:
- Intelligent AI Assistant – Chat interface with construction-specific knowledge and tool access
- Team & Compliance Management – Track certifications, assignments, and worker availability
- Site Presence Tracking – Digital check-in/out with location awareness
- Project Documentation – Photos, plans, and files with AI-powered search
- Task Management – Create, assign, and track work items with reminders
- Push Notifications – Real-time alerts for assignments, announcements, and reminders
Provided Value & Core Features
For Site Managers
- AI-Powered Assistant: Natural language interface to query project data, create tasks, check weather, and manage team
- Compliance Dashboard: Visual overview of certification status with expiry alerts (60-day advance warning)
- Quick Site Overview: At-a-glance view of who's on site, pending tasks, and recent activity
- Photo Management: Organized galleries with AI auto-tagging and search capabilities
- Plan Access: View and share construction plans directly from the app
For Workers
- Simple Check-In: One-tap site presence tracking
- Task Notifications: Push alerts when assigned new work items
- Document Access: Personal certifications and project documents always available
- Morning Summaries: Daily digest of tasks and site information
For Business Owners
- Team Visibility: Know who's working where across multiple projects
- Compliance Assurance: Never miss an expiring certification or required training
- Audit Trail: Complete history of site presence, announcements, and task completion
- Multi-Project Support: Manage multiple construction sites from one account
Technologies & Architecture
Mobile App
- React Native with Expo for cross-platform iOS and Android development
- TypeScript for type-safe, maintainable code
- PowerSync for offline-first local database with real-time sync
- Custom UI components with accessibility support and responsive design
Backend & Infrastructure
- Supabase (PostgreSQL) for database, authentication, and storage
- Supabase Edge Functions (Deno) for serverless API endpoints
- Row Level Security (RLS) for granular data access control
- Multi-region deployment (EU) for GDPR compliance
AI & Intelligence
- AWS Bedrock (Claude) for AI assistant reasoning and tool orchestration
- 19 custom AI tools for project data access, task management, and queries
- Streaming responses for real-time chat experience
- Role-based tool access (different capabilities for admins vs members)
DevOps & Quality
- GitHub Actions for CI/CD pipelines
- Sentry for error tracking and performance monitoring
- PostHog for product analytics and user insights
- EAS Build for automated TestFlight and Play Store deployments
Security & Compliance
- GDPR-compliant data handling with EU data residency
- End-to-end encryption for sensitive communications
- Secure file storage with signed URLs and access controls
- DPAs with all third-party processors (AWS, Supabase, Sentry, PostHog)
