The construction industry is in a pivotal chapter in its journey, where oceans of information surround every decision and topic. Unfortunately, more information doesn’t necessarily equate to better outcomes. Unless, of course, you can dive deep into what it all means with AI.
Call it what you want: Machine learning, artificial intelligence, natural language processing. It’s giving every industry in existence a profound shake-up, from energy and logistics to healthcare and human resources. The construction industry is no different.
There are warranted fears about AI’s integration into the construction industry, mainly rooted in the problem of job displacement. But there is also a significant upside.
AI can free people up—stakeholders, general contractors, or architects—from the more mind-numbing sides of a project. It can parse through seemingly trivial data and reveal its importance. It can discover flaws in the pre-construction phase before they become structural faults in the construction phase. Paradoxically, if we learn how to leverage AI to survey the nebulous waters of our information-overloaded industry, I think, just maybe, it’ll allow people to become more human.
Leveraging Technology to Improve Our Mental Health
Construction can be one of the most exciting industries in which to work. It’s fast-paced, fulfilling, and potentially very lucrative. However, there is a dark side to the industry that has just recently made headlines. Construction has one of the highest suicide rates—about twice the total suicide rate for civilian workers.
But AI may be able to help. For instance, using human resources data could be a critical component in creating and maintaining healthy work organizations, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows is an essential strategy for preventing worker suicides and mental health issues. Doing so can help companies monitor:
- Alignment with 5S Pillars (Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain)
- Diversity and inclusion initiatives
- Emotionally intelligent workplace communication
- Employee wellness
- Employee turnover
- Health and safety concerns
Furthermore, what if we could use AI to solve low-level work tasks that stack up and cause stress? Imagine how much time and mental space could be saved by automating and streamlining:
- Design Authorization
- Document Management
- Equipment Maintenance
- Inventory Management
- Safety Compliance Monitoring
- Site Monitoring
By addressing these low-level tasks, AI improves operational efficiency and project management and enhances safety and compliance on construction sites. This level of workplace optimization would allow skilled workers to dedicate more time to tasks requiring human insight, creativity, and problem-solving capabilities.
Designing with Digital Empathy
Everyone in the construction industry should invest in cloud-based collaborative design tools that allow multiple stakeholders to author designs in real-time. When this software includes computation AI features, you can ensure design changes don’t become problematic downstream. This design process is what industry leaders call “digital empathy.”
More specifically, with a cloud-based, AI-assisted design tool, you can build a formula that includes factors such as mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) standards, stakeholder preferences and values, budgets, and timeframes. When you start the conversation with intelligent parameters, it is easier to:
- Align with manufacturing and assembly (DFMA) methodology
- Ensure compliance
- Experiment with more diverse design choice
- Minimize downstream problems
What’s Good for the Environment Can Be Good for Us
The construction industry is traditionally hesitant to embrace change. But currently, we’re seeing a paradigm shift. An array of new tools are automating complex tasks such as takeoffs and estimates, allowing for more efficient project planning and execution.
Today, construction professionals can leverage AI to process vast amounts of data, from plan revisions to regulatory codes. Doing so significantly reduces the time and effort required for preconstruction tasks and enables users to interact with construction documentation through natural language processing (NLP), which signifies a leap toward making information more accessible and actionable on the job site.
The Year of Information
What is critical is that we leverage AI to maximize the relevance of our information. If we do so, I’m confident we can reduce stress, minimize busy work, and build better, more sustainable projects, ultimately leading the industry and society into a brighter future. If you’re interested in learning more about innovative technologies and hearing from thought leaders in construction, listen to the Contech Crew’s latest episodes and subscribe to the podcast.
