In this episode of Strong Conversations, Grace Mase—architect, contractor, technologist, and author of AI in Residential Construction—shares why artificial intelligence is no longer a future concept but a practical tool for today's builders. From rebuilding after the California wildfires to helping contractors bridge the technology gap, Grace explains how AI can reduce repetitive work, improve decision-making, and empower the construction industry to build smarter and more resilient communities.
In this episode:
00;01;46;07 - 00;02;04;57
Sam
And even, you know, in terms of AI, how you wrote this book and and wrote it faster than your other book. I mean, it comes into relevance. Yes. When we're talking about artificial intelligence. Right. So let's just, let's get you the street cred. Why are you the right person to write this book? What what have what experiences?
00;02;04;57 - 00;02;07;57
Sam
What brings you to say? I'm the person that needs to write this book.
00;02;08;02 - 00;02;39;27
Grace Mase
Well, I am a train architect. I am also NASA accredited general contractor for commercial and multi-state, remodel contractor. Licensed contractor. And I've been in tech space for 25 years. I develop software for from Yahoo to others reputable companies, public companies for, you know, applications as serving millions of people around the world. And I live in the world of both technology as well as our construction industry.
00;02;39;32 - 00;03;05;59
Grace Mase
And what I see the discrepancy between the two world is the world of technology tend to be very adaptive. They're taking the, you know, technology very quickly and they're leveraging an extraordinary speed. But, when I see the other side of our my world is a construction and we spend so much time focus on building. And reality is we do use power tools to amplify our strength.
00;03;06;04 - 00;03;30;29
Grace Mase
Right. And we use multiple power tools to do so and different trades to work on different scenarios. But in terms of technology, we tend to focus on one or limited you. And that's when I realize the the gap between the two is massive. And I want to find a way to bridge that gap. And knowing that most of the contractors not because they don't want to learn it, just simply they don't have time.
00;03;30;42 - 00;03;50;46
Grace Mase
They're exhausted by end of day. Yes. And and for them, the last time they study any kind of, you know, building materials or building signs was the time they were applying for or taking the license exam. Yeah. So how do we get that information to them quickly. And that's a that's a part was focus on gap reduce a gap of knowledge.
00;03;50;50 - 00;04;14;12
Grace Mase
And so I seem to be the right tool. They can get their information at their fingertips to customize to their needs. So they don't have to read a long blog to understand how is this application apply to their business? They can simply ask AI tool to understand what piece of it is applicable to them, and how would they implement it, and what will be the results.
00;04;14;12 - 00;04;53;24
Grace Mase
What's the expectation and continue to iterate? That's the part I got really excited. And for me, the genesis of all this, motivation really started with the fire in the Los Angeles last year, 2025. We had to evacuate. Unfortunately, we were safe with our house. Unfortunately, many of my friends houses were burned down. While I'm trying to help my friends rebuild their homes, I also realized many of the contractors are trying to do the same, but they're not thinking, what's the latest and greatest that I can help my clients to protect their homes so their homes can be built safer, more efficient and healthier?
00;04;53;26 - 00;05;24;51
Grace Mase
Yeah. They're just continue to build as what I know already. This is why been doing. They're comfortable doing that. And there's nothing wrong in other circumstances. But in cases like Los Angeles, the fire area, we had to rethink about how we rebuilt these buildings, homes. And so while I'm leveraging, I doing code changes and meeting with the official department, fire departments, building departments and planning departments, I'm usually the ones in there by myself asking these questions.
00;05;24;56 - 00;05;49;44
Grace Mase
I just thought, wow, the missing gap of knowledge is so evident. How do I and knowing the contractor, will, you know, develop the the strategy, get the plans, approve and then next thing to know as they're building some of the details, they will get rejected by an inspector. That's a waste of time and money. Right. And create massive frustration on everyone.
00;05;49;48 - 00;06;09;18
Grace Mase
So I thought, how about if I start writing a book and just break it down to the simple ways for people to learn to adopt? Taking one step at a time, even help them to understand security and then start looking at throughout the whole construction process where all the frictions associated each one. And how do we find a solution to help them, to support them?
00;06;09;28 - 00;06;30;22
Grace Mase
And there are tons of AI, great AI tools, and they're very specific solving those problems. And obviously their general AI tools, they help them to get to the knowledge so they can figure out how to take the next step. So that's why I decided to write the book, find for be able to help my peers. And the goal is if everyone start building homes more resiliently.
00;06;30;27 - 00;06;43;12
Grace Mase
And that means every upgrade would be more affordable and every community will be protected. And best part of all, this is every contractors will be empowered to thrive.
00;06;43;17 - 00;07;07;50
Sam
And it's it is available and things are out there. But how do you how do you sift through all the information to get to what you want? So bear with me on this because I did not go to Yale like you did. I did not go to Cal Berkeley like you did. So, quite frankly, you are quite, the right person to write this book, given your experience and your professional background as well as your education.
00;07;07;55 - 00;07;16;05
Sam
But there's another book. When I, when I, when I read this book, there's another book that comes to mind and it's going to make sense. But do you remember are you familiar with Where's Waldo?
00;07;16;10 - 00;07;16;58
Grace Mase
Yes. Of course.
00;07;16;58 - 00;07;38;25
Sam
Right. And you open up the book for Where's Waldo? And it's this massive scene of people and things and events, and your task, as the reader, is to find the one character that's the most important thing out of everything else. Everything else is just there. Yes. So when I, when I read this book and I read about what you're doing, it's like when you open up Where's Waldo?
00;07;38;29 - 00;07;54;46
Sam
And it was just wall. And if it would just be Waldo. Yeah. Sitting on the beach instead of this entire scene. And you go, there he is. Yes. I've now got to where I need to be and I can move forward. So for me that's what this kind of was. And that's where the folks that didn't go to Yale, they're looking at this going oh that makes sense to me.
00;07;55;00 - 00;08;10;15
Sam
It sifts through the stuff that's irrelevant for that particular person. And they can they'll have the tools to get to what they need so that they can be better at their job and they can build better and more resilient structures going forward at a much easier, timely way.
00;08;10;20 - 00;08;29;58
Grace Mase
Absolutely. That's exactly the purpose of the book. How do I sift through the sand to find the gold nuggets? So you can then find take the gold nugget and run with it and build your business on top of it. Not so much of figure out it just like what I found is I love IBS, but personally it's a lot, a lot.
00;08;30;03 - 00;09;04;57
Grace Mase
There's so many great companies here. And how do I sift through to figure it out? And I actually use AI to plan my days for IBS. I identify where my interests that and where my priorities and some in my current schedule, book signing, all of the great stuff and who are maybe interested to me that, well, I to learn more about their product and have a go through, break down the logic, read the floor plans, and then go through the exhibit hall and identify the speakers and map everything now and then give me a walk path.
00;09;05;02 - 00;09;27;36
Grace Mase
What I need to do, knowing that my only got three days and there's so many things to see and so many people I want to talk to and so many brands I want to learn, how do I get through those as well as mark that, automatically log that into my calendar and map out my schedule so I don't have to think I want to reduce my cognitive load to focus on things that matter is like connection, right?
00;09;27;37 - 00;09;41;26
Grace Mase
Talking to each other? Yes. Building relationships, learning new things. Those are things that matter to me. I certainly don't Joyce in there mapping out my schedule, looking at the plans. And I'll be, I'm sure, as good exercises I tend to do many times if.
00;09;41;26 - 00;09;43;36
Sam
You've already done, if you've done it once, you've done it 10,000.
00;09;43;36 - 00;09;49;34
Grace Mase
Right? And now I have an agent that will do that every year. I'll just use the same prompt. It will provide that for me.
00;09;49;45 - 00;10;10;06
Sam
So interesting. I'll share an experience that I have as well. I've been doing these podcasts for a number of years, and we tend to sit down at a big event and we record what we call in batches, right. So we have lots of guests come in, we sit down, we talk to them. You and I had a pre call get to know each other, understand why you wrote the book, how you wrote the book.
00;10;10;11 - 00;10;30;03
Sam
Find out that you're a Dodgers fan just like me again, more than qualified. One of the smartest people on the planet. Right there. Just alone with that fact. Take all the education out of it. In years past, you know, we're talking 25 episodes that I might be recording. I am writing every single question because I give you questions ahead of time.
00;10;30;03 - 00;10;41;41
Sam
I go, this is kind of what I'm thinking for the show, right? I take all the notes and I have to look at the notes. I have to make sure that the notes that I'm writing make sense, because sometimes they don't. Something comes up, you write something down, or I'll totally remember what that is later. And you don't write.
00;10;41;53 - 00;11;02;54
Sam
But I take all those notes, and then I have to sit there and I manually type all the questions. Right. It's an analog process. This year is the first year where I have sat down, and I will take bios that I find online of folks such as yourself. I'll take my notes and I will put them into an agent and say, give me some sample questions that I can at least approve it spits it out like that, right?
00;11;02;54 - 00;11;15;22
Sam
I take a look and go, I don't like that. That one's kind of redundant to that right there. But now I got 10 to 15 questions that I feel like I can start to generate a story with. Right. And then I send them to you in this case, right. And here we are.
00;11;15;24 - 00;11;16;12
Grace Mase
Right.
00;11;16;16 - 00;11;18;08
Sam
The process was so much faster.
00;11;18;08 - 00;11;19;06
Grace Mase
Yes.
00;11;19;11 - 00;11;38;38
Sam
The stress was so much lower because I knew, okay, if I'm getting an official, but I'm now, look, you do have to make sure that the bio is correct or you're pulling the right bio and all that stuff. I mean, there is work that still needs to be done, but my whole process, I mean, it brought down things that used to take weeks, takes days, things that take days, take hours that need to take hours, take minutes.
00;11;38;43 - 00;11;49;16
Sam
And if we utilize it the right way and that's just one. And I love what you said. The book find a problem. Find one problem that you're looking to solve. You're not going to solve everything right away, especially if you're just getting started.
00;11;49;20 - 00;11;49;45
Grace Mase
Right.
00;11;49;47 - 00;12;06;35
Sam
But find one problem to solve and then figure out the right sort of AI to use to solve that problem. And guess what? I'm not going back to the old way of doing it. As I go forward and we do more interviews, I'm going to use that same process or build upon that process to be even more efficient.
00;12;06;40 - 00;12;13;15
Sam
So it was one of those things where as I'm reading your book and I'm thinking about my own process, this is starting to make sense to me.
00;12;13;22 - 00;12;52;42
Grace Mase
Oh, good. Yes. I'm so excited to hear that. When I think about what we do, you know, 80% of the time we are actually focused on grunt work. Yep. May 20th percent time. That's why we focus on things that matter. Where there's personal, professional, actually move the needles. Imagine, just like your scenario. And I love that story is what if we flip that around and have the 80% to be meaningful, impactful work that we get to do and we love to do right, and then reduce that previous 80% grunt work down to 20% oversight?
00;12;52;47 - 00;13;05;17
Grace Mase
Yes. Still looking for accuracy. Still looking for a credible sources. And that becomes much more efficient. And then you start focusing on not being stressed. You actually emotionally in a better place to engage.
00;13;05;30 - 00;13;06;01
Sam
Yeah.
00;13;06;06 - 00;13;36;38
Grace Mase
And I think about when you talk about the celebration, it also really matters if you put things in perspective, like my generation Gen X, our we didn't born with computer, we didn't born with internet. Right. But we can't live without it anymore. The next generation is about smartphones and social media. And then now the new generation of Gen Z with the genetic AI and also will be down there with the aging, sorry, generative AI and genetic I.
00;13;36;39 - 00;14;01;42
Grace Mase
Yeah, right. It took 15 years for computer to reach 1 million users. It took ten years for internet to reach 1 million users, took 2.5 years for a smartphone to reach 1 million users. Facebook ten months. Instagram 2.5 months. ChatGPT five days.
00;14;01;42 - 00;14;06;35
Sam
Five days to hit that same benchmark of all those other ones.
00;14;06;35 - 00;14;13;43
Grace Mase
So knowing that technology is accelerating and these are things that we can't live without anymore, we can't imagine life. What was life?
00;14;13;43 - 00;14;14;40
Sam
It's like a utility.
00;14;14;51 - 00;14;34;15
Grace Mase
It's a it's a table saying, yeah, we have to know how to use it so we can adapt and get better. Us just human being, we continue to evolve and the tools that we use and continue to, you know, ladder up our education, our learning. And that's what all these tools are. I know there are certain thing people are afraid of AI, and rightfully so.
00;14;34;15 - 00;14;45;04
Grace Mase
Those are good questions to ask. But there are ways to resolve them. And we just need to be intentional how we use them and focus on how we can help each other to learn and get better at everything.
00;14;45;09 - 00;14;55;13
Sam
In the residential space, too. I mean, one of the examples you use in the book is we have hammers. We've had hammers forever and we're pounding nails, and at some point the pneumatic nailer came out.
00;14;55;13 - 00;14;56;13
Grace Mase
Yes.
00;14;56;18 - 00;15;02;40
Sam
What? We still have the person there using that tool. It's just a tool that allows us to be more efficient.
00;15;02;49 - 00;15;03;42
Grace Mase
Yes.
00;15;03;46 - 00;15;10;09
Sam
I very much should be looked at as an additional tool announcement on the process.
00;15;10;09 - 00;15;10;50
Grace Mase
Right.
00;15;10;54 - 00;15;20;59
Sam
It's not necessarily going to replace the people, but you said something that was pretty profound in the book is it's not going to replace people, it's going to replace people who don't use AI.
00;15;21;04 - 00;15;22;22
Grace Mase
Unfortunately.
00;15;22;27 - 00;15;35;24
Sam
And there's there's you talked about the gap within the residential space. There is a huge opportunity right now for people in the residential building space. Why is that? When it comes to AI and adoption.
00;15;35;29 - 00;15;55;53
Grace Mase
When you think about the general population, it's about 50% adoption using some sort of AI daily usage. But with US construction, residential construction, the recent study that was done by Nahb in July only showing 20%, and primarily in marketing and sales. The things that we haven't really dive into are what's in the field.
00;15;55;59 - 00;15;56;28
Sam
00;15;56;33 - 00;16;21;06
Grace Mase
And to me that's an enormous opportunity. Imagine even start from the whole entire process uploading the plans and specs to be identify some deficiencies and able to call out before the any breaking the ground. Yeah. That itself is going to save you so much time and so much money and headache. Right. Yeah. That pre-construction piece will make a huge difference on how a team actually operates.
00;16;21;13 - 00;16;46;15
Grace Mase
That becomes a collective collaboration. Focus on how do we solve problems together versus pointing fingers towards and who didn't do what. Right, right. That to me is a huge opportunity, huge right to understand the latest co compliance. Like or not, you need to get those inspections and or even the jobsite taking photos. Is this install correctly or even teaching the new employee apprenticeship of here's how you do things.
00;16;46;15 - 00;16;57;08
Grace Mase
Pull up a video to show how this could be done, how you fitting the pipes, all those things that we can be so much more efficient if we just bridge the gap of you know, the knowledge gap.
00;16;57;13 - 00;17;05;48
Sam
And it's and it's like you said in the book, the ones that do this now because it's not this is not the future state. This is now.
00;17;05;55 - 00;17;06;43
Grace Mase
This is now.
00;17;06;43 - 00;17;26;10
Sam
So the ones that do it now are ultimately going to be the ones that are the next generation and beyond, right. Going forward. Right. So from a business opportunity, it makes all the sense in the world to get on that train. The AI train now figure out why it works for your business, what will work for your business and grow from there.
00;17;26;14 - 00;18;00;55
Grace Mase
Absolutely. So when I mentioned about the the time to reach 1 million, that's proportion how much money you'll be making. Tim, if you're able to save, let's say 4 to 5 hours a week, that's like 150 to 200 hours a year. Yeah, right. Well, you, sir, multiply the time per person to your entire organization. The amount of new project you could do, existing projects that you can save and the productivity work, and also just general satisfaction within the team that they feel so much in power.
00;18;01;06 - 00;18;21;02
Grace Mase
And they can focus on things that truly matter to them instead of working on the grunt work. That's a game changer to me and for us. So doing writing in this book while the editing editor, seeing the editing, I realized from research that no one's really focused on how do we help to bridge a gap in financial peace to.
00;18;21;07 - 00;18;44;19
Grace Mase
And this is where I realized I could help, just like I was helping my friends who unfortunately was under-insured. They had to bridge the financial gap, and I started working on developing just a little bit of agent to figure things out and to help them to find all the grants and all the rebates, incentives for them to kind of figure out what can we do that's over $100,000 worth of incredible rebuild victims.
00;18;44;21 - 00;19;05;20
Grace Mase
Yeah, that most of them don't even know. Right? Imagine that. Just having a sense of release, a relief to know that I can make it happen and make it affordable for my client. And so I then, of course, I decided to bill and I up to really focus on that. And I realized this is not just for me.
00;19;05;25 - 00;19;15;01
Grace Mase
All of our my bill, our builders should do the same. So I build the app, make sure that not only can I talk to the talk, I want you to walk the walk, that I can build an AI app just like that.
00;19;15;06 - 00;19;25;38
Sam
She literally wrote the book on AI in residential construction. She built the app as well. Grace. Tell everybody where they can find the book, where they can find the app and just plug your pluggable. How can people get Ahold of you?
00;19;25;42 - 00;19;38;01
Grace Mase
Well so excited to be here. Thank you so much Sam, for being here. Just interview me. And you can actually find the book at the store. And you can also order online on Builder Books, dot com or.
00;19;38;02 - 00;19;38;27
Sam
The bookstore.
00;19;38;27 - 00;19;41;51
Grace Mase
And it's also available on Amazon and Barnes Noble as well. Beautiful.
00;19;41;57 - 00;20;00;42
Sam
Thank you so much for being here. And strong conversations. We really appreciate it. Really great conversation. Thank you for writing the book. Thank all of you for joining us here. We got more content coming soon. Remember just like it. Subscribe it. YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify Anywhere podcasts are found more strong conversations coming soon.
00;20;00;46 - 00;20;02;06
Grace Mase
Thank you, thank you.
00;20;02;11 - 00;20;02;38
Sam
It was awesome.
00;20;02;43 - 00;20;05;38
Grace Mase
That was crazy busy. That was so you. Me. So easy.