Blake: Kojo successfully targets practical construction supply chain workflows
Graham Blake · Why Construction still Runs on Spreadsheets (And How AI Fixes It) | Sneha & Graham, Merlin AI · Apr 9, 2026 · at 32:26
Graham Blake, CPO of Merlin AI, discusses vertical construction software companies that are effectively solving operational bottlenecks.
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“So the ones that the ones that excite me, I would just say, you know, like, I, you know, Kojo, I think is a good example. People that are you know, are active in the supply chain side who are thinking about how the work actually gets done, how to enable that process, you know, and take out some of the ridiculousness of that.”
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More from Graham Blake
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“Procore without doubt has finally broken through a level of, you know, digitization of a section, but at the same time, what it's done is actually crystallized and cemented and locked in and embedded, you know, the existing behavior.”
Blake: AI is the only technology capable of coordinating complex construction project data
“The volume of data required to coordinate all those things from the light fixtures to every other aspect of the project. There's so much volume and complexity and dependency there. And quite frankly, you know, AI is the only thing that can solve for that.”
Blake: Construction tech stalls from operational contradictions, not adoption resistance
“I think that's, it's no longer an adoption challenge. It's not an objection. It just there's some contradiction in, in the way these businesses operate today. That means they need to adjust to really get the benefit.”
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“This production layer and in the sector, regardless of asset class is where the pain lives, like subcontracting trade contractors, they own the pain. It's thin margin, high risk, everything flows downhill to them.”
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“No one's there yet, but this step towards true, agentic, you know, proactive orchestration that has to be next, right?”
Blake: Construction tech expands via project networks exposing 10x more users
“Network is the, is one of the very positive things about our sector. You know, the pervasiveness of having one customer and that customer touches 10 or 50 projects a year and every one of those projects, you know, ultimately incorporates or includes another Yo…”