The construction boom for artificial intelligence requires a different kind of infrastructure to support it. New data centres need power, but those projects also require strict adherence to a tangled web of federal rules.
Dili raises million
A new compliance firm called Dili announced on Thursday it has secured $15 million in Series A funding. This capital brings the company’s total raised to $21.7 million, following a $6.7 million seed round.
Khosla Ventures led the latest investment, joined by Allianz, Rebel Fund, Darren Bechtel of Brick and Mortar Ventures, and Garry Tan from Y Combinator. Dili joined Y Combinator’s Summer 2023 batch before this round.
Rules for construction projects
While many startups pitch “AI for compliance,” Dili specialises in the specific regulations governing construction, particularly those involving federal funding.
Anand Chaturvedi, the co-founder and CEO, cited the Davis-Bacon rules as an example. These regulations allow the Department of Labour to set prevailing wages for specific projects. Clean energy projects funded under the Inflation Reduction Act face separate prevailing wage and apprenticeship rules. Other requirements from OSHA or the EPA apply depending on the nature of the work.
The overlapping requirements create a high-stakes environment. Non-compliance can lead to fines amounting to millions of dollars.
“So it’s really powerful to be able to check all the information as it comes in, instead of just sampling data,” Chaturvedi said.
How the system works
Reliability is a central concern for this sector. Chaturvedi stated Dili’s architecture prevents the fuzziness often associated with large language models from affecting the final output.
Contemporary AI models operate only in the company’s data layer. This engine takes unstructured documents and translates them into structured data. A deterministic system then sorts that data against static compliance rules.
When functioning correctly, a task that previously took a full day now completes in minutes.
“Imagine being able to read across the entire context of a company’s internal documents, all of their vendors’ documents, all of their ERP information, all of their payroll systems information,” Chaturvedi said. “And then draw out the data that you need specifically for you know reporting or compliance.”
Adoption and future trends
Dili is already operating in practice. Chaturvedi noted the software is active on roughly 700 projects, ranging from manufacturing facilities to data centres.
About half of these projects use Dili as an internal tool. The other half outsource the entire compliance process on a contractor model. Dili handles both arrangements, though Chaturvedi expects the industry to shift toward the software model over time.
“Software and AI are going to start eating a lot of those professional services workflows, so I think more and more people will start to bring those in house,” Chaturvedi said. “The interesting thing will be how the market itself evolves and where the customer needs go as AI develops.”
What it means
Contractors and project managers face a choice between hiring expensive consultants or adopting internal software. The trend points toward building these capabilities in-house to reduce costs and increase speed.
