About 7 percent of the global labor force works in construction, which as an industry thus occupies an important place in the global economy. $10 trillion is spent annually on construction-related activities (McKinsey, 2017). While other industries have adopted AI and other technologies to increase their productivity, construction is making slow progress.
Worldwide, construction as an industry has grown by only 1 percent per year over the past few decades. Compare that figure to the 3.6 percent growth in the manufacturing industry and the 2.8 percent growth in the overall global economy. In construction, productivity, or total economic output per worker, has remained more or less flat. By comparison, since 1945, productivity in retail trade, manufacturing and agriculture has increased 1,500 percent. What accounts for this difference? Construction is one of the least digitized sectors and is slow to adopt new technologies (McKinsey, 2017).
Implementing the latest technology can be a daunting task. But machine learning and artificial intelligence are making construction sites more efficient and saving money at the same time. AI solutions that have already made a change in other industries are now starting to find their way into construction as well.
What is artificial intelligence and machine learning?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is an umbrella term for describing situations in which a machine mimics cognitive functions of humans, such as problem solving, learning and pattern recognition. Machine learning is a subset of AI.
