David Morczinek, CEO of AirWorks, shares how the company is transforming fiber network deployment through AI-driven mapping and automation. AirWorks accelerates the traditionally slow walkout and permitting process by combining high-accuracy reality capture data—gathered via drones, LIDAR, and mobile sensors—with advanced AI field data processing and linework drawing. This approach reduces manual data processing, delivering basemaps up to 7 times faster than traditional methods.
By providing precise field conditions early, AirWorks enables ISPs and engineering companies to cut permitting delays and expand networks at scale. With the competition fierce, speed to market is critical, and automation offers a path to rapid, cost-efficient builds.
Morczinek emphasized that linking project data from design through maintenance not only streamlines workflows but ensures networks deliver on performance goals. AirWorks’ innovations promise to redefine how fiber infrastructure is planned, executed, and maintained in an increasingly connected world.
Alejandro Piñero:
I'm with David Morczinek from AirWorks whose been kind enough to offer us a seat, because this show is wild. We've been running around. David, thank you so much and thanks for having us here on your stands.
David Morczinek:
Yeah, I mean, we live in an interesting time, right? It seems like we have certainly all of a sudden realized we need high-speed internet and connectivity and that's actually good for people. Right? And so everyone is trying to build at the same time, which is obviously a problem. And I think what comes up all the time is just the labor to execute on projects, planning, design, permitting, and then construction is in really short supply. Right? And so we got to find ways to do things more efficiently. The fiber rollout or the telecommunications rollout process, that there's new efficiencies generated by new solutions generally that are really interesting.
Alejandro Piñero:
So let's dig deeper into those solutions. Perhaps any that stand out to you that, if you are making the most impact today, in terms of those efficiencies and deployments.
David Morczinek:
So I mean, we at AirWorks, right, built a company about seven years ago. We're a software company that gets you faster to fiber design and permitting by basically accelerating the walkout and mapping process for infrastructure. So we leverage core technology that looks at any kind of reality capture data. So LIDAR sensors, in the field data, mobile capture solutions, drones, aircrafts, to get field data as efficiently as possible. But then really our core is to leverage AI to analyze that data because even though you use digital data today, they're still human processing that data.
And so we want to speed up that entire process to basically go from three miles a day process to ultimately an overnight process. We are not there yet, but we can already say that we're probably five to 10 times faster than walking the field with a stick on the ground. If you don't know what's there today, who has built fiber, how many pole, how many wires on the poles, what are the clearances? Is it a light make ready, is it complex make ready? How do you even design anything, really, because the exact conditions matter in the field and can really make or break a project. So I feel like that's where we believe having this type of highly accurate mapping data can almost automate and streamline your entire process all the way to construction and then back again into the maintenance phase of fiber networks.
Alejandro Piñero:
That's a lot of competition, right? How do these fiber guys, how do they need to think about their network expansion?
David Morczinek:
What we hear is speed of market is extremely important. You want to be the first in the market to build out your network that gives you kind of take rates that match your investment profile of your investors most likely. But if you are facing a lot of delays in permitting and planning and engineering and design, you won't get there. And this is where I think we really align with our customers to get them in the ground as fast as possible. And I think that's really important.
So if I were an ISP, thinking through what are the newest technologies that can scale not just to build 10 miles or 20 miles, but hey, what if we want to do a 500 mile build out in a specific area? How fast can we execute on that? That is really, really important. We live in a more complex world. We don't always have just a power line up on a pole now. We have multiple different providers for both electrical and power sometimes. And so how do we think about getting the permits to still build out our networks? So better data earlier is going to reduce risk dramatically downstream and you plan across.
Alejandro Piñero:
Yeah. And I imagine automation will play a role, right? So how do you see that playing a role in, let's say, in the next five years?
David Morczinek:
Yeah, I mean there's so much potential in automation. I think we're still very early in what we're seeing. We're leveraging AI as part of our process so we can scale a lot faster and a lot better and process a lot more data than we otherwise could with human labor. And so that alleviates that burden for our customers. They know they have a 2000 mile project, we can do it in the same time. We have a hundred mile project, we can do it in the same time. So that gives them that confidence.
But I think you'll see automation on all streams. And I think what's really important is data connectivity. We come from a world where every phase of the project has their own data silos and now we can link that back off and really go with good data from the beginning, create really good high level design drawings, even feasibility studies and kind of the ROI analysis. Hey, do we bring that back into our maintenance plan to actually see, hey, is that playing out? What is the condition of the network? Right? So I think we'll see a lot more automation all throughout that entire process to also make sure that the network delivers what's supposed to deliver at the end of the day.
Alejandro Piñero:
Listen, David, thank you so much again for taking the time. It's fascinating to hear everything you guys are up to and can't wait to catch up in the future and see how things are going.
David Morczinek:
Definitely. Thanks for the time. Thanks for stopping by.