Fresh off new grants from DOST and Accenture, Mindanao-based AI construction startup AIMHI faces 2023 with big plans

Mentioning the construction industry often conjures images of an old boys’ club rigidly set in its ways and inflexible to any sort of change.

Tagum City-based startup Artificial Intelligence Meets Human Intelligence (AIMHI), however, seeks to inject new life into the construction industry.

AIMHI is a construction profit management company employing AI to solve long-standing problems in construction projects, such as delayed completion, over-budgeting, and falling below the profit margin. It is a product of the ISKO Business Incubation Program of UPGRADE, a TBI (Technology Business Incubator) based in Davao City whose aim is to build impact-driven, profitable, and scalable startups.

AIMHI is also notably women-led, having been co-founded by Cherryanne Lee Angoy, a Tagumenya with nearly two decades of experience in the US tech industry and the owner of a construction company; Monica Llamas-Turrecha, a Dabawenya residing in Australia with over ten years of experience in the Information Technology industry with a major focus on system analysis & design, digital architecture and UX; and fellow Dabawenya Atty. Ma. Janice Tejano, an intellectual property attorney and a Certified Data Protection Officer.

Recently, AIMHI secured a combined P4.3 million financial grant from the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD) and Accenture. P3.8 million came from DOST-PCIEERD while the balance came from Accenture.

With a new round of grants under its belt, AIMHI’s strategic plan for 2023 will not only further its research and development but also seek client feedback to build even better solutions.

Currently, AIMHI is developing a forecasting and risk analysis tool using AI that helps

address the problem of over budgeting and scheduling. The startup is also looking into creating a feature that provides insights and recommendations around what certain actions (such as adding manpower and heavy equipment) might increase or decrease the risk of finishing the project on time and within the budget.

“We are very thankful and excited because papunta pa lang tayo sa (we are just headed to) exciting part, our implementation is about to start,” said co-founder Cherryanne Lee Angoy.

Overcoming frustrations and slow tech adoption

Of course, AIMHI wouldn’t be where it is today if it wasn’t able to overcome challenges. In fact, AIMHI applied for grants with the DOST twice already—and was rejected both times.

“Being rejected was such a humbling experience! But we learned so much from DOST’s feedback and got so much guidance from our incubator, UPGRADE (UP Mindanao’s technology incubator),” shared Angoy. “But thanks to the PCIEERD team’s feedback we were able to do things like launch our minimum viable product (MVP) sooner, receive a bridge funding Grant from UPSCALE in partnership with UPERDFI & ACCENTURE, and form an important partnership with The Philippine Construction Association. We didn’t let our initial frustration get the best of us.”

According to Angoy, another challenge was the conservative nature of the construction industry and its reluctance to adopt new technology. Though there are innovations already currently changing the construction field, Angoy explains that most of them are geared toward how projects are designed and not necessarily how they are executed.

In contrast, AIMHI helps contractors make better decisions at an earlier stage of the project to reduce cost, minimize risk and increase profit. Unlike traditional project management solutions, AIMHI doesn’t just provide dashboards, reports, and ways to organize data—it also created a proactive recommender system that provides contractors with suggested next steps to take to prevent delays and over-budgeting, ultimately increasing profit margin. The system provides the user with early insights on what resources (manpower, equipment, and materials) are needed for the specific scope of work.

There are a number of things AIMHI has done to help potential clients understand just what it does and ease the adoption of its technology. First, AIMHI consulted different stakeholders, including contractors, engineers, architects, etc. even before it began developing its MVP. These consultations looked to ensure AIMHI’s platform was user-friendly. After the MVP was developed, AIMHI conducted focus group discussions with different groups of individuals that work in construction firms to get another round of feedback.

In addition, AIMHI forged strategic partnerships with different construction groups to help the startup gain reach and awareness. During client demos, the AIMHI team is careful to avoid complex jargon. Instead, the focus is on the startup’s successful use cases: helping clients monitor resource consumption, minimizing over-ordering of materials, streamlining sharing of site data, and more.

Happy clients

One of AIMHI’s most successful use cases is a AAA construction company (meaning contractors with a financial capacity of Minimum Net Worth/Equity of P180,000,000). Although they have only been using AIMHI’s solution for 2.5 months, the solution has already allowed them to monitor their projects better, including detailed project activities and critical resources such as fuel, equipment usage, and other materials.

The client specifically uses AIMHI’s Next Best Activity Recommender system to reduce over-ordering of materials by their site engineers and cut down on cost overrun. Cost overruns are a significant problem especially when site engineers manage multiple projects, as they tend to overlook the cost of material orders vs. budget.

Additionally, the system gives engineers a handy one-stop shop to easily upload site data such as their site visit checklist, photos, equipment, and fuel consumption. Project department heads can then download this data immediately and use it to analyze whether specific projects need to improve the achievements of their site or adjust project expenses.

Generating local job opportunities and inspiring tomorrow

Aside from being a woman-led AI startup in a traditionally male-dominated industry, AIMHI is also notably the only Mindanao-based startup approved of the DOST-PCIEERD grant. This comes at a time when even the startup ecosystem in major cities like Davao City faces stiff competition from other local cities.

With two proud Dabawenyas and a Tagumenya at its helm, AIMHI is proud to generate job opportunities in Mindanao. Generating local jobs was even a goal AIMHI’s founders had in mind after working abroad for several years.  “Many of our kababayans (countrymen) from the province believe the grass is greener abroad, and I agree. But it will always be greener on that side if we don’t do something about it,” Angoy expressed.

AIMHI is happy to invite people to work with them. “We have many vacant positions with our DOST project, and I am inviting IT professionals and data scientists out there to join us,” Angoy said.

With the Philippines’ construction output expected to reach about PHP 21 million by 2027, the AIMHI team will certainly have their work cut out for them.

Aside from generating local job opportunities, the AIMHI team also looks forward to serving as an inspiration to women in both the construction and IT field. “We want our example to show that we can achieve anything we put our minds to,” expressed Angoy.

Ultimately, 2023 looks to be a pivotal year for AIMHI. With the startup gearing up to use its recent grants to innovate even further, expect AIMHI to make its mark on the construction industry very soon.