AI in Construction & Engineering - Examples from the Field

Josh leads Oracle’s Construction & Engineering Intelligence product and oversees the AI and Analytics strategy for the Oracle Construction & Engineering industry unit. He joined Oracle in November 2022 through its acquisition of Newmetrix, an AI-powered safety risk analytics software provider he founded and served as CEO. At Newmetrix, Josh pioneered the use of predictive analytics to identify leading indicators of risk, including models that could predict which 20% of projects would account for 80% of safety risks in the coming week.

Prior to Newmetrix he was co-founder of Vela Systems, a pioneer in the use of web and tablet workflows for construction and capital projects. Vela Systems grew from bootstrapped beginnings to include over 50% of the ENR Top Contractors as customers and deployments all over the globe. The company was successfully acquired by Autodesk in 2012 and has been rebranded as BIM 360 Field. Prior to founding Vela Systems, Josh was responsible for product management and strategy at Emptoris (now part of IBM), a web-based strategic sourcing software company with customers including Motorola, GlaxoSmithKline, Bank of America, and American Express. Kanner graduated from Brown University and earned an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He still gets excited to put on a hard hat and walk a job.