Burns & McDonnell:
AI & the Future of A/E/C
Hello Burns & Mac friends & colleagues!
AI took notes for me as I presented the AI & the Future of Architecture, Engineering, & Construction keynote with all of you in Brea, this week! Here are those notes. I hope they help you on your AI journey. Below you’ll find a few things which may be helpful:
– a downloadable PDF SUMMARY of the most important slides
– the AI NOTES from our talk transcribed by Otter.ai
Thank you so much for allowing me to share my thoughts on AI with you!
Please let me know how I can be helpful in the future!
Dan
Dan Chuparkoff
A.I. & Innovation Keynote Speaker
CEO, Reinvention Labs
AI Educator & Innovation Expert from
Google, McKinsey, & Atlassian

PDF SUMMARY of key slides
This “Slide Cheatsheet” was customized for your specific talk. It’s designed to help audience-members like you, by wrapping my AI & the Future of Everything keynote into an easy-to-skim, easy-to-share, or easy-to-print resource for future reference.
Download the 3 page
high-resolution PDF here:
Hope you find it helpful!
AI NOTES from Dan’s Keynote
*These notes were created automatically by Otter.ai. Transcription errors or mistakes have not been fixed
in order to demonstrate the current state of AI notes.
Summary
Dan Chuparkoff, an AI expert with over 30 years of experience, discussed the transformative impact of AI on communication and work processes. He highlighted the use of AI-generated videos and the risks associated with AI, such as increased hacking and fraud detection challenges. Chuparkoff emphasized the importance of understanding AI's limitations and capabilities, using examples like ChatGPT and Claude. He noted that AI can assist in tasks like communication, decision-making, and problem-solving, freeing up time for higher-level thinking. He also stressed the need for continuous AI adoption and the potential for AI to revolutionize global collaboration through language translation.
Action Items
[ ] Ask ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini "What are 10 ways that AI is going to change the work of engineers, construction professionals, architects, planners, technologists who design and build critical infrastructure projects?" and review the response.
[ ] Implement a weekly prompt in ChatGPT or Copilot to discover one new AI-powered tool or capability that could be helpful.
Outline
Introduction of Dan Chuparkoff and AI-Generated Video
Speaker 1 introduces Dan Chuparkoff as a trailblazer with over 30 years of experience in innovation at Google and McKinsey.
Speaker 2 describes Dan as the "understandable technology speaker" who simplifies complex concepts.
Speaker 3 highlights Dan's ability to captivate audiences from the Fortune 100 to South by Southwest.
Speaker 4 emphasizes Dan's mission to ignite imagination about the new era of AI.
Dan Chuparkoff reveals that the entire introduction was an AI-generated video using Google's VO and Flow products.
AI's Impact on Communication and Security
Dan discusses the increasing indistinguishability between AI-generated and real videos, which will change communication.
He warns about the new risks AI will create, such as hacking, fraud detection, and less secure face recognition devices.
Dan explains his role in helping teams reinvent their work with AI, regardless of industry.
He emphasizes that AI is an accelerator for teams that figure out new technology quickly.
Dan apologizes for jumping off the screen and promises to stay hovering in the middle for the rest of the presentation.
Dan's Personal Journey and Early Exposure to Technology
Dan shares his personal journey starting in 1987 as a kid in a trailer park in Tampa, Florida.
He recounts his experience in 1995 working in a high school co-op job at an architecture office.
Dan describes his task of drawing parking lot lines and his introduction to AutoCAD, which revolutionized his work.
He explains how AutoCAD's copy and paste feature changed his perspective on technology.
Dan reflects on how this experience shaped his view of assistive technologies over the next 32 years.
Evolution of Assistive Technologies and AI
Dan lists various assistive technologies that have evolved over the years, including PCs, spreadsheets, the internet, mobile, cloud, data science, and remote work.
He emphasizes the importance of adopting new technologies quickly to stay ahead.
Dan introduces the concept of generative AI and its role in the future.
He explains the significance of understanding AI's capabilities and limitations.
Dan uses an example of asking AI about AI to illustrate the current understanding and misconceptions about AI.
Understanding AI's Capabilities and Limitations
Dan explains that AI is essentially a database that can generate new content based on what it has learned.
He discusses the limitations of AI, such as its inability to understand context and sarcasm.
Dan emphasizes the importance of understanding AI's knowledge cutoff date and version.
He demonstrates how AI predicts the next word in a sentence and its consensus-driven nature.
Dan highlights the need to ask AI for its confidence level and sources to ensure accuracy.
AI's Role in Information Management and Decision Making
Dan explains how AI can help with information management, such as generating stories, answering questions, and improving emails.
He describes AI's role in generating code, images, and translations.
Dan compares AI to an intern that needs guidance and review to produce usable work.
He shares a court case where a lawyer used AI to find cases, which led to ethical concerns about the reliability of AI-generated information.
Dan emphasizes the responsibility of users to verify AI-generated content.
AI's Impact on Work and Collaboration
Dan discusses how AI will shift the focus of work from communication and process to problem solving, decision making, and imagination.
He explains that AI will handle routine tasks, freeing up time for higher-level thinking.
Dan highlights the importance of using AI to manage information and improve collaboration.
He mentions the role of AI in meeting facilitation and note-taking.
Dan introduces the concept of AI-generated meeting notes and their impact on collaboration.
Global Collaboration and Language Translation
Dan discusses the impact of AI on global collaboration, particularly in language translation.
He shares an example of AI-generated real-time language translation using Hey Jen.
Dan highlights the importance of being able to collaborate in any language comfortably.
He mentions Apple's announcement of real-time language translation in their new AirPods Pro.
Dan emphasizes the potential for AI to create a more inclusive and efficient global collaboration environment.
AI's Role in Managing Exponential Growth
Dan discusses the exponential growth of information and demands on professionals.
He explains how AI can help manage this growth by automating routine tasks.
Dan emphasizes the importance of adopting AI to stay competitive and efficient.
He shares a prompt for using AI to learn new things every Monday.
Dan concludes by encouraging the use of AI to improve productivity and focus on higher-level tasks.