Giatec faced significant environmental challenges in the concrete industry, responsible for nearly 8% of global CO₂ emissions.
Giatec utilized Microsoft AI and IoT technologies to develop tools like Roxi, SmartRock, SmartMix, and MixPilot, optimizing concrete mixes and reducing emissions.
Giatec’s solutions have reduced 2.5 million tons of carbon emissions, saved time and costs for construction projects, and increased profit margins for concrete producers.
Reduced 2.5 million tons of carbon emissions
Concrete accounts for nearly 8% of global CO₂ emissions and a major contributor is non-optimized processes. Giatec, a Canadian construction tech company, saw an opportunity to change that. “We started Giatec with the vision to revolutionize the concrete industry,” says Aali R. Alizadeh, CTO and co-founder. "To bring easy-to-use software and sensors so that all the stakeholders throughout the lifecycle of concrete can benefit from and improve the productivity, efficiency, safety and durability in construction projects.”
The industry has traditionally relied on manual processes and intuition. Giatec saw an opportunity to close that gap with smarter solutions, starting with data—advancing sustainability and safety across the lifecycle of concrete.
Giatec built the world’s largest concrete dataset. Roxi, Giatec’s proprietary AI engine, is trained on over 300,000 unique concrete mix designs and data from 75 million cubic meters of concrete. It continuously learns from real-time inputs collected by SmartRock sensors at the job site, MixPilot sensors in transit, and SmartMix optimization software at the plant—delivering insights, cost savings, and tighter schedules instantly across the supply chain.
To accelerate development, Giatec adopted cloud services and infrastructure powered by Microsoft. “It really takes a lot of the work out of our hands, which is amazing,” says Ian Rintoul, AVP of Software Engineering and IT. “Our teams aren’t building infrastructure; they’re developing features, they’re innovating.”
SmartRock, MixPilot, and SmartMix all feed into Giatec’s intelligent platform, which is built on Microsoft Azure, including Azure IoT Hub for collecting real-time sensor data, Azure Databricks for analytics, and Power BI for visualization. Giatec also uses Azure Document Intelligence and Azure OpenAI to automatically pull information from reports about how strong the concrete is—saving time and reducing the need for manual data entry.
“Microsoft Azure, Power BI, and Azure IoT Hub stood out for their scalability, compatibility, and robust support. With these tools, Giatec built a unified, intelligent concrete tech platform capable of scaling globally,” Alizadeh says.
Backed by intelligent software and IoT sensors, Giatec’s tools deliver measurable results across the industry. “Many concrete mixes use more cement than necessary to ensure strength, which leads to unnecessary carbon emissions. Giatec’s tools help optimize these mixes, reducing waste and environmental impact,” says Sarah McGuire, VP of Business Development.
There are also significant cost savings. SmartRock, an in-pour sensor, helps contractors “typically save half a day or a day per pour,” Alizadeh explains. “That’s about $10,000 of cost saving just there for them.”
“Material cost is about 60% of the cost for concrete producers, and cement is at least half of that,” he says. “SmartMix can optimize their mixes and reduce cement content by 20% which significantly adds to the bottom line. You’re increasing their profit margin by 50% or maybe 100%.”
“From a sustainability perspective, these AI innovations have led to measurable outcomes: 2.5 million tons of carbon emissions reduced, $10,000 saved per pour, and profit margins increased by up to 100%,” McGuire highlights.
“From a sustainability perspective, these AI innovations have led to measurable outcomes: 2.5 million tons of carbon emissions reduced, $10,000 saved per pour, and profit margins increased by up to 100%.”
Sarah McGuire, VP of Business Development, Giatec
Decreased cement content in concrete by 20%
“Knowing our products are built on Microsoft’s scalable, secure, and stable solutions gives Giatec confidence. More importantly our customers trust Microsoft,” Sarah McGuire shares. “They trust our products because Microsoft is known for reliability and long-term support”—qualities that are critical in construction and infrastructure.
As Giatec looks to expand globally, its founding mission remains front and center. “We’re leading a digital revolution in the concrete industry,” Aali says. “We’re excited to work with Microsoft and getting our products to market in a scalable way. Working with a collaborator that has a global footprint and a lot of experience in scaling similar solutions is hugely advantageous for us.”
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