Construction tech (2023)

1. Some tech can’t nail delivery

   Here’s a painful truth: the ability to invest in bleeding-edge tech is limited to a narrow slice of elite contractors.

   Lots of the cool tech we read about remains on the fringes of the industry. Robots? Great in warehouses but a poor fit for rough-terrain building sites. Meanwhile, exoskeletons for heavy lifting, autonomous JCBs and 3D printers remain expensive tools, available only to a minority of companies.

   It’ll take a while for the cost-benefit to make sense for certain innovations; or in the case of robots, specifically, it seems infeasible they’ll ever do for construction what they did for the auto industry, for instance.

2. Who will hammer out “digital twin” kinks?

   There’s waste and inefficiency on today's construction sites that software, data and devices are well-suited to eliminate. One of construction’s shiniest innovations is so-called building information modelling, or BIM, a software process that involves creating a “digital twin” for new buildings.

   The idea is to connect systems via an array of sensors that track how different elements — such as a lift or a water pipe — are performing, enabling an intervention before they fail.

   Upfront costs, like the hiring of highly computer-savvy specialists, limit the tech’s reach. But the long-term promise is of a network of connected digital twins, offering reams of valuable data and better-performing assets.

3. Legislators push for concrete change

   Legislative pressure is creating opportunities for innovators. For example, the UK’s Building Safety Act mandates a digital ledger of all data for new residential buildings, and Sweden’s ID06 requires digital records of all the workers on a site.

   Meeting net-zero targets is another big area of attention. All the things you associate with construction — cement, steel, concrete, heating, cooling and lighting — add up to a huge climate footprint.

   Retrofitting draughty old buildings is a vast undertaking. This “renovation wave” promises improved insulation, modern windows and heat pumps to replace gas boilers, paid for (in part) by EU pandemic recovery money.

4. ChatGPT in a hardhat

   AI/machine learning approaches are slowly being adopted in construction, whether for scouring pictures of facades to identify defects; examining public tenders to see which are the most realistic; or probing project plans to identify risks.

   Running behind schedule means losing money, so it’s not hard to imagine how generative AI tools will also aid builders in the near future, by helping them crunch through a list of client to-dos, for example.

Who early stage startups are up against