Upgrading the Construction Industry to be AI-Native
Introduction
On April 15, 2026, BALLAS raised 2.4 billion yen in a Series B round, bringing our total funding to 4.3 billion yen.
We believe this funding is a result of the recognition of our business growth potential and our unique 'Real x Tech' approach to upgrading the structure of the construction supply chain.
Our mission is to 'Optimize the construction industry and bring happiness to people.'
Now that the evolution of AI is accelerating, the way we achieve this is also changing significantly. The essence is not simply introducing AI, but realizing construction with superior quality, cost, and delivery based on data operations where AI can demonstrate its value.
In this article, we will introduce the ideal state of the construction industry in the AI era and BALLAS's initiatives toward achieving it.
━━ BALLAS faces a niche yet massive white space
At first glance, BALLAS might look like a 'construction material matching service.'
However, what we are facing is not specific materials or processes, but the entire construction supply chain spanning design, manufacturing, procurement, and construction.
The construction industry is one of Japan's largest industries, boasting a scale of approximately 75 trillion yen. And 'construction materials' account for more than one-third of this, making it a super-massive market.
However, the reality is that it has the complexity unique to the construction industry, and many tasks still rely on human experience and intuition. The construction industry starts with the fact that the size of the land on which buildings are built varies, and no two projects are the same in terms of region, purpose, and customer.
Furthermore, multiple companies and professionals collaborate in design, manufacturing, procurement, and construction to build a single structure.
Despite being a huge market, there are many areas where standardization and technological adoption have not progressed sufficiently.
In other words, this means there are many unresolved issues.
We see the potential to create a next-generation industrial foundation in this massive white space.
🗣️ Talking with investors: BALLAS building an industrial foundation for the AI era ↗
━━ Why traditional construction DX could not change everything
Construction DX to date has contributed significantly to productivity improvement by replacing paper, phone calls, and Excel with digital tools.
There is no doubt that operational efficiency has improved in many areas, such as cost estimation, schedule management, and site management.
On the other hand, the main purpose of these efforts has been 'efficiency' based on existing operations.In an industry where much of the process of interpreting conditions that differ for each project, coordinating with stakeholders, and making decisions depends on people, even if information is digitized, the structure of operations remains unchanged, leading to partial optimization.
Now that AI is evolving rapidly, what is required is not efficiency as an extension of existing operations.
We believe it is necessary to structure the judgments and processes that make up the work itself and redesign them into a form where humans and AI can collaborate.
🎙️ Turning field expertise into industry assets: Interview with BALLAS domain experts ↗
━━ BALLAS's answer is 'Real x Tech'
What BALLAS is committed to and aiming for is for the 'entire construction industry' to become better.
Entering the fields of design, manufacturing, procurement, and construction, understanding the judgments and processes in daily operations, and structuring the data accumulated therein. This is what BALLAS considers 'Real x Tech'.
We are organizing the operations that occur on-site into reusable modules one by one, and changing them into a state where they can be combined like Lego blocks. By doing so, tasks that were previously dependent on individuals become reproducible mechanisms, and AI can also be utilized.
We are redesigning the very operations of the construction industry by stacking modules born from the field.
For example, one of BALLAS's approaches is the modularization and AI integration centered on 3D data.
Conventionally, information such as 2D drawings, specifications, emails, and meetings has not only been unstructured but also scattered, with the same content being transcribed and converted repeatedly. Furthermore, once a project is finished, it is reset, and complex information is formed from scratch all over again for the next project.
At BALLAS, we place 3D data that connects design, manufacturing, and construction at the center, transforming information and decision-making into a state that can be handled digitally. By doing so, we are creating a learning loop that modularizes information in a reusable form and reflects it in the next project.
━━ Building an AI Native Construction Industry
With the evolution of AI, the competitive advantage of industries is about to change significantly.
In the midst of a declining birthrate and an aging population, what is needed is not to improve the site through the experience and intuition of each individual, but to standardize excellent knowledge and judgment as data, and make it reusable across many sites.
That is why we believe that the companies that will have value from now on are those that can structure tasks that relied on human experience and intuition and convert them into a form that AI can handle.The learning loop of knowledge, judgment, and operations accumulated in that process will become the competitive advantage of the future.
On the other hand, we also believe that a world that expands human creativity awaits beyond the AI Native transformation. After AI handles rational tasks and thinking, humans will exert their creativity by connecting the dots while drawing on history, culture, and philosophy. BALLAS aims for a world where such productivity and creativity coexist.
An AI Native industrial foundation cannot be created by technology alone.The power to create new products using AI, the power to open up markets, and the power to structure the knowledge cultivated in the field. It can only be realized when all of these are in place.
Technology, business, and the field. Each has different expertise.What is needed for industrial transformation in the AI era is to fuse those different intelligences.
If you read this article and felt the arrival of an era where the industrial foundation itself is being rewritten, please let us talk to you!
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