A couple weeks ago, I was sitting in a parking lot before a presentation to a group of contractors. I wanted to show them what was suddenly possible.

I opened Claude Code and described what I wanted: "Build me an app where I enter a job site address and it shows every DOT-approved asphalt plant in Georgia within 50 miles, sorted by distance."

Twenty minutes later, I had a working prototype. It pulled plant locations, calculated distances, mapped everything.

I didn't write a single line of code. I just described what I wanted and the AI built it. This would have taken me several days before.

This technology is called "vibe coding." And it's about to change everything about construction software.

What's Happening

The cost of building software just dropped 90%.

Giovanni, one of our engineers, now describes features in plain English. AI writes the code in seconds. He reviews it, tests it, ships it.

What used to take a full day takes thirty minutes.

The tools making this possible - Cursor, Bolt, Replit, Claude Code - are getting exponentially better every week. Companies are raising billions betting that AI-native startups are about to eat every incumbent who can't move fast enough.

This isn't some future prediction. This is happening right now, today.

What This Changes

For the last twenty years, construction software has held us back for one simple reason: economics.

Building specialized software required big teams, long cycles, massive investment. So you got very reliable and generic enterprise tools. Tools designed for everyone, which means they're perfect for no one.

Your specific workflow? Too niche. That feature you've been begging vendors to build? Not worth their time.

The math didn't work.

That math just changed.

When building software gets 10X faster and cheaper, problems that were never worth solving suddenly become viable. Tools that would've cost $100,000 now cost $10,000. Features that took six months to build now take six days.

What Becomes Possible

Here's what happens when the cost barrier collapses:

Niche problems get solved. That specific workflow quirk that only affects civil contractors bidding DOT work in your region? Now worth building for.

Prototypes become real products. Ideas can be tested in days instead of months. Build it, show contractors, get feedback, iterate, ship.

Small teams compete with giants. A five-person startup moving at AI speed can out-innovate a 300-person software company stuck in quarterly planning cycles.

Tools evolve at the speed of feedback. Contractor suggests a feature on Monday. Prototype on Tuesday. Testing on Wednesday. Shipped on Thursday.

This isn't theory. This is already happening.

The Velocity Advantage

Last week, a contractor told us our Bid Items Agent would be even better if it converted the units of measurement to match their estimating software units.

Old world: Put it in the roadmap. Prioritize against 100 other features. Maybe ship in Q3.

New world: Prototype built that afternoon. Tested the next day. Shipped the following week.

That's not a special case. That's the new normal.

Companies building with AI aren't just faster. They're operating on a different timescale entirely. The feedback loop from "I need this" to "here it is" collapsed from quarters to days.

What This Means for Construction Tech

The best construction software hasn't been built yet.

Think about what becomes possible:

Tools that understand your specific market's terminology and workflows. Agents that handle the grunt work so people focus on strategy. Custom solutions for problems too small for enterprise vendors but huge for you.

Software that evolves weekly based on what contractors actually need, not annual updates based on what big software companies think you might want.

This isn't about making existing software a little better. This is about rebuilding construction tech from scratch with AI-native tools that operate at a fundamentally different speed.

Where This Goes

The companies raising billions for AI coding tools - Cursor, Bolt, Replit - they're not betting on incremental improvements. They're betting that AI-native startups are about to eat every incumbent who can't move fast enough.

When your competitor can build and ship in days what takes you months, you lose. When a startup can economically justify building for markets you ignored, those customers are gone forever.

This same dynamic is coming to construction tech.

The big, slow enterprise players who've dominated for decades are facing competition from companies that can build better tools faster. Not because they have bigger teams. Because they're leveraging AI to move at a speed that was impossible before.

The Window Is Short

Right now, most contractors don't know this technology exists. They're still waiting months for software vendors to build features they requested two years ago.

The ones who figure out what's suddenly possible - who can articulate their problems clearly, test prototypes quickly, give real feedback - those are the ones who'll get tools their competitors can't touch.

This isn't about learning to code. It's about understanding that software is suddenly fluid, customizable, and accessible in ways it never was before.

What Happens Next

In five years, I believe we'll look back at 2025 the way we look at 2000.

The tools we thought were good enough? Laughably primitive.

The problems we thought were unsolvable? Obvious in hindsight.

The companies we thought were dominant? Replaced by AI-native startups nobody saw coming.

Every niche problem that was never worth solving. Every custom workflow that was too expensive to build for. Every feature request that sat in a roadmap for years.

All of it suddenly becomes possible.

Construction tech is about to go through the most dramatic transformation since we moved from paper to computers. I expect the next five years will be the best we've ever seen.

And we're right at the beginning.

P.S. - I built that asphalt plant finder in 20 minutes. It works pretty well. Two years ago, that would've taken weeks and cost thousands. That's the shift. And it's just getting started.

Thanks for reading this week!

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About the Author

Tristan Wilson is the CEO and Founder of Edgevanta. We make AI agents for civil estimating. He is a 4th Generation Contractor, construction enthusiast, ultra runner, and bidding nerd. He worked his way up the ladder at Allan Myers in the Mid-Atlantic and his family’s former business Barriere Construction before starting Edgevanta in Nashville, where the company is based. Reach out to him at [email protected]