AI in construction: A game changer for job site safety and compliance

Charley Burtwistle (00:00):

What is up everybody? This is Charley Burtwistlecoming to you with some news. Courtney.

Courtney Mattern (00:07):

What? You’re just going to put the pressure on me?

Charley Burtwistle (00:09):

Yeah. I was going to make you do it all. No. Courtney Matternhas taken another opportunity outside of Buildertrend, and we are very, very excited for her, and very, very happy.

Courtney Mattern (00:19):

Yeah. I think I might be more surprised than everybody else, to be honest.

Charley Burtwistle (00:24):

Yeah. How about that cold intro, just bam, dumping it on people.

Courtney Mattern (00:28):

Here’s some bad news. I’m leaving Buildertrend after almost six years, being on the Marketing team. When I started, I was employee number 500. They even interviewed me in the newspaper about being employee number 500. And now …

Charley Burtwistle (00:47):

Wait, you were 500 on the dot?

Courtney Mattern (00:48):

Yeah, I was.

Charley Burtwistle (00:48):

I don’t think I ever knew that fun fact.

Courtney Mattern (00:50):

Yeah. The quote in the newspaper was, “I’m excited to use the yoga studio.”

Charley Burtwistle (00:54):

Yes, absolutely.

Courtney Mattern (00:56):

Which I never used the yoga studio.

Charley Burtwistle (00:57):

That’s okay. You got a week left right?

Courtney Mattern (00:58):

I do. But now the IT department posted up in there, so yeah. I’m sure they’ll love to see me do some downward …

Charley Burtwistle (01:05):

What are they going to do? Fire you? Do whatever you want this last week.

Courtney Mattern (01:05):

There’s no rules.

Charley Burtwistle (01:10):

Yeah.

Courtney Mattern (01:10):

But I’m excited to go onto another opportunity. What I’ll miss most is all of our customers. I’ve been so lucky to meet so many amazing people in the construction industry, but also listeners, this is your fault. Remember when you voted on your favorite host for the podcast?

Charley Burtwistle (01:28):

Yeah.

Courtney Mattern (01:30):

The results you didn’t know, but the loser was going to have to leave the building.

Charley Burtwistle (01:35):

Oh, Courtney, you’re one of a kind. Extremely funny. I want to thank you for all you’ve done for Buildertrend, all you’ve done for the podcast and all you’ve done for me personally and professionally. You are a great friend and a great mentor. And we just decided before this, we’re still going to hang out.

Courtney Mattern (01:50):

Maybe.

Charley Burtwistle (01:51):

Maybe. Yeah.

Courtney Mattern (01:53):

We both work all the time.

Charley Burtwistle (01:54):

Yeah. Well, I just like being very realistic. I don’t like making empty promises. Yeah. Maybe we’ll hang out. I don’t know.

Courtney Mattern (02:00):

Yeah. Your reaction’s still my favorite because you’re just like, “And I’m supposed to say like, I’m happy for you, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

Charley Burtwistle (02:06):

Yeah. Deal with that later.

Courtney Mattern (02:08):

But too bad we host a podcast, so now you have to talk about it, but I have all the faith in the world. This podcast was started before us even, and we’ve had different hosts, we’ve had rotating hosts, and the reason it works is because it’s not about us. It’s not about Buildertrend, it’s not about the hosts, it’s about the industry, and it’s about the people we bring on the show. And nothing’s going to change there.

(02:31):

And I’m leaving. I have to say thank you to the team because even before I hosted the podcast, I was working behind the scenes with our Content Marketing team, our production crew, John Beck Hoffman has been editing these episodes like a pro. Chelsea Cole has been strategizing and helping link up guests, and then Sean Robinson, my content manager. Just make sure that it’s all glued together and that we change when we need to change. So, hats off to all of them. They’re still here. They’re going to keep the ship going strong. And yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Charley, for showing up every week to the podcast recordings. Even though you’re furiously busy, it just shows your dedication to the customers in the industry. So, I love you.

Charley Burtwistle (03:12):

Absolutely. Favorite part of my job. Before you go, favorite memory from the podcast?

Courtney Mattern (03:17):

From the podcast? Oh gosh.

Charley Burtwistle (03:25):

It’s just so many to choose from.

Courtney Mattern (03:26):

There’s so many. I mean, the one that comes to mind, I wasn’t always here for every recording. I know you’ve said that there was a cow in the background on one episode.

Charley Burtwistle (03:31):

Oh yeah.

Courtney Mattern (03:31):

I really like to see that. But I think my favorite is when you went on vacation to Mount Rushmore and decided that you should just record the episode from there. I know it’s not like my favorite guest interview, which I probably have one of those. I think being behind the scenes and being someone who works on the podcast, it’s just so nice. And I appreciate working with people who are, who care as much as me. So, it kind of showed like, “Hey, Charley’s on vacation, he’s on a trip, and he’s going to find a WiFi connection and record and talk to our customers. That was really cool.

Charley Burtwistle (04:03):

Thanks for making that all about me.

Courtney Mattern (04:05):

Well, favorite … I guess I should …

Charley Burtwistle (04:06):

Me, me, me, me.

Courtney Mattern (04:07):

Too because yeah, it’s two sides to the podcast right? I had to work behind the scenes to make sure each episode drop, but then conversation wise, there are so many. My favorite episode probably is Reclaimed Karma, is Chris and Yvonne.

Charley Burtwistle (04:21):

Yeah, of course.

Courtney Mattern (04:21):

They have such an amazing story, and I feel like just having heard it again at the International Builder Show, it sort of came at a weird time for me right before I considered a new opportunity where they were like, we had to do this before we were ready. And they did it with such humility and grace, and they’re such giving people to their teams and to the industry, and they’ve been so successful coming out the other side. It’s really inspiring, and that episode’s just so funny to listen to. So, that’s probably one of my … I didn’t even do that interview. I was just in the back listening to it, but that’s probably one of my …

Charley Burtwistle (04:57):

So your two favorite memories are neither of them are you hosting the podcast?

Courtney Mattern (05:01):

Yeah, exactly. I feel like when I considered a new opportunity, they’re like, are you going to miss hosting a podcast? And I love talking to people, but being in the driver’s seat of the spotlight’s not necessarily always my favorite. And when I’m myself, if I’m going to play a character and a play, I’m on it. But yeah, those are some of my favorite memories. I’m sure more will come to mind at a later date. And I know that there’s going to be new ones because I’m going to be listening when I’m gone.

Charley Burtwistle (05:27):

Absolutely. And you’ll be listening to me. I’m not going anywhere. I’m sticking around. Who will my new co-host be? Who knows? We’ll figure it out. It’ll be exciting.

Courtney Mattern (05:35):

Yeah, you can vote on Instagram if you want to nominate yourself.

Charley Burtwistle (05:38):

Yeah, absolutely.

Courtney Mattern (05:39):

Raise your hand. Yeah.

Charley Burtwistle (05:40):

So, that’ll be good. You’ll have to tune in week after week to see what changes after our fearless leader Courtneyleaves. Or if the ship just all burns down to the ground. Who knows?

Courtney Mattern (05:49):

No, thank you. All of our listeners, do me a solid rate, review and subscribe.

Charley Burtwistle (05:55):

Love it.

Courtney Mattern (05:55):

Follow us on Instagram, on TikTok. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for making this job in the last six years of my life the best. I’m so grateful.

Charley Burtwistle (06:06):

Love it. That will do it for our announcement.

Courtney Mattern (06:09):

Yeah. We …

Charley Burtwistle (06:10):

Stay tuned for your regularly scheduled program.

Courtney Mattern (06:14):

Yeah, let’s get into the last episode.

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Courtney Mattern (00:05):

Hey everyone, what’s up? Welcome to “The Building Code.” I’m your host, Courtney Mattern. I am sadly reporting that Charley isn’t here with me today, which is a real bummer because we get to nerd out about artificial intelligence. AI is a topic that everyone in the industry is talking about. If you’re on LinkedIn, if you’re on Instagram, I mean you are hearing about AI, whether it’s ChatGPT or other tools. Joining me today is Alex Martinez-Villarroel. She is an HR consultant and she’s helped work on a tool that uses AI to help construction companies with their HR practices. So, imagine a tool or a bot that can provide 24/7 assistance when you have a question about your company’s HR policies. Hey, what’s the OSHA regulation about X, Y and Z? What’s our leave policy? Oh, these boxes are sitting in the doorway. How far should I move them?

(01:03):

Then you don’t have to bother anyone. All of your information and your HR policies are there and easily and readily available. So, I’m really excited to nerd out today about AI and HR practices because as you know, I’ve got a lot of stats. Our listeners know I love some stats. The construction industry remains one of the most hazardous sectors in the U.S. In 2021 alone, it accounted for 21% of all worker fatalities. So, being up to date on safety practices and having your HR information accessible to your teams, not only can have an impact on your business, but it can also have an impact on your workers’ wellbeing. So, without further ado, let’s get Alex in here. Hi Alex. Welcome to “The Building Code.” How’s it going? How are you today?

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (01:54):

Very good, Courtney. Very good, in a sunny day in California.

Courtney Mattern (01:58):

Sunny day here in Omaha, too. It’s got us all looking alive. Well, thanks so much for coming on “The Building Code,” Alex, it’s a pleasure to have you. We were just talking before we got started on our recording that you celebrated International Women’s Day yesterday. Tell us a little bit about how you celebrated.

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (02:16):

Yes, we celebrated on Saturday with the Women in Construction, so I was very inspired to hear and see so many women running companies and tools and crews of 20, 30, 100 employees. So, very much in tune with the conversation today.

Courtney Mattern (02:36):

That’s amazing. Yes, hats off to all the women working in construction. I just got back from the International Builders’ Show where I got to speak on a panel with women business owners, and they’re definitely aspiring every day to see how they’re running businesses and being successful. But let’s talk about you, Alex. Let’s talk about your career. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background and your connection with HR services and the construction industry?

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (03:02):

Yeah. Well, I have 25 years of NHR. I started in Chile working for a mining company, Kinross Gold and Bema Gold. It was a mine, about 16 feet of altitude in the mountains. So, we work seven by seven and the same company brought me to the U.S. to help them here. So, that was … I started twenty-something years ago.

Courtney Mattern (03:31):

Wow. Yeah, the construction industry is a pretty hazardous industry itself. Can you tell us what kind of brought you and attracted you to helping construction companies with HR practices?

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (03:44):

Yes, Courtney, in my experience, I start seeing the same patterns and business owner, normally they were saying why this has happened to us, but as I grew, I worked for a corporation and majority of our clients, I handle about a hundred clients – all in construction. I start seeing patterns. And those patterns are that, for example, your supervisor, it’s normally someone who is very skillful. He can know many things about building code, but handling employees, normally it was the biggest liability for business owners because they don’t always give the right answer to someone, and I will see litigations coming to the business owner. So, that is what helped me to create this HR tool to help those type of gaps that I see.

Courtney Mattern (04:46):

Yeah. Tell us a little bit about your business. How long have you been running AMV Business Solutions?

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (04:53):

So, I work with a corporation and in 2023, I started on my own. So I …

Courtney Mattern (04:53):

Congratulations.

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (05:01):

I started to be my own boss. In January, I took training with the Stanford, launching my startup where I met my instructor. And then with him we created this human resources AI agent to help mostly companies in construction. So, it was having a GPS for a supervisor that don’t know what to do with an employee, said, “Hey, I need to go, I need to leave. My wife is sick.” And instead of saying the wrong thing, at least they can make decisions with the knowledge of the state where they’re working at.

Courtney Mattern (05:37):

That’s amazing. I know AI and artificial intelligence is a big topic. I think everyone’s ears probably … For everyone who’s listening, it’s perked up. Can you talk a little bit about how you’re using AI, how your tool combines AI with human intelligence to make the HR side of business easier?

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (05:57):

Yeah, absolutely. So our tool is just we can build it with all … It’s a proprietary artificial intelligence, which means that each company will have their own artificial intelligence. So, the different between ChatGPT, that is an OpenAI. We can build this tool for your corporation, for example, and include your handbook, your injury and illness prevention program, your safety, your union books. If you have one or two union and that all that knowledge base, it can come out as a text message. So, instead of just texting me, you’re texting a bot that is replying with the right answer based on all this hundreds of pages of documentation that normally supervisors don’t have it on hand. Not only that, but from the same tool, you can scale it to a professional if you have a complex situation. Like somebody on a leave of absence but also has a protective … Had that workers’ compensation claim or has something else, then you can scale that question to a professional behind the tool.

Courtney Mattern (07:10):

In your experience in the construction companies that you’re working with, do you find that they often have small HR teams? I know a lot of the business owners that I talk to in construction, they might have one person on their team and to your point, everything that you’re saying that the bot can help with, that seems like multiple people’s jobs. Are your clients faced with the smaller HR teams?

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (07:33):

Yeah. So, normally my clients, even between 50 and 200, they might have one admin person and sometimes it’s the owner’s wife, right? That they run payroll, doing voices and kind of run an office, but not necessarily they have the bandwidth to support the supervisors, the hours. Sometimes they work Monday to Friday and in construction you might need to work at night if you are doing a commercial construction or you might need to work on a Saturday or on a Sunday. So, normally the HR companies, they do not work those days, but having a tool that is 24/7 that can answer a question and then you can get a professional as well. I think that is what the success of this artificial intelligence is. And I know it kind of scary for some people, but it’s the way the world is moving. But as well, if we’re using it the right way and we can build one that is proprietary and nobody else can see all your private information, I think it’s a great solution.

Courtney Mattern (08:47):

I love that you bring that up, Alex, because we use AI tools, even here a Buildertrend for things like creating content or writing content. And one of our biggest rules is that you cannot enter any proprietary data into something like a ChatGPT or a tool that we don’t own because it learns. So, talk about what are some of the benefits for the entire team in an organization to be using a tool that’s proprietary?

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (09:17):

Well, it’s exactly that. That all your information, it’s in your IP, so that means it’s only played by the organization. So, if you have your own safety rule, if you have your manuals, your handbook, your union books, anything, it can respond to a supervisor. For example, what is our policy and jury duty? Somebody has to do it. You can just text message and the tool will answer to you based on your documentation and based also on the knowledge base of the county or of the state where you’re working at.

Courtney Mattern (09:56):

I love that. Because I just think of all the little questions that probably pop up for a business owner or manager, PM on a job site, and they have to send an email to someone else and interrupt their work or interrupt their day from everything as simple as what’s our leave policy to what is OSHA’s rules on X, Y, and Z? They can ask someone who’s not human and not interrupt somebody’s workday to have to go fetch that information. You mentioned earlier, too, you said AI, it kind of sounds scary, but it’s the way the world is moving, and there’ve been AI tools from big or small that have been in utilization for the past few years.

(10:41):

I think everyone’s just getting used to it. And maybe for some business owners they’re thinking, why would I … That’s not the thing I’m worried about right now is managing my AI or figuring out AI to manage AR or to manage HR. Lots of acronyms, lots of letters. But what would you say is … What are they leaving on the table? What are business owners risking if they aren’t exploring an option like this? For a function like HR, which I feel like business owners, it’s not important until it’s important, until there’s an issue. So, what are the risks if they’re not taking proactive action?

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (11:21):

Well, the risk of not taking proactive action is how are you going to compete with bigger corporations that are already in construction using artificial intelligence? So, my tool is to help small to medium-sized compete with the biggest construction companies, and they can compete with their employees. And another way that I see that is impactful for my clients, it’s able to reduce their ex-mods when they’re shopping for workers’ comp insurance, which is the highest expense in every construction company, whether you are in a monopolistic state like Washington, Wyoming, North Dakota or Ohio. But if you are in any other state, that is just huge.

(12:18):

So, if your supervisor is able to have the safety rules on their phone because the same happened when we had smartphones. Not everybody wanted to have it, but now every single supervisor and employee has one. And the other liability for business owner is employees get advice on social media, right? Hey, if this happened, here is an attorney and you can sue your company. So, all those expenses that are coming, that could be reduced by having supervisors, superintendents, and people in management to manage better their safety, their employees, I think is a huge advantage.

Courtney Mattern (13:02):

Yeah. Being an early adopter for sure is always going to make sure that the cream rises to the top, that you’re beating out your competition. We saw that a lot with even our platform Buildertrend during the pandemic. A lot of businesses were sort of forced to make that leap because they needed to stay in contact with their clients virtually, and then all of a sudden, they started to see all the advantages afterward of making that move. How does your platform … Because rules like OSHA regulations and different guidelines by state evolve, how does your technology keep up with those changes and have the most up-to-date information?

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (13:45):

Well, in my passionate world, I’m the co-chair of the Employer Advisory Council. I’m also the public policy director for the National Association for Women Business Owner. So, I get to see all this regulation coming up. I mean, we work towards defending business owner and employers, especially business in the trades, right? When we see raising on gas pricing, right? How we will affect small to medium-sized business, kind of that is my lens. So, that is how we keep track of all the regulations that are happening. Also at AMV Business Solution, part of this groups that we have at our board, we have several attorneys, so we get an easy update in what is coming. And that’s kind of my lens and my mission is to help business owners to compete to stay in business and to thrive.

Courtney Mattern (14:52):

Yeah. So, working with an expert who’s building a tool that helps you not have to think so hard, it sounds like a win-win. Tell me about … If listeners want to start using your tool, what’s the best way to get them started? I think for a lot of us, it can be kind of overwhelming now that there are so many … Everything is insert blank plus AI, how do they get started?

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (15:18):

So, I think that … Well, for us, I mean I would appreciate anyone who is listening today if you are in construction and if you are working with employees is to contact AMV Business Solution through our website or to me on LinkedIn, Alexandra M. Villarroel, and give me your feedback. What are the things that you feel that they’re important? Because as we are building technology for construction, it’s always great to have feedback. I get a lot of feedback from the employees, the employers, the business owner that I work with. But it’s always a good thing if you are in Nebraska, if you are working in Sioux City or anywhere around to see what is the usage of this tool as we are continue building it.

(16:16):

So, first it’s just, get in touch with us and our website. I think it’s going to be published and if you are looking, here is my QR code where it’s all our information. And understand that you have been using artificial intelligence for the past 10, 15 years. When you look in search and Google, right? How to do something, and then you start receiving emails into what you’re asking. You’re asking for a certain tool, and then you get all these emails it’s because the artificial intelligence was already in place. What we’re doing now is transferring artificial intelligence for non-technical people and for all industries.

Courtney Mattern (17:07):

I love that. Tell us about one of your biggest success stories. Do you have a client that had a particularly successful use case?

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (17:16):

Yeah, actually it’s a manufacturing company. It’s a manufacturing company that is utilizing the tool and the biggest … They bought it when they went through a lawsuit, and they had to pay $120,000.

Courtney Mattern (17:31):

Whoa, woof. That’s a lot of money.

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (17:33):

And that is only fees. We have to count the attorney fees, and we have to count the employee attorney fees that the court required them to pay, right? So, when you have to spend that much amount of money into a mistake that a supervisor did, something that was not intentional, then having this tool and helping supervisors to make knowledgeable decisions, right? Like, okay, if I’m going to set up this kind of team or if I have this injury, what do I have to do? And have a tool that tell you from A to Z what you have to do, it’s kind of a win situation. A win-win situation.

Courtney Mattern (18:18):

Yeah. Wow. Can you imagine, too, it’d be so much better to get in a spot where you’ve taken proactive steps to prevent a lawsuit instead of learning your lesson? I always tell people, life is too short to make all the mistakes, so learn from other people, so that you don’t have to make them twice. Alex, what else do you think people should know about just AI tools in general, if they’re feeling nervous about incorporating them into their business? I know you mentioned we’ve seen the output of AI or artificial intelligence. It’s just never been mass marketed in this way. So, what would you highlight as the what not to be afraid of?

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (19:05):

Well, artificial intelligence, one, has been there for a long time. Second, it’s a need right now to have agile businesses, right? So, as the agile business is the one that is going to be successful in the future too, which means that you need answers right away. Sometimes even if you have a union agreement, right? You have 300 pages of a union agreement. When somebody asks you, “Hey, my mom’s sick.” Do you have the bandwidth to expand from a supervisor, even if it’s 30, 40 minutes just looking through pages into something, when you have the agile way now to do business that it’s instant or in a second you can have a letter or you can have the tool that is going to help you to get to the next level? So, if you are afraid of artificial intelligence and use in construction, right? So, please reach out to us, and we will make sure that you tried our tool, that you can understand that this is not something as scary, especially when the tools are being built proprietarily to the company means they’re closed. Nobody else can see what you have in there.

Courtney Mattern (20:32):

That’s incredible. Yeah, I love protecting your privacy and your company’s information. As we wrap up our conversation about HR and AI, I’m wondering with all of your knowledge of the construction industry and hurdles that you’ve seen business owners face in connection to human resources, what’s the one pressing problem that you’re hoping that this tool can solve for construction professionals? What is the one thing? Is it managing problem team members, preventing lawsuits? Is it OSHA? What’s the one thing you’re seeing so much of that you hope will just poof, be solved because of this tool in a few years?

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (21:18):

Yes, thanks for asking. So, I feel that in the construction industry, safety and managing employees is huge, and the inconsistency, right? Because you have a deadline. In every construction and every business in the trade, your deadlines are so tight and the stress is so high that having your business being agile, I think that is one of the biggest challenges for business owner. Also, you have to account that when you are having more injuries or you are not supervising, or you’re not doing your safety trainings, right? Your 10-minute trainings. What is happening is the increase in workers’ compensation claims it affect your bottom line when you are dealing with ex mods and calculation, that is like your credit report, right? You have three years, three years, and three years, nine months that you have to account for those injuries, right? So, managing employees correctly and prevent injuries from happening is the way to go, and what better way to go that with artificial intelligence that is quick, fast, easy for a supervisor to manage three, four crews or sometimes crews that are in different sectors, too, right?

Courtney Mattern (22:49):

Yeah, I love how you bring up safety and if Charley was here, he would make fun of me. Because I always love stats, but I have some in front of me. In 2001, the construction industry accounted for 21% of all worker fatalities with almost over a thousand deaths on record. A significant portion of these fatalities, almost 40% resulted from falls, slips, trips. Yeah, there’s a real human impact there. But to your point, too, there’s a business impact that comes with costs that last for years. And AI kind of gives business owners this ability to enhance the safety of the entire industry without lifting a finger and saving time. So, it’s less of an investment of time. So thanks for highlighting the safety of workers. I really appreciate that insight.

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (23:46):

Yes, absolutely. And also because supervisors not necessarily know everything, but they are the best at building a wall or electricians or the best at what they do. They have the skills, but then managing employees and caring for other people’s safety, it’s what these tools are all about, right? It’s to give the quick answer and have the supervisor agile being able to respond trained, or if they see something like boxes in an exit, right? Then immediately they can ask on a text message, “What is the distance between the door and these boxes that are blocking?” So, in a second can give instruction to someone that they only have eight hours, eight hours of work. And our people in construction, they get up at 5:30 in the morning, right? So, having this agile decision-making and making the right decision, saving people’s … preventing an injury, saving the bottom line of business owner and saving the company from massive litigation.

Courtney Mattern (25:03):

Yeah. And giving them more time to do what they do best, which is building homes. Like all business owners, they get started in a field where they love and all of a sudden they’re like, “I’ve got to do marketing. I’ve got to do accounting, and I have to make sure everybody is healthy and safe.” I love the aspect, too, of preventing human error in using an AI tool because I know it’s very easy if you have a huge handbook or guidelines or rules, even as a human to get them memorized incorrectly. You ask someone, they repeat the rule incorrectly, and so it’s a little more foolproof all around.

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (25:38):

Exactly. Even now, right? We have OSHA inspection, we have USCIS inspection, we have ICE inspection. So, do the owners know what their rights are? I have seen it here. I have two clients with those inspections, and they did not know what to do. They froze, right? So, one is you have three days if USCIS come and when I inspect your I-9s for example. Or if OSHA show up on your door, you have the right to say, “Hey, we need to have our safety consultant here before we do anything.” That give you some time to make sure that everything is correct and avoid to having big fees. So, sometimes having a tool that help you navigate in your business, and it’s just what a business owner could have.

(26:32):

Not only that, I also have the consulting side of human resources. So, when I also work with business owner on a retainer, and then when they have … I help them create their IIPP, their handbook, their safety rules, anything that they need as a foundation and then from there, they can just purchase the HR Samurai and continue their work. So, I’m always helping them building foundation, I think that is essential.

Courtney Mattern (27:05):

Yeah. With my background in crisis communications and public relations, any sort of planning that you have in place like a handbook or a crisis plan makes it easier to deal with unexpected situations, right? You’ve got inspectors coming in or someone asking questions and being able to know your rights helps you have something that you can refer back to and make a sound decision in that time. And then it’s one thing to ask Google or have to go to a physical handbook and search and hope you’re finding the right, but it’s so much easier to just be able to talk to an AI tool like a person and get an answer more immediately, so that you can have a quick response when those issues come up, and you can act quickly. Save time, reduce the risk to your business, and just make sure that you’re following your policies correctly.

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (27:55):

Yeah, absolutely. So, I think those are the biggest highlight on artificial intelligence, HR and safety. We also help employers with providing the documentations. I mean, the IIPP, creating it for them, the emergency preparedness, the violence at the workplace. What do you do when that happen, right? Sometimes there are instant things that happen, and you have to be prepared.

Courtney Mattern (28:25):

Yeah. Well, thank you, Alex. I have so enjoyed talking to you. I’m sure it’s getting a lot of our listeners, their gears turning about how can they be more proactive. And if my co-host Charley was here today, he’d say, “Focus on the one thing.” If there’s something in this episode that jumped out at you where you feel like your business could be doing better, there’s something you’re like, yeah, I’m spending a lot of time trying to review these regulations. This could be an option. It’s good to get ahead of it and take one small step toward making your business even more efficient. But Alex, it was such a pleasure. Thank you so much for coming on “The Building Code.” It was great to talk to you.

Alex Martinez-Villarroel (29:05):

Oh, thank you so much, Courtney, and looking forward to continue our conversations.

Courtney Mattern (29:10):

What a great conversation I just had with Alex, founder of AMV Business Solutions about AI tools for HR, and specifically how they can be used by construction professionals. I wish I could do a live poll of all of our listeners, but that’s not how podcast listens. But I am really interested for all you listeners out there, how are you using AI tools in your business and have you considered using AI for something other than just writing an email? I think Alex had a lot of really valuable tips on why using a bot, particularly one that is proprietary where it’s built privately, and it’s not sharing your information or learning from your company and what your inputs are. And she showed the value of the time that it can save and how it can be hyper-focused on different areas of your business that might not necessarily be your strength or your strong suit.

(30:07):

If you’re out building homes, like your first priority is meeting client expectations, but how do you keep your workers safe? So, maybe hit us up on “The Building Code’s,” Instagram or TikTok, or in our inbox at podcast@buildertrend.com. Let us know how you’re using AI. I feel like this series or this episode could be a whole series on the very specific ways in which you can integrate artificial intelligence into your business so that you can work smarter, not harder, and like all Buildertrend users, all the greats out there, stay ahead of the curve and make sure that you are ahead of your competition. So, we’d love to hear from you. Thanks so much for tuning in today’s episode. Make sure that you @Charley on social and tell him how much missed him. Not cool, Charley. Would’ve loved to have you on this conversation about AI. I know he’d have a lot of things to say. So, rate, review and subscribe, and until next time, I’m Courtney Mattern.