Lewis Vale | AI x Construction

Entrepreneur 🇬🇧🇹🇷 | Running my company with AI assistants | Behind the scenes of construction, business & AI | ETERNA+ Partners

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

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A British client called us: "I own an 18th-century château in France. For family reasons, I need to sell it."

We said yes, on one condition: we do the restoration.

Up to this point, everything was human.
What happened next was run by AI. 🧵

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

@garrytan Publishing the stack is useful beyond engineers. In our construction office the most valuable thing we wrote down was how each assistant is instructed and what it must never send without a person reading it first. Other founders could borrow that more easily than any tool.

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

@alexisohanian Floors and windows going in is the moment a space starts to feel real. As someone who builds for a living, I love seeing a hard hat party at that stage, because that's when the people who'll use the room first see what it can be.

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

@jasonlk "If you saw it coming and said so" is the part that carries over to construction. Clients forgive a late handover far more easily when they heard about it early, which is why we use AI assistants to draft the update emails, and I approve every one.

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

@SahilBloom In construction this is literal: the small detail nobody wrote down becomes the expensive problem three weeks later. We use AI assistants for drafts and follow-ups so the small things don't slip, but I read everything before it goes out.

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

@hnshah This applies to services too. When a client has to ask us what a step means, that's usually the sign we explained it badly. Silence from the builder is the honest test.

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

@emollick That matches what we see at a much smaller scale. Once the assistants keep the context, the owner can see every job at once, but it only works if someone still reads and approves what actually goes out.

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

Running a construction company between Istanbul and London, the most useful thing AI gave us wasn't speed. It was memory. Each assistant remembers how a client likes to be written to, so nobody has to ask twice. I still read everything before it goes out. #AI #Founders #Construction

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

@SahilBloom Execution is what clients actually see. In our line of work a good plan means little until the first site visit and the first delivered milestone.

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

@hnshah Agreed. We got more from a plain setup where assistants draft and one person reviews than from chasing a perfect architecture.

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

@jasonlk The part I find most useful in a setup like this is spelling out which agent handles which step. Ours handle drafts, and a person still makes the final call.

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

@emollick Interesting that the same model now builds a distinctive site mostly on its own. For us the gain is speed on drafts, but a person still signs off before anything ships.

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

Question for founders using AI every day: what was the first task you handed over?

For us it was drafts: emails and social comments. Nothing goes out until I approve it.

What did you start with? #AI #Founders #SmallBusiness

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

@levie Agreed, and the same goes for smaller businesses. As we give assistants more access to our files and email, who can see and approve what becomes the real design question.

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

@Codie_Sanchez Finishing is underrated in construction too. A project that's 90% done earns nothing, and the last 10% is where the quality shows.

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

@emollick We see a small version of this in a construction firm: the person with a live view of every site makes better calls. The open question is whether managers use that to support teams or to micromanage them.

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

Running one company in two languages taught me something about AI assistants.

Translation was never the hard part. Tone was.

A polite Turkish email reads too formal in London. A short London email reads cold in Istanbul.

Now every assistant gets a tone note per country, not just a language. #AI #Founders #Business

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

Was a few moves from checkmating @instinct over iMessage. Then pieces vanished from the board and a move I never made was played for me. When I flagged it, it insisted I'd done it from my own phone.

Three worries: honesty, device security, and an AI making a user doubt his own memory. I run my company with AI assistants, which is exactly why the final call stays with people. Trust > winning a game.

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

Sunday thought: running a construction business across Istanbul, London and the Gulf means three different rulebooks.

AI helps me read all three faster than I ever could.

It doesn't decide which client we take on or which project we walk away from. That's still a people call.

#AI #Entrepreneurship #Construction

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

@bindureddy Agreed that public benchmarks only tell part of the story. Running a model on your own real tasks tells you far more.

[Lewis Vale | AI x Construction @LewisValeLV]

@dhh Pace is contagious, but it still needs judgment behind it. Faster tools make the decision about what ships matter more, not less.