How to drive construction technology adoption in the field
Technology adoption in construction is slow because field teams must see real value before they buy in. Here's what separates rollouts that stick from software that gets ignored.
Adam Settino, Director of Solution Engineers at OpenSpace, spent roughly a decade leading virtual design and construction (VDC) initiatives for a general contractor in the Boston area before joining OpenSpace. In that role he researched products, ran pilots, and rolled promising tools out to the field. His core lesson: implementing technology is the easy part, and the real work is getting people to use it. As he puts it, "What you're really doing is selling it to the people in the field."
Settino breaks field teams into three groups: early adopters who will try anything, a middle group that adopts once value is proven, and holdouts who resist for months before admitting the tool works. The practical move is to start with early adopters, prove out the value, and let their results plant seeds with everyone else.
The deciding factor is whether the software solves a real pain point. Settino's advice is direct:
"Don't just roll out technology because it's something you should be doing." When a tool genuinely makes a field worker's job easier, adoption, value, and return on investment follow. He also shares why he moved from OpenSpace customer — as part of one of its first 25 customers and its first enterprise customer — to the OpenSpace team.
00:00 - Why Construction Technology Adoption Is Slow
00:40 - From OpenSpace Customer to the OpenSpace Team
01:09 - The Three Types of Tech Adopters on a Construction Team
01:46 - Focus on Pain Points, Not Features, to Drive Adoption
This video features Adam Settino, Director of Solution Engineers at OpenSpace, the Visual Intelligence Platform builders use to document and understand what's happening on the jobsite. Learn more at https://www.openspace.ai/
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