This Fortune 500 Company's AEC Department Had Never Used Excel Until 2016 - The $300 Tech Gap on Store Development

Dec 16, 2025

Alim Uderbekov, an aerospace-trained engineer and CEO of Surface, teams up with Genevieve Davis, a retail development veteran and co-founder at Surface. They explore the shocking tech gap in the $300 billion store development industry. Hear about their beachside conversation that sparked a revolution using AI to automate workflows. Discover why retail is like a race car for AI, and how Surface aims to replace tedious tasks with smart agents. Plus, they reveal how AI won't take jobs but will empower those who leverage it!

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INSIGHT

Retail Stores Are 'Race Cars' For AI

Retail store rollouts are highly structured "race cars" ideal for early AI automation because they follow strict playbooks.
Alim argues AI should first automate repeatable, cookie‑cutter projects before tackling one‑offs.

ANECDOTE

Beach Conversation That Started Surface

Genevieve met Alim after he messaged her on LinkedIn and they workshoped in LA.
Their meeting culminated in a four‑hour conversation on a California beach that sparked Surface.

INSIGHT

Data Fragmentation Is The Core Problem

Store development spreads data across spreadsheets, emails, and niche tools creating multiple truths and inefficiency.
Surface consolidates those sources, structures the data, and layers AI on top.

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"I got employee of the year in 2016 for introducing Excel as a project management tool for the construction department in my company."

That's the state of technology in the $300 billion store development industry.

In today's episode of Bricks & Bytes, we sat down with Genevieve Davis and Alim Uderbekov from Surfaice. These two met on a beach in California (yes, really) and decided to tackle one of the most analog industries out there with AI agents.

Here's what we covered:

✅ Why companies building hundreds of stores aren't using Procore (hint: it's expensive and they're retailers, not developers)

✅ The "McDonald's is a race car" analogy - why 40,000 cookie-cutter restaurants are actually the perfect use case for AI in construction

✅ How code is becoming a commodity and why that changes everything about vertical software

✅ Why AI won't take your job, but people who know how to use it will

Link in comments - give it a listen if you're in retail, store development, or just want to hear how two people turned a beach conversation into a company.

Our Sponsors:

Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co

Archdesk - “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com

BuildVision - streamlining the construction supply chain with a unified platform - www.buildvision.io

Chapters

00:00 Intro

03:46 Introduction to Surface and Founders' Backgrounds

06:48 The Vision Behind Surface and AI in Construction

09:41 The Meeting of Minds: Genevieve and Alim's Collaboration

12:45 Current Challenges in Store Development

15:30 AI's Role in Automating Construction Processes

18:32 Efficiency Gains and Time Savings with AI

21:44 The Future of Store Development and Human Touchpoints

24:30 Defensibility and Business Model of Surface

27:25 Funding and Future Plans for Surface

39:13 Investment Insights and Strategic Partnerships

41:31 Customer Engagement and Feedback

44:33 AI in Construction: Transforming Workflows

47:14 Navigating the Go-To-Market Strategy

54:20 Understanding Competition in the AI Space

59:25 Customization and Onboarding Process

01:03:07 Future of AI in Construction