An Interview with Arash Shahi of AECO

March 5th, 2021

In this episode of the Construction Record podcast, Daily Commercial News and Journal of Commerce national managing editor Vince Versace talks to Arash Shahi, the co-founder and CEO of AECO Innovation Lab.

AECO is involved in the One Ontario initiative, a coalition of industry partners trying to establish data exchange guidelines for Ontario’s development approval process. AECO’s role is to work on the research and development side of the initiative and has identified the need for consistency and standards in the approval process.

Vince and Arash look at the role of technology, collaboration and government in bringing forth a set of shared standards especially given the different challenges involved in smaller municipalities all the way up to Toronto, one of the biggest cities in North America.

Arash also stressed the importance of government investment in digital infrastructure, which he likened to a highway system in the physical world in that it connects disparate parties together to increase productivity.