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India's construction sector is undergoing a digital transformation as builders increasingly adopt software, artificial intelligence, and data-driven tools to improve project management. While construction has traditionally relied on manual processes, the growing adoption of smartphones and cloud-based platforms is making it easier to manage projects, track progress, and reduce delays.
In this episode of the Analytics Insight Podcast, Iesh Dixit, Co-founder and CEO of PowerPlay, shares how the company is helping digitize construction sites across India. He discusses his entrepreneurial journey, the role of AI and predictive analytics, the future of digital twins and IoT, and how technology can support India's ambitious infrastructure goals.
Ans: My childhood was spent on construction sites. I was the site supervisor, and after graduation, I was pretty clear that I wanted to start a company. Given my background in construction, a little bit, I tried doing a few things, but by 2020, I was pretty clear that, okay, I'm going to build something in this industry. Since I knew that there was a problem around digitization and people not having all the data in one place, we started building software. The genesis of PowerPlay was that we had bulky software made for contractors' back offices. Then we were selling that product in the early days.
Now have more than a million users across platforms, all the site people using the product. The journey was really humbling because we had to solve for the real user at the site. So we had to solve problems that an office person might not come up with or might not ask you to solve.
Ans: The birth of phones and their adoption in the market was a real unlock that, in the last, I think, two decades, has changed significantly. I think one of the biggest reasons that, two decades ago, construction was really behind was this. The second reason is that the people who are, especially on construction sites, the people who are expected to use the product or digitize things are, right? We have to understand that it's not their main job.
It's like 10- 20% of their job. The remaining 80% of their job is the actual stuff where they have to get things done. So in my opinion, if you are getting in the way of the main job, then the site team or site folks won't be able to adopt the product. So they are responsible for making sure the vendorsarriveg on time.
Ans: To answer this question, one of the things that we need to understand isthatt the digitization of construction has enabled earlier, everything used to be in silos. I'm not talking about just small companies; even in bigger companies, the projects won't be frequently talking to, let's say, finance, except at milestones or when there's a dependency.
Now, when I say everything, I mean the baseline plan, whatever progress has happened, whatever material and labor were used in that progress, and whateverassets weres used in that progress. Everything needs to be linked together.
Ans: IoT is more about making sure the right data points are collected. I have a lot of opinions on digital twins because I've tried to build an AR (augmented reality) and a VR company before this. I know people really wanted to use the tech, but it wasn't there yet, right? It's just the same point: the bigger guys can bring it, and they can probably afford it.
The digital twin helps you understand so you can compare your progress with what is happening on the site. It can build a digital twin of that. Without even going to the site, you can get a feel for what's happening, okay.
Ans: Powerplay's mission is to enable the infrastructure India will need in the coming decade, and we need roughly 90 million homes over the next 10 years. That's not an easy feat to achieve. People have done it before. China has done it before. I definitely feel artificial intelligence is going to help.
Here's how I think it would help. So one is, see, a lot of new folks will get into this industry because there are not enough businesses solving this problem. I think a lot more people need to get into the industry and start building things.
To know more, listen to the full podcast.
