AggNexus Conference shows the value of optimal data interpretation

The premier AggNexus Digital Innovation Conference drew upward of 100 representatives of independent or multinational concrete, cement, aggregate and asphalt producers, along with their software and hardware partners. Staged last month on the University of Texas, Austin campus, it demonstrated how the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence models, coupled with data capture or analytics methods, are transforming construction material producer field, plant or back-office operations.

“Buying or Creating Your Software?” panelists, from left: Concrete.ai CEO Alex Hall, Luck Stone Senior IT Director Logan Pickels, Burgex Mining Consultants Co-Founder Stuart Burgess, Go Build 360 COO Adele Warren, and Aggregates Business International Editor Guy Woodford (moderator).

AggNexus organizers mustered 10 software or service overview presentations and three panel discussions from a diverse pool of producers and current or prospective technology partners—most inclined to open applications that can be readily integrated into user-tailored suites, narrow to broad. The opening panel, “Buying Or Creating Your Software?,” offered these takeaways:

  • Difficulties of finding good software developers, shorter programming schedules, and overall programming costs favor construction materials producers turning to specialized off the shelf or market solutions.
  • Producers with the right team and committed leadership can develop software in house and realize a unique strategic advantage.
  • Programmers must understand what construction materials producers’ customers need.  
  • Engagement and onboarding of staff or manager users is important. Training packages typically accompanying software deployments prepare users to best leverage data.
“Challenges and Opportunities in Digitalization for the Industry” panelists, from left: Big Town Concrete CEO Richard Szecsy, New Enterprise Stone & Lime Director, IT James Rokosky, Check Proof CEO Hakan Holmgren, Aggregates Business International Editor Guy Woodford (moderator), Eltirus CEO Steve Franklin, and EveryPoint CEO David Boardman.

Perspectives from a second panel, “Challenges and Opportunities in Digitalization for the Industry,” included:

  • First movers in new software offerings tend to enjoy a competitive advantage, although often for a limited window. They can also find themselves contributing to a knowledge base or artificial intelligence model benefitting peers and competitors. 
  • Users need to target fundamental, clean data captured from all existing and new platforms.
  • Summing up the age of digitalization in construction materials, panelist and Stockpile Reports platform developer David Boardman noted, “Data is truly the new oil. Capital expenditures for harvesting data will grow by an order of magnitude.”
“How Artificial Intelligence Will Influence The Industry” panelists, from left: UCLA Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering Mathieu Bauchy, Cobotiq CEO Jon Hill, Aggregates Business International Editor Guy Woodford (moderator), Knife River Construction Materials Vice President Jeremy Quinn, TAC Insight/
Fast-Weigh Product Lead Eric Wilhite, and Inform Software Logistics Division SVP Thomas Bergmans.

“How Artificial Intelligence Will Influence the Industry” rounded out the panel program, netting these insights:

  • AI has different uses and varying adoption timelines in cement, aggregates and concrete production. Cement companies are leading the way with AI-enabled predictive maintenance programs, which hold great potential given their plants’ complexity.
  • AI developers for aggregates operators need to embrace the process-driven nature of crushed stone, sand and gravel production.
  • AI applications in concrete production are emerging for quality control, mix design optimization, plant equipment monitoring and fleet dispatching.
  • AI models are of limited value without tight controls around data. 

Specialty software developer Price Bee and founder Barry Hudson organized AggNexus with peers and construction materials media allies. Joining him as vendor participants from North America were Burgex Mining Consultants/Mineralogy Aggregates, Concrete.ai, EveryPoint/Stockpile Reports, Inform Software, and TAC Insight/Fast-Weigh. Rounding out vendor participants were CheckProof of Sweden, Eltirus of Australia, and GoBuild360 of South Africa. Semco Publishing, Denver parent company of Concrete Products, Cement Products and Rock Products, along with U.K.-based Route One Publishing Ltd. and its Aggregates Business International title, teamed with On the Rocks Digital, a marketing and web design specialist to present AggNexus. 

Planning is underway on a follow up conference in 2025.