Table of Contents

• Microsoft AI Tour Unveils the Future of AI in Business

• Partnership with PMG

• Mistral OCR: Unlocking (Most of) Your Project Documents with AI

• Presented by Cogram

• RICS Consultation on AI

• Manus: The Future to Project Managers Controlling 50 Projects Simultaneously?

• Generative Design in Architecture – Key Insights from the ADDD Webinar

• Join Project Flux

• Podcasts of the Week

• AI: The New Rulers of Earth? Harari Warns of a Species Takeover

• Meet Project Flux: About Us

Microsoft AI Tour Unveils the Future of AI in Business

Introduction: Microsoft’s AI Tour at London Excel showcased groundbreaking AI advancements set to transform business operations. From AI-powered copilots to autonomous agents, Microsoft is redefining productivity, customer engagement, and decision-making. The keynote underscored AI's potential to enhance efficiency across industries, including construction, finance, and retail. Microsoft's commitment to AI innovation was evident through live demonstrations of its latest tools and solutions. Read more about Microsoft's AI vision here.

What Does This Mean for Me? For professionals in project delivery, Microsoft’s AI developments signal a new era of efficiency. AI copilots can automate tasks, provide real-time insights, and enhance collaboration, making workflows more intelligent and responsive. The rapid integration of AI across industries means that those who adopt early will gain a competitive advantage in optimising operations and decision-making.

Judson Althoff, Microsoft’s EVP and Chief Commercial Officer, emphasised the importance of AI in business transformation: “The generative AI solutions you deploy in your organisation need to bring out the best in your employees, ensuring their potential grows while making your organisation more effective and efficient.”

Key Themes or Details:

• AI-Powered Copilots: Microsoft 365 Copilot enhances productivity by streamlining tasks, summarising data, and improving decision-making. In one demo, AI was shown improving email prioritisation, automatically drafting responses, and performing real-time data analysis within Excel.

• AI in Customer Engagement: Microsoft demonstrated how AI-powered agents assist customer support teams by handling queries, summarising conversations, and automating workflows. One example showed an AI agent reducing call resolution times significantly, cutting costs while increasing customer satisfaction.

• Process Optimisation: AI is revolutionising business workflows, from fraud detection in finance to real-time issue resolution in logistics. A demo highlighted how AI quickly analysed transaction patterns, improving fraud detection accuracy and reducing manual investigations.

• AI in Sales & Operations: Microsoft unveiled a new Sales Agent AI that integrates with CRM systems to automate lead qualification, follow-ups, and data retrieval. A demo showed how the AI assistant crafted personalised sales responses and scheduled meetings with minimal human intervention.

• AI for Developers: Microsoft introduced its AI Studio, allowing businesses to build custom AI agents using low-code/no-code tools. In one showcase, a user created an AI-powered agent in under 20 minutes that could retrieve customer data, suggest sales strategies, and automate outreach.

• Data and Security: With AI adoption accelerating, robust cybersecurity measures and responsible AI frameworks are essential for mitigating risks. Microsoft reinforced the importance of AI governance and compliance, particularly for regulated industries.

• Skills & Workforce Transformation: Microsoft is investing heavily in AI upskilling, committing to training 1 million people in AI by year-end. AI will reshape the workforce, and businesses must focus on upskilling employees to leverage these advancements effectively.

Notable Quotes:

• “Inside Microsoft, we’ve deployed AI copilots across 65,000 employees, and we’re already seeing a 10% increase in productivity and a 9% increase in revenue per head.” – Judson Althoff

• “AI isn’t just about automating tasks; it’s about enhancing human ambition and unlocking potential at scale.” – Microsoft AI Tour Panel

Down the Rabbit Hole:

• Microsoft AI Tour Key Takeaways

• Lifehacker's Take on Microsoft Copilot

• Microsoft AI Strategy and Enterprise AI Trends

Partnership with PMG

We’re thrilled to announce a collaboration between Project Flux and Project Management Global, combining expertise in AI and project management. This partnership aims to keep professionals informed with weekly AI insights, practical tools, and broader project management strategies.

Together, we’ll deliver expert analysis, hands-on resources, and thought leadership to help project managers integrate AI effectively into their workflows. As Nicola Benjamin of PMG says, “AI is a tool to embrace.” Stay tuned for exclusive content, joint research, and actionable strategies that will revolutionise how you approach project management.

Explore more at Project Management Global.

What’s new: Tech

Mistral OCR: Unlocking (Most of) Your Project Documents with AI

Accurate data extraction from lengthy documents—such as contracts, feasibility studies, and cost schedules—is essential in project delivery. Traditional AI methods are improving but still fall short. Mistral AI’s new tool, Mistral OCR, offers a quick, cost-effective solution by rapidly converting PDFs and scanned documents into structured, format friendly content, easily integrated via their LeChat chatbot or using other tools from OpenAI, Google etc. using Mistrals API.

With impressive speed (up to 2,000 pages per minute) and affordability ($1 per 1,000 pages), Mistral OCR handles standard documents effectively, preserving formatting such as headings, bullet points, and tables. However, independent tests by Jerry Liu’s LlamaIndex team revealed that while Mistral OCR excels in routine tasks, advanced models like Gemini 2.0, GPT-4o, and Anthropic’s Sonnet outperform it for complex tables and precise reading order.

For typical project documentation, Mistral OCR is an efficient solution that significantly reduces manual effort. Yet, for more complex or accuracy-critical documents, premium parsing solutions like LlamaParse may be more suitable, offering the highest accuracy and overall effectiveness.

Mistral’s commitment to open AI innovation also aligns with France’s broader digital ambitions, underscored by the recent AI Action Summit where €100 billion was pledged to support AI growth.

🥑 Food for thought
Are generalised foundational models (GPT-4o) generally more reliable than narrowly designed tools (Mistrals OCR) which address singular problems?

✅ Our suggestion
Try it. It’s not expensive and relatively simple to setup. However, we’ve used LlamaParse from LlamaIndex and it has been the best and most effective solution for pulling from project documentation.

☕️ Why read the full article?

Our full article shows direct comparisons of performance, along with more project context. It also delves deeper into Mistral’s involvement in European AI along with their claims of bettering DeepSeek-R1 - the model that almost burst the western AI bubble.

The Rabbit Hole

_{The full article}

_{Document parsing explained within a project context}

_{Mistral’s press release}

_{Jerry’s independent research critique (LlamaIndex)}

_{Simple guide to start using Mistral OCR}

💙 Other tech news we’re loving

• _{Google Co-Founder’s Secret AI Startup Larry Page is back in the AI game with Dynatomics, a new venture focusing on AI-driven product design for manufacturing. Could this reshape industrial production? Find out more.}

• _{Anthropic Advises White House on AI Safety - AI safety takes centre stage as Anthropic submits key policy recommendations to the White House. What does this mean for AI governance and industry regulations? Read more.}

• _{Google Expands AI in Search & Sheets - Google is rolling out AI Mode in Search and boosting Sheets with enhanced data analysis and visualisation. Will this make your workflow smarter? Learn more.}

• _{UK Ends OpenAI & Microsoft Partnership - The UK has dropped its AI partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft. What led to this decision, and what does it mean for AI sovereignty? Get the details.}

• _{A New “General AI Agent” Emerges - ManusAI claims to have built the first General AI Agent. Could this be a game-changer or just marketing hype? Explore the breakthrough.}

• _{OpenAI Announces GPT-4.5 for Plus Users - OpenAI is preparing to launch GPT-4.5, bringing enhanced reasoning and efficiency to Plus subscribers. See what’s coming.}

• _{Amazon’s New AI Reasoning Model - Amazon is reportedly developing an advanced AI model focused on reasoning and logic. Could this challenge OpenAI and Google? Read more.}

• _{Perplexity & Deutsche Telekom’s AI Phone - A new AI-powered smartphone is coming to Europe in 2026, featuring Perplexity’s Magenta AI and tools from Google Cloud AI, ElevenLabs, and Picsart. Discover the device.}

• _{Anthropic Raises $3.5B at $61.5B Valuation - Anthropic’s funding boom continues, raising $3.5 billion as investors bet big on Claude AI. Check out the details.}

• _{OpenAI’s SORA Lands in Europe - OpenAI’s SORA, a powerful text-to-video AI, is now available in the EU and UK. How will it transform content creation? Find out here.}

• _{Hyper-Realistic AI Voice Takes Social Media by Storm - A new AI voice model is going viral, leaving testers unable to distinguish it from real speech. Is this the end of voice cloning detection? Hear for yourself.}

Presented by Cogram

Cogram is an AI assistant specifically designed for AEC to help professionals save time on documentation and prevent disputes. 

• Automated meeting minutes: Cogram drafts meeting minutes directly in your company’s template with tailored levels of detail, format, and style.

• Works for virtual and in-person meetings: Cogram works across Zoom, Teams, and in-person meetings, such as site inspections and kick-off meetings. 

• Field reports in minutes: Cogram’s mobile app combines site photos with minutes from on-site discussions to draft field reports in minutes.

• Project-wide insights: Ask questions about your projects and get answers drawn from every relevant meeting and email chain from that project for the most up-to-date information. 

Learn more and schedule a 15-live demo of Cogram.

What’s new: Projects

RICS Consultation on AI

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has initiated a consultation for its proposed ‘Responsible Use of AI 1st Edition’ professional standard, aiming to provide guidance on integrating artificial intelligence within the built environment. This initiative seeks feedback from members and stakeholders until 29 April 2025. 

What Does This Mean for Me?

For professionals in project delivery, the adoption of AI offers opportunities to enhance efficiency in planning, design, construction, and maintenance. However, it’s crucial to ensure that AI applications are transparent, reliable, and uphold professional standards. Engaging with RICS’s consultation allows industry professionals to shape guidelines that will govern AI’s ethical and practical use in their fields.

Key Themes or Details:

 • Ethical AI Integration: The proposed standard emphasizes the need for ethical considerations when incorporating AI into surveying practices.

 • Transparency in AI Usage: Guidelines will help professionals recognize when AI is employed in decision-making processes, maintaining human oversight.

 • Risk Management: The standard addresses governance, risk management, procurement, and due diligence concerning AI tools.

 • Compliance and Confidentiality: Ensuring AI applications adhere to privacy and confidentiality obligations is a focal point.

Notable Quotes:

Andrew Knight, RICS AI, data, and tech lead, stated: “As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integral to our industry, it is our job to help harness its potential. This new proposed standard highlights our commitment to guiding members in navigating the ethical, legal, and practical challenges posed by AI, ensuring that technology serves the best interests of clients, the public, and the environment.” 

Down the Rabbit Hole:

 • RICS AI Consultation Details

 • AI in Construction: Transforming Speed and Communication

•The Path to Adopting AI in Construction

💙 Other project news we’re loving

• _{Nodes & Links Raises $12M for AI-Powered Scheduling - Nodes & Links has secured $12 million in funding to enhance its AI-driven scheduling platform, revolutionising project management with automation and predictive insights.} 

• _{Easing the Transition from 2D CAD to BIM - The shift from 2D CAD to BIM can be challenging, but AI-driven solutions are making the process smoother, improving accuracy and efficiency in digital construction. Learn how.}

• _{Deltek: AI Reshaping Project Success - AI is redefining architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) projects, from smarter scheduling to risk reduction. Deltek explores how AI boosts productivity and profitability. Read the insights.}

What’s new: Productivity

Manus: The Future to Project Managers Controlling 50 Projects Simultaneously?

Are we in for another DeepSeek moment? China's Manus AI, developed by Monica.IM, is making waves as the first general multi-agent AI capable of independently managing complex, multi-task scenarios. Promising to “Get everything done while you rest,” Manus demonstrates autonomy by independently planning travel itineraries and performing financial analyses. Simply put, it completes tasks simultaneously without the need for human input.

Why It Matters for Project Professionals:

• Task Autonomy: Independently completes tasks like reporting and data analysis across your project simultaneously. In the future, this can be scaled to running projects.

• Multi-Modal: Handles text, images, and code.

• Integrated Tools: Real-time connections with browsers, databases, applications and coding platforms.

• Personalisation: Enhances responses based on user interactions.

Ethical and Operational Challenges

Increased autonomy demands clarity on human oversight roles. Organisations must rethink job roles and training to harness AI's potential without losing essential human creativity and judgment.

🥑 Food for thought

There’s a clear difference emerging in AI geopolitics. China are focusing more on automation and autopilots, while the West are backing augmentation and co-pilots. If China see relatively huge productivity gains from their approach, do you think the West will follow suit?

✅ Our suggestion

Keep an eye on Manus. Like DeepSeek, they’ve disrupted the AI bubble showing new ways to squeeze intelligence at scale, offering more generalised tools. AI automation is picking up but how reliable agents are without human input is heavily doubted. Many will be stress-testing Manus’ claims and if they are legit, it will create another seismic shift in our working dynamic.

☕️ Why read the full article?

In the full article, we show Manus running 50 tasks simultaneously, whilst framing what this may look like in a project setting. We also look deeper into the divergence in geopolitical AI, which will have a cascading impact later this year.

The Rabbit Hole:

• The full article

• Hear from the creators, Monica.IM

• Manus’ video reveal

• Watch a break down of early testing

• Key features

• What we believe this means for humans

💙 Other productivity news we’re loving

• _{OpenAI’s $20K/Month AI Agents for Businesses - OpenAI is launching specialised AI agents for enterprises, with pricing tiers up to $20K per month for PhD-level automation. Will this redefine business efficiency? Learn more.}

• _{The Government Prepares for AGI - OpenAI urges policymakers to “practice for the AGI moment” before it arrives, as governments begin taking Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) seriously. Read the discussion.}

• _{OpenAI Launches NextGen AI - OpenAI unveils NextGen AI, promising a major leap in reasoning, adaptability, and contextual awareness for enterprise and personal use. Explore the tech.}

• _{Microsoft’s Autonomous Sales Agents Debut - Microsoft introduces AI-powered sales agents capable of handling lead generation, negotiations, and customer engagement without human intervention. Discover more.}

• _{Opera Becomes First AI-Powered Browser - Opera is the first major browser to integrate an AI agent, enabling intelligent search, contextual browsing, and automated content generation. See it in action.}

• _{HeyGen UGC Avatars Revolutionise Ad Creation - HeyGen’s AI-powered avatars let businesses generate realistic ad content in minutes, eliminating weeks of production time. Transform your marketing.}

• _{Do People Even Care About AI? - A new survey finds most iPhone and Samsung users think AI features are useless. Is the AI hype outpacing real-world adoption? Check the stats.}

• _{Universities Crack Down on AI Use in Exams -With 92% of students using AI, UK universities are stress-testing their assessments to counter AI-generated work. See the academic response.}

• _{China’s UBTech Achieves Multi-Humanoid Coordination - UBTech’s Walker S1 humanoid robots successfully performed multi-robot coordination, a major step towards team-based robotic automation in logistics, healthcare, and construction. See them in action.}

• _{Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Prepares for Real-World Jobs -The legendary Atlas humanoid robot is moving from research to practical deployment, starting with part sequencing at Hyundai factories—a major milestone in AI-powered automation. Watch the demo.}

Generative Design in Architecture – Key Insights from the ADDD Webinar

Introduction: The ADDD Community webinar explored Generative Design and its impact on architecture, featuring insights from Allister Lewis, Arvinder Singh, and Leo Pickford. The discussion covered the differences between Generative Design and Generative AI, key benefits, adoption challenges, and the future of AI-driven workflows. Watch the recording here.

What Does This Mean for Me? For architects, engineers, and construction professionals, Generative Design enables faster iteration, better decision-making, and enhanced sustainability. However, adoption requires overcoming challenges like cost, interoperability, and data integration.

Key Themes:

• Generative Design vs. Generative AI: Generative Design is rule-based and predictable, while AI-generated designs are less controllable.

• Efficiency & Optimisation: Automates design iterations, optimising space, cost, and sustainability.

• Adoption Barriers: Cost, IT infrastructure, and data interoperability remain hurdles.

• Future Trends: Standardisation, sustainability focus, and web-based accessibility.

Down the Rabbit Hole:

• Watch the Webinar: YouTube

• Join the ADDD Community: ADDD Website

More on Generative Design: Read here

Join Project Flux

Are you passionate about storytelling and looking to build your portfolio? Project Flux is seeking contributors to share stories, insights, and creative content. While this is a volunteer opportunity, we ensure all contributors receive full credit for their work, making it a great way to showcase your talent and grow your portfolio.

Whether you're a writer, journalist, or simply someone with a story to tell, we'd love to hear from you. Join us in creating something meaningful and impactful. If you're interested, reach out to us at [email protected] and become part of the Project Flux journey!

Podcasts of the Week

90% of Construction Workflows Are About to Be Automated—Are You Ready?

In this episode of the Project Flux podcast, host James Garner sits down with Owen Drury, co-founder of Bricks and Bytes podcast and founder of ODQS, to explore AI’s growing impact on construction. They discuss Owen’s transition from quantity surveying to podcasting, the power of agentic workflows, and how AI is reshaping industry practices.

Beyond AI, Owen shares insights on personal branding, productivity systems, and the importance of authenticity in a competitive industry. If you want to stay ahead in construction and project delivery, this episode is a must-listen!

AI: The New Rulers of Earth? Harari Warns of a Species Takeover

growthforgeai

14K followers

View more on Instagram

Meet Project Flux: About Us

At Project Flux, we're committed to pioneering the future of construction and project delivery through the lens of cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence insights. Our vision is to be at the forefront of integrating AI into the fabric of project delivery, transforming how projects are conceptualised, planned, and executed.

Our Mission Project Flux aims to not only inform and educate but also to inspire professionals in the construction industry to embrace the transformative potential of AI. We believe in the power of AI to revolutionise project delivery, making it more efficient, predictive, and adaptable to the dynamic demands of the modern world.

What We Offer Through our insightful newsletters, podcasts and curated content on LinkedIn, and engaging discussions, Project Flux serves as a resource for professionals seeking to stay ahead in their field. We offer a blend of practical advice, thought leadership, and the latest developments in AI and construction technology.

What People Say…