Neil Thompson: starting over in New Zealand
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Ian Yeo: tackling digital transformation again after exiting Operance
30 September 2025
Ian Yeo, former CEO of Operance, is back with a new consultancy and a new AI-enabled tool.
Yeo exited Operance at the end of July following Zutec’s acquisition of the business in March. He spent nearly five years at the helm of Operance and was a director of Bimsense – the business that effectively gave birth to Operance – for four years before that. He’s now refreshed and back doing what he loves: driving AI-powered digital transformation.
Indeed, in his announcement to the industry, he wrote: “I’m building practical AI for construction. And not AI in the abstract, [but] tools I wish I’d had on site and in the office. I’m focused on practical AI that respects how construction really works: complex, time-pressured, and unforgiving of sloppy and ill-informed decisions.”
“MyDrawIt is the solution to a problem I had on site when I was a design manager: marking up drawings and checking drawings was like pattern matching. And we know that AI is great for pattern matching.”
Ian Yeo
It’s a passionate statement – and that passion is evident when we meet over Zoom. Let’s deal with the new tool first, MyDrawIt. Yeo explains: “MyDrawIt is the solution to a problem I had on site when I was a design manager: marking up drawings and checking drawings was like pattern matching. And we know that AI is great for pattern matching.”
Indeed, MyDrawIt can analyse and convert technical drawings into usable data and can compare two drawings and highlight their differences (so users can understand the cost and scope of changes). Results can be copied as JSON or text. Yeo has designed the front end as a simple drag-and-drop format. There’s an API so it can be linked with existing workflows.
“There’s no subscription, it’s pay as you go,” Yeo explains. “It’s a proof of concept, I want to make sure that people can use it effectively. There is the ability for users to provide feedback.”
RAMS evaluation
Yeo has also developed a RAMS evaluation. The system assesses document quality against method statement assessment standards. It scores across 11 core criteria (from risk validation to emergency procedures), provides evidence for each determination, flags critical failures, and suggests improvements.
Yeo notes: “The idea is that I develop multiples of these small, foundational elements. Coming next are ideas involving the standardisation of suppliers’ certifications and delivery tickets. You start to piece those tools together in a tool-chain approach, so the user doesn’t have to.”
“AI can really help our workflows, but we don’t currently have the right tooling to implement them in a coherent way that works for the vast majority of the construction industry.”
Ian Yeo
The conversation turns to AI. “AI can really help our workflows,” he says, “but we don’t currently have the right tooling to implement them in a coherent way that works for the vast majority of the construction industry.” He notes the mildly contentious MIT report issued this summer and its headline statement that “95% of organisations are getting zero return from GenAI”. Yeo responds: “If 5% are deriving a benefit, what did they do to make AI work? I think there are a lot of companies stuck in an AI experimentation trap: they keep trying things but can’t work out where to go next.”
Part of the issue with the use of basic AI in construction is that the industry comprises many specialisms and specialist language. “We’ve got to realise that expecting a generic tool to work for us is unlikely. We need to be specific,” Yeo states. “We need to make sure the tools work for us. I think we can get a massive benefit [from AI tools] and [enable] people to do the thing that they’re good at on site – the communication on site, then making sure that people are motivated, and that the culture and the safety culture are right. But it’s not going to be easy. I want to work hard at putting the automations in place.”
Innovation consultancy
As well as developing the drawing comparison and RAMS evaluation apps, Yeo has launched a consultancy, Yeo Innovation, and is already working with a medium-sized contractor. “At the moment, it’s just me, but I don’t envision it’s going to stay that way,” he says. “If I can, I’d like to avoid getting investors involved, but I may need to look for investment – that’s what happened with Operance (and it worked).”
His two businesses will not operate in isolation. “The idea is that the two businesses feed each other,” he says. “The intelligence and information gathering will transfer between the consultancy and the digital delivery.”
Indeed, the contractor he’s consulting with has already tried the drawing comparison and RAMS assessment service with some success, in particular with the latter service.
Finally, we touch on his time at Operance. He concludes: “I had 25 years in construction, and then I moved into digital and software – and it felt like somewhere I should always have been. I had a wonderful time at Operance. There were great people there. It felt so right that I was solving problems for people and I’m doing it in a digital way.”
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