9 Minute Read
How can AI help in construction today?
Is the construction industry on the cusp of a technological revolution?
Given the history of longstanding inefficiencies and challenges, it’s likely that, in practice, the widespread use of AI in the industry will take time and will be led by large companies and projects.
The use of AI is unlikely to impact the masses in the construction industry until the barriers to entry are removed. However, while we are unlikely to see robots replacing humans on-site anytime soon, there are ways that AI can start to reduce inefficiencies across the industry.
Robots in construction
We have been desperate to write about robots in construction for some time. When our team thinks about AI in construction, we immediately think of robots. To our disappointment, this isn’t really an article about robots, but that article will come.
In the title, we noted how AI is reshaping how we design, build and manage construction projects. In the short term, it’s the design and manage aspects that we believe AI will have the greatest impact.
What are the barriers to the adoption of AI in construction?
Despite its potential, adopting AI in construction comes with challenges, especially for smaller companies and projects:
- High Initial Costs: Implementing AI systems can be expensive, deterring smaller teams.
- Scale: The lack of repetition and bespoke nature of smaller projects reduces the potential for repeated learning.
- Skill Gaps: Construction teams don’t have the experience or training to use AI tools effectively.
- Quality of Data: AI tools are only as good as the data they are given, which is often poorly prepared, collated, or unavailable.
Examples of how AI is being used by teams on major projects
On projects where there is the resource, and crucially the desire, to explore new ways of working, AI is starting to be used in new ways:
- Wearables: AI technology can now track workers’ health, fatigue levels, stress, and even exposure to environmental factors.
- Design Development: Larger projects now commonly use Building Information Modelling (BIM), which includes features such as clash detection to avoid interface issues on site and the use of VR headsets to help visualise proposals.
- Information Workflow: Software products, such as Capsa, now ensure that the correct information is available to those who need it.
- Smart Materials: New technologies like printed or self-healing materials are starting to be tested for extreme environments.
- Procurement: Software integrations with BIM software now enable automatic material take-offs.
- Safer Investigations: Robotic and AI-powered technology is now widely used to map existing structures, avoiding sending humans into dangerous spaces.
- Sequencing: Integrations between planning and BIM software enable teams to programme the works in 4D.
- Building Performance and Control: Smart sensors and controls that monitor a building’s performance and enable users to control their environment are now commonplace in homes.
- Smart Equipment: Major earthworks can now be performed by unmanned equipment, with laser-guided machines operated using the same technology as self-driving cars.
The above list is certainly not exhaustive. There are plenty of new AI technology solutions, such as the brick-laying robot; however, these are still not available or have proven effective in the mass industry.
This is lovely, but how does this help the masses now?
Certainly, AI will have little impact in the short term on replacing human resources on-site. However, rather than replacing skilled trades on site, AI will focus on removing inefficiencies and making it safer to deliver building projects.
We see AI having a real impact across the industry in the following areas:
- Design Development: With improved software and better AI integrations, construction information will become more intelligent, offering an even greater ability to plan works and reduce inefficiencies and defects before work commences on site.
- Quality of Design: The construction trades will have greater access to design information in advance, and software will help site teams evaluate the quality of the information before they start on site.
- Information Sharing: Software solutions like Capsa will give teams greater access to the correct information.
- Safety: The continuing development of technology will make sites safer. Wearable technology will continue to improve the monitoring of workers’ welfare.
- Duplication: The industry’s significant failing is the amount of duplication. From the basics of form filling and information management to ordering materials, AI software will continue to improve and become accessible to the masses to assist with reducing administration and duplication.
Will AI address skilled labour shortages?
In terms of skilled trades on-site, AI isn’t going to replace this requirement anytime soon. Most projects don’t offer the scale or repetition to make AI robotics feasible. Instead, AI will support existing resources by:
- Making them more efficient in planning, undertaking and recording the work.
- Making continual safety and welfare improvements.
- Providing a means of meaningfully recording data to assist with future developments in AI.
Is off-site construction a false dawn?
Offsite construction remains a serious proposition for large-scale projects with repeatable or complex details or forms. However, it offers little in markets such as domestic refurbishments.
Attempts at mass housing development using offsite construction are still in their early stages. Despite significant investment, they have yet to translate into a lasting change in the industry. Offsite construction isn’t being held back by the technology available today; it’s the high start-up cost, politics, and building standards that are holding it back.
What needs to happen to see meaningful progress?
Plenty. From the role of governments to big industry, AI developers, and the wider construction industry, it will take a number of disruptors and steps to significantly move the dial.
There are, however, smaller steps that the industry could take at all levels to put the industry on a better footing:
- Control of Information: Using software for storing and sharing information properly is essential. This removes the potential for the team to use the wrong information and helps ensure the information is accessible to all in real-time.
- Quality of Information: Designers need to prepare information that will support AI in the future. This starts with the basics of good document management. A key component is the consistency of information and details to enable AI to learn between documents and projects.
- Collection of Data: For AI to learn, it needs good-quality data. This starts with collecting and sharing relevant data from projects. If the industry can establish common means of data collection, this information will start to transform how we can use AI.
- Preparation Time: At every project scale, there is a rush to commence work on-site before it has been properly planned, designed, and interrogated. Too often, issues are found while the work is underway rather than during a considered period of mobilisation. Creating a meaningful period prior to commencing work to interrogate the design and integrate AI solutions is essential.
- Actual Building Performance: It’s rare, aside from some major projects, to measure a building’s ongoing performance. Without understanding how a building performs in situ, we cannot determine the suitability of the information we use to build projects.
A final point, particularly in relation to suitable preparation time, is that the method of selecting and appointing a project team, particularly the builders, is so outdated across the industry that clients and their advisors need to consider the impact of their role.
Despite all the talk about the importance of engaging a builder early, clients and their advisors are too often focused on price and wait until the last minute to see the “best” offer. Until this attitude changes and Project Managers and Surveyors see the value of early engagement from all parties, the above steps will be slow to progress.
How can Capsa help?
At Capsa, we have initially focused on the issue of information control. Our Project Plan has been developed to deal with the flow of information on construction projects and has built-in features to:
- Remove the duplication and risk associated with each organisation managing the same data.
- Ensure the latest information is clear for all project users.
- Ensure the information can be easily shared and viewed.
In the background, we are harnessing AI to bring new features that will automatically:
- Check for duplications with the information.
- Check for missing information on documents.
- Identify changes between versions.
- Measure the quality of a document.
- Collate data from projects to provide better analytics.
What excites us are the features we have yet to think of. Oh, and robots in construction.
Capsa continues to invest in new software features that integrate the power of Artificial Intelligence to reduce reliance on a team’s resources. By giving Capsa a try, you can start improving your project team’s performance and happiness.
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