Dave Hughes — Construction Professional

Systems
thinking
meets AI.

NEC-accredited commercial manager with 26 years in capital delivery. Using AI to deepen practice in systems thinking and process optimisation across construction and infrastructure.

See the work

About

26 years in construction
and infrastructure

I'm an NEC-accredited commercial manager working in capital delivery at Yorkshire Water, with a career spanning project management and quantity surveying across construction and infrastructure — predominantly on the client side.

My focus has always been on how systems behave under pressure — how decisions made early in a programme can have unintended consequences, how contracts shape behaviour, and where gaps in process create risk or waste. I have a particular interest in systems thinking as a lens for understanding why programmes succeed or fail.

Lately, I've been using AI tools to extend and stress-test that thinking in ways that weren't previously practical. This site documents what I'm building and learning as that work develops.


↗ LinkedIn

What I'm exploring

AI-assisted thinking
in capital delivery

01
Systems thinking in programmes

How early decisions propagate through a project system, creating downstream consequences that are rarely visible at the point of choice.

02
Scenario-based training design

Using AI to simulate dynamic stakeholder behaviour and NEC contract administration decisions for construction PM training.

03
Process optimisation

Capital programme optimisation on the client side, where delivery frameworks often lag the pace and complexity of the work.

04
Tacit knowledge transfer

What structured tools and processes can realistically do about the gap left by reduced in-person mentorship in post-Covid construction teams.

Projects

Things I've built

Live

Construction PM Training Simulation

A gamified, scenario-based training simulation for construction project management. Players work through a real project making decisions across surveys, consultant appointments, scope, procurement, and NEC contract administration. Early decisions create downstream consequences without being signposted.

AI-powered dynamic stakeholders respond to player choices. Built around APM-aligned competencies with NEC contract mechanics at its core.

Try it at akobuild.com ↗
Live — early membership

Hanga Network

A professional network for construction where buildings and projects are the nodes, not people. Members verify each other's involvement on shared projects — peer-to-peer, by people who were actually there.

Built to address the problem that construction CVs are unverifiable and professional reputation is mostly word of mouth. The network creates a verified record of who worked on what, and with whom.

Join Hanga Network ↗
Shelved

Hanga — Construction Cost Estimator

An AI-powered construction cost estimator giving homeowners early-stage budget clarity before engaging contractors. Built on Lovable and Supabase with a conversational interface for capturing project scope and generating indicative cost breakdowns.

The build worked. The market didn't validate the premise — homeowners wanted outcomes delivered, not cost transparency. Killed based on market evidence, not sentiment.

View app ↗
Live

This website — hanga.uk

A minimal portfolio site built to document my AI experimentation and share work in progress. The HTML was written entirely by Claude, which means it costs nothing to host on Netlify's free tier.

No page builder. No subscription. No template licence. Just a single HTML file, a DNS record, and a drag-and-drop deploy. The build cost is the domain renewal. Everything else is free.

hanga.uk ↗

Let's
talk delivery.

If you're working in capital delivery, construction training, or infrastructure programme management and any of this is relevant to what you're doing, I'm happy to talk.

Get in touch