Dave Golding's Linkedin Analytics

Just spent 3 days at the #AISTech2025 conference in Nashville — Two things stood out: My father worked in steel in the 70s and 80s. He’d be amazed by how far the industry has come. The steel industry is at a historic moment — global trade, the rise of AI, and anticipation of massive infrastructure demand are challenging and transforming the industry. Key takeaways: Tariffs: There's broad consensus — U.S. made steel is vital and tariffs benefit the producers. But uncertainty is tough on everyone. Stability can’t come soon enough. Demand Surge: With AI, infrastructure upgrades, and $3T in corporate onshoring, demand will increase. As Ron Bedard (ArcelorMittal Dofasco) said: “I wouldn’t bet against the United States.” Sustainability: The industry is serious about carbon reduction, and it is making major progress. Dan Killeen (U.S. Steel) reminded us: "Steel is infinitely recyclable". Agentic AI: Thanks to Trevor L. Saunders (Nucor), I learned how AI agents will soon change customer interactions — predicting needs, offering tailored support, 24/7. Clean Energy: Dan Keown (SDI) emphasized the potential of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) to power the future — cleanly and reliably. Nuclear is necessary and it's good to hear that SDI has the courage to make this happen. Personal Highlights: Laura M. Nee treated me to one of the best steaks I've ever had! Mary Frankovich's stories about navigating a male-dominated industry. Trailblazers like Mary have paved the way for the younger generations. Bill Breedlove educating me over lunch on the difference between blast furnace and electric arc production, using a glass of iced tea, 3 straws and a ketchup bottle.  Wish I’d filmed it! Grateful for this experience — and to VPO Construction Project Management Software & Services for making it happen. The future of steel is bright.

The more I use #AI, the more I understand how it will transform my life, personally and professionally. I recently used AI to generate a list of construction projects for an upcoming podcast VPO is launching with the help of Adam Conner that will be hosted by Laura M. Nee. My goal was to identify the top 100 vertical (buildings rather than roads) construction projects in the U.S. and Canada starting in 2025 or 2026 with budgets exceeding $250 million. I included sectors like manufacturing, energy, data centers, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, office complexes, water, and oil & gas. Initially, I tested ChatGPT, CoPilot, and Gemini. CoPilot and Gemini weren't up to the task. They gave me instructions on how to build a list manually, rather than completing the task. ChatGPT 4o proved to be up to the task but there was a learning curve and it was "buggy". Here's what I learned: 💡 My initial prompt was too complex. Fewer prompts yielded better results that I built on to get the information I was after. 💡 ChatGPT typically provided 10-15 results per prompt. Asking it to "expand the list" and utilizing the "deep research" function enabled me to build a longer list. 💡 Occasionally, ChatGPT provided downloadable Excel links, though these worked only about half the time. I ended up requesting a format I could copy-and-paste into Excel. This added a step, but it was easy enough. The task initially took me about two hours due to trial and error, and testing multiple platforms. With these insights, I estimate I could now accomplish it in under 20 minutes. There's definitely a learning curve with AI, but the potential rewards are substantial. I'd love to hear from anyone in my network using AI (Miles Veth, Andrew Garcia, Dan Sanchez, Don Voss MBA): 🤔 How would you approach this task differently? 🤔 Which AI platforms are most effective for your workflows? 🤔 What types of tasks do you find AI handles best? 🤔 What resources or strategies have helped you improve your use of AI? #GenerativeAI #ChatGPT #ProjectManagement #AIProductivity #AIWorkflow