Conversation with Ayman Aljohani – MasterMinds

Today on MasterMinds, we meet a Saudi executive and technology innovator who is redefining what the future of the built environment can look like. Ayman Aljohani — CEO, Board Member, Startup Investor, and AI-driven Construction Tech entrepreneur — is leading a new era where engineering excellence meets intelligent automation, reshaping one of the world’s most traditional industries through advanced technology.

As Founder and CEO of AI Construction Technology, Ayman is pioneering solutions that integrate artificial intelligence into core construction processes — improving efficiency, strengthening sustainability, and transforming how major projects are planned, executed, and managed. His leadership is built on a deep foundation of project management, facility management, and a track record of operational excellence highlighted by his recent role as GM of Engineering at DACO.

Beyond his executive responsibilities, Ayman serves on the board of TASAMI, guiding organizational growth and complex project leadership with strategic clarity and technical insight. Fluent in English, Arabic, and Spanish, he builds strong C-suite relationships across cultures, helping organizations expand globally and navigate the complexities of modern infrastructure development.

Ayman’s journey reflects a powerful belief: that the construction industry’s future will be defined by those who merge engineering with innovation — and who use technology not to replace expertise, but to elevate it.

Builtop was born from a very simple frustration I saw over and over again: builders were wasting weeks just to source materials, compare prices, and secure financing. The market was fragmented, information was unclear, and procurement teams were drowning in WhatsApp messages and manual processes. Saudi Arabia is building at a historic scale — yet the backbone of that construction, procurement, was far behind.

I wanted to create a platform that gives every contractor, developer, and project owner the same purchasing power, financial tools, and transparency that only mega players had. That’s how Builtop started.

Working inside these institutions gave me a front-row seat to how world-class operations are run. At Aramco, I learned structure and systems. At Amazon, I learned speed, automation, and customer obsession. At the Ministry of Culture, I learned how to navigate complex ecosystems with diverse stakeholders. These experiences shaped the way I built Builtop: fast like Amazon, disciplined like Aramco, and collaborative like government mega-projects.

Trust comes from data, documentation, and clear execution. Every deal on Builtop goes through secured workflows: verified suppliers, clear pricing, escrow-style protection, milestone-based payments, and digital trails that eliminate ambiguity. We reduce the excuses, the finger-pointing, and the “he said, she said” — and replace it with accountability and transparency.

Our focus today is Saudi Arabia — the largest and fastest-growing construction market in the region. But our infrastructure is built to scale. Once we hit certain milestones, expansion to UAE, Qatar, and Egypt will be the natural next step, especially for cross-border sourcing and financing.

We operate with a “build and scale” mindset — not “build then scale.” While our technology team is creating the next generation of procurement and finance tools, our commercial teams are closing partnerships with top developers, contractors, and suppliers across the Kingdom. The key is that expansion and innovation are not competing priorities — they reinforce each other.

Absolutely. Procurement will shift from being a manual, reactive process to a predictive and automated ecosystem. AI will generate RFQs, negotiate prices, allocate suppliers, and assess risks before a human even steps in. Humans won’t disappear — but their role will shift from “doing the work” to validating decisions and managing relationships.

AI allows us to remove friction from every step. It analyzes demand patterns, predicts material costs, matches suppliers instantly, and reviews RFQs and contracts in seconds. For clients, AI becomes a procurement assistant. For suppliers, it’s a demand forecasting tool.

For financiers, it’s real-time risk visibility. AI is our engine that turns messy construction workflows into predictable, fast, and transparent operations.

We align directly with Vision 2030 goals: efficiency, digitization, transparency, and financial innovation. We’re actively strengthening partnerships with semi-government bodies, giga-projects, municipalities, and credit entities to support procurement standardization, real-time sourcing, and flexible financing structures that these mega-projects require.

It’s simple: 1. A client submits a request — materials or contractor services. 2. Our system instantly sources the best suppliers and gives market-aligned pricing. 3. If the client wants financing, we activate our Pay-Later / LC-backed structure where Builtop pays the vendor upfront. 4. The client pays us back later, based on agreed terms. So instead of one party chasing another, Builtop acts as the procurement department and finance department in one place.

Three major challenges remain:

1. Cashflow gaps between contractors and suppliers.

2. Price volatility, especially in commodities like steel and cement.

3. Execution delays caused by slow procurement decisions. Digital transformation is helping, but the market still needs faster financing, automated workflows, and better supplier visibility — exactly the gaps Builtop is solving.

Yes — during a major project, I watched a contractor lose weeks and millions simply because the procurement process depended on outdated habits: manual quotations, phone calls, WhatsApp threads. That day I said: “If we can send rockets to Mars, why is construction procurement still operating like it's 1998?” That was my turning point.

Two big lessons:

1. People move markets. Technology is nothing without strong partnerships and relationships.

2. Speed wins. The companies that move fast — not perfect — end up shaping industries. And the most important one: never wait for the perfect moment. Build, launch, iterate, and grow.

Most platforms are marketplaces. Builtop is a procurement and finance engine. We don’t just connect buyers and suppliers — we take responsibility for the entire cycle: sourcing, price benchmarking, vendor matching, financing, risk management, and delivery. Our model eliminates middlemen, accelerates purchasing, and gives businesses instant access to materials, contractors, and trade finance through one unified system.

Three priorities: 1. Expand credit and Pay-Later capacity to serve larger clients and mega-projects. 2. Advance our AI procurement engines to make buying construction supplies as easy as ordering online. 3. Strengthen vendor networks across steel, cement, concrete, finishing materials, and top-tier contractors. This round is fuel to accelerate the next phase of scale.

My vision is for Builtop to become the central engine powering construction procurement and trade finance in Saudi Arabia and the region. I want every developer, contractor, and supplier — from small shops to giga-projects — to rely on Builtop for sourcing, financial flows, and execution speed.

If we can cut procurement cycles from months to days, we accelerate every Vision 2030 project. Builtop’s long-term role is simple: enable the Kingdom to build faster, smarter, and with full transparency.