How artificial intelligence is disrupting the construction industry

27 / 8 / 2018

There is an urban legend that artificial intelligence and machines will take over the civilization and their jobs. However, this is nothing but a myth. Some machines like robots (drones, for example) are already being used in the construction sector to speed up and make the works on the field easier.

Robots won’t replace the human work, they will strengthen it. We’re talking to automate this tedious and monotonous tasks that can take most of the time projects. Same with artificial intelligence. The computational intelligence can be used to predict better results, design complex projects, and schedule repetitive decision-making tasks.

The inherent unpredictability of the construction sector

It is a fact that the construction industry is always hanging by a thread. If it is not the challenge during the design phase, it is a non-predicted problem with the weather. Extreme and complicated situations can happen, and it doesn’t matter how well we planned the project: there’s always the surprise factor.

Following this model, it is complicated to find similar projects to establish a common pattern. Because of that, being able to predict future events has become a very tough task, especially when a lot of variables are out of our control. Here is when artificial intelligence can give us a hand by providing information about hidden associations.

Where are we in the artificial intelligence race?

Technologies that are being used nowadays are useless because they only are able to predict certain transformations. For example, manual scripting sequences consume a lot of time and are often limited by the skills of the planner. But we’re facing a very encouraging future where professionals will be able to create and evaluate millions of scenarios. Once we have this arrangement, it’s a matter of time that the project team select the sequence to optimize project benefits for both owners and operators.

The use of artificial intelligence and robotic solutions will improve the effectivity of the work and will free the professionals. Due to all the investment put in the infrastructure field, it is important to take advantage of every improvement available to build the world, like BIM for example. The construction sector is ready to embrace the artificial intelligence but the current applications must be optimized for every project.