Overview
ConnectionAI was created to bring artificial intelligence to the structural steel industry, helping connect fragmented workflows and make critical project knowledge easier to access and use. The venture needed to move from a promising concept to a secure, scalable software-as-a-service platform with a clear product direction. Arinco worked closely with the ConnectionAI team across product strategy, user experience, cloud architecture, security and engineering to help establish the foundations for launch and future growth.
About ConnectionAI
ConnectionAI is an artificial intelligence venture created to bring construction intelligence to the structural steel industry. Its platform centres on Steel Brain, an AI engine designed to connect workflows, data and decision-making across the structural steel lifecycle.
Business challenge
Across the structural steel industry, long lead times, disconnected systems and fragmented workflows make it difficult for teams to move from concept to erection with confidence. The ConnectionAI founding team saw an opportunity to use their deep industry experience to create a platform that could connect information across systems, projects and data sources, helping teams find information faster and make better decisions.
That vision became ConnectionAI: a dedicated software-as-a-service venture focused on AI-powered construction intelligence for structural steel. To bring the idea to market, the ConnectionAI team needed to move beyond the concept and validate a product that could deliver value for customers.
A key opportunity was to bring critical steel model information into the process much earlier, before fabrication and construction begin. This would help teams identify coordination and constructability issues, make better decisions while changes are still easier to manage, and avoid costly problems surfacing later in the lifecycle. Traditionally, that level of detail was not available until a complete model had been produced for detailing and fabrication, a process that could take weeks to months. ConnectionAI set out to close that gap, enabling users to upload design data and receive a complete connected steel model in a fraction of the time, giving teams earlier visibility into potential issues and helping avoid the cost and delay of problems surfacing later in the lifecycle.
This required clarity on the priority use cases and user experience. The team also needed a secure and scalable technology foundation that could support rapid innovation while meeting the expectations of enterprise customers.
As a new SaaS product, ConnectionAI needed to demonstrate value quickly without over-investing in unnecessary features or building technical foundations that could limit future growth.
ConnectionAI needed a partner that could work closely with their team across product design, cloud architecture, security and engineering, supporting the journey from concept to launch.
Solution
ConnectionAI partnered with Arinco to shape the product and build a scalable foundation for a category-defining Steel AI platform.
Arinco used a structured early-stage product innovation approach, moving from discovery and validation through to platform and application foundations. This helped the team clarify what technical foundations were needed to support future growth.
Defining the product vision
Arinco worked closely with the ConnectionAI team through discovery workshops, defining user journey maps, product design sessions and roadmap planning.
Together, the teams clarified the product vision, value proposition, target customer personas, priority use cases, minimum viable product scope and user experience.
Building an enterprise-ready Azure foundation
To support ConnectionAI’s future growth, Arinco designed and implemented a Microsoft Azure foundation with security, scalability and operational readiness considered from the beginning.
The platform foundation included Azure Landing Zone architecture, identity and access management using Microsoft Entra External ID, security and governance controls, infrastructure-as-code deployment patterns, DevSecOps pipelines, monitoring and operational readiness capabilities. These foundations gave ConnectionAI a secure and scalable starting point for building a SaaS platform for enterprise customers.
Establishing the front-end framework
Arinco also established the front-end engineering framework giving the development teams a consistent foundation to build on.
This included a modern web application framework, reusable user interface components, design system foundations, continuous integration and continuous delivery integration. By putting these foundations in place early, Arinco helped support faster feature development as the product evolved.
Outcomes
ConnectionAI was moving from ideation to a complete SaaS offering. Arinco played a pivotal part in establishing the cloud landing zone architecture and implementation that helped set the foundation of the product.
Key outcomes included:
- New SaaS venture created: ConnectionAI successfully launched as a dedicated SaaS business focused on AI-powered construction intelligence for structural steel.
- Significant time savings for users: Users can upload design data, such as IFC files, and receive a complete connected steel model ready for detailing and fabrication in a fraction of the time it would traditionally take, reducing a process that could take weeks to months.
- Clear product direction: The early-stage product innovation approach helped the team define the product vision, target users, priority use cases and minimum viable product scope before scaling investment.
- Faster path to market: Reusable frameworks and a CI/CD pipeline helped product development and support a faster path to market.
- Enterprise-ready foundation: ConnectionAI was built on a secure and scalable Microsoft Azure foundation designed to support future enterprise customer requirements.
- Positioned for future growth: The platform was designed to support future customer onboarding, additional AI services and expansion into new markets.
