The future of AI in construction

Over the last few years, artificial intelligence has gradually been working its way into the construction sector and onto the building site, as it has been doing with seemingly every other sector too. It’s becoming more and more prominent and, as a result of this, the guys over at Powertools2U have decided to delve into AI in construction and look at how this technology is making an impact to the workforce, who is appearing bit by bit to be getting pushed out thanks to AI being more efficient, and also into the general productivity benefits AI has on the building site.

There are three main areas where the building site will benefit the most from Artificial Intelligence, the most important of these being safety. Site workers’ health & safety and well-being will be taken to a whole new level thanks to AI by the implementation of various different features. For example, AI can use scanning technology which can be used for facial and object recognition. This can be used to firstly identify which tools/machinery a worker is using and then secondly analyse whether a worker is qualified or not to use it. This again helps to reduce the risk of injury. Perhaps most interestingly, it can also be used to scan the body movement of workers. This will be done not to necessarily keep an eye on them, but to analyse whether or not their form is correct when working, especially when using tools/machinery and again prevents potential injury and also enhances training too.

Artificial Intelligence can not only help workers on-site, but it can also help ones off-site too by helping out with the actual design process. The technology can produce several different designs based on what a client is looking for in a far quicker time, boosting overall project efficiency. This is done by answering questions that an architect would only be able to answer after extensive deliberation and assessment. The AI first understands what the client is looking for such as, optimal seating positions for sunlight, productivity, views outside and even their preferred working style. All this information is then fed into the AI system along with the physical requirements of the building. The algorithm will then produce several designs that fit to the clients’ requirements saving the architect time. This then allows the architect to pick between the designs to further match the client’s wishes.

The final major benefit of Artificial Intelligence is risk mitigation. AI is able to understand and predict complex information using algorithms built into the software, to help prevent any potential risks that may impact the building site or its workers. For example, if the weather is predicted to be poor, AI will alert the site staff so factors such as for example, potential water infiltration can be addressed before the weather arrives.

The only real negative to introducing AI on a large scale on the building site is the impact it will have on the current workforce. Researchers predict that they’ll be a completely human-free building site in the not too distant future, with some stating that this could be as soon as 2025. This will happen thanks to a variety of future implementations. By 2019 AR & IoT will go mainstream, 2021 will see regulations changing to allow for Drone Monitoring, self-guided machines will begin to work on-site by 2022, 2023 will see the first project managed solely by AI, autonomous machinery will be on-site by 2024 and by 2025 there will be a sharp decline in the need for humans on the building site due to machines being able to handle the majority of jobs.

Research states that out of 2.2 million positions in the construction sector, 600,000 jobs could be lost because of AI integration by 2040. Amongst the worst that will be affected are Labourers that’ll see numbers plummet from 127,000 to only 7,520, Plasterers dropping from 47,500 to just 2,810 and Roofers declining from 43,830 to 2,590 to name only a few.