AI and robotics dominate the 2024 construction technology forecast

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It’s been another whirlwind year for the construction industry and technology wasn’t a calming influence.

The buzz around artificial intelligence — especially generative AI — consumed much of the focus of the construction technology industry. Experts told Construction Dive how important technology will be to the industry in the coming years.

These same professionals also emphasized other areas that contractors should consider, particularly targeted advances solve the labor crisis. These include software-based tools that use artificial intelligence, as well as robotics and new materials and construction processes.

Artificial intelligence

Following the floodgates that opened later OpenAI launched ChatGPT last yearExperts from all industries have been examining how growing technology will change their work.

“It’s the one thing people want to talk about on panels,” said Kelly Benedict, head of innovation and transformation at Providence, Rhode Island-based Gilbane Building Co. “How do construction companies start using generative AI?”

Matt Abeles, vice president of construction technology and innovation at Associated Builders and Contractors, said the power of AI could be used to free up day-to-day workers from mundane tasks, like emails, along with work at the workplace.

“In construction, we can rely on AI for essential goals such as skills enhancement, workforce development, knowledge transfer, supply chain optimization, design and planning improved security and more,” Abeles said.

However, these experts also warned contractors to be careful. While this isn’t unique advice: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s ouster and reinstatement in 2023 revolved around the existential threats the technology could pose to humanity, AI professionals construction industries must be especially careful.

“In our industry, we really have to be aware of the life, safety and risks of our workplaces,” said Henning Roedel, robotics manager at Redwood City, California-based DPR Construction. “If this great linguistic model answers with the wrong answer, and we believe it and act accordingly, it is up to us. We have to be very careful with this and make sure the information is correct and do our due diligence.”

robotics

A topic that often goes with AI, robotics is also front and center in the contech space.

Its applications are varied. Some laid bricks. Some drive batteries as part of industrial solar installations. A humanoid robot can move around a workplace, throwing bags with impressive feats of dexterity and athleticism. Finally, it was an experimental workplace in Canada operated entirely by autonomous machinery.

But this may be just the beginning of the rise of machines in construction.

Roedel pointed to breakthrough from the Toyota Research Institute, where researchers use a generative AI technique known as “diffusion policy” to teach robots to perform skilled tasks. As with large language models, such as ChatGPT, the goal is to create large behavioral models.

“Combining AI with hardware, I think it could be the big 2024 that will revolutionize our industry,” Roedel said.

An important caveat, however, is the unpredictability of both technology and what happens in workplaces. Robotics experts have urged industry professionals to wait and see as they calculate the impacts machines will have on their businesses, including whether robots will eventually take jobs of human workers.

Solid wood and prefabrication

Beyond direct technology, innovative materials and processes will also dominate conversations about improving construction productivity in 2024. For example, a growing number of homeowners and municipalities are turning to solid wood as a more environmentally friendly alternative carbon in concrete, steel and other polluting elements. components

Some examples include Amazon’s $2.5 billion second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia; two new buildings at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine; and 150 million dollars massive wooden institutional building in Toronto.

Builders are also increasingly focusing on efficient processes such as prefabrication, although they retain a good deal of skepticism in reserve towards the approach.

“It takes some choice out of the equation,” said Michael Zeppieri, vice president of emerging technology at Skanska USA. “You can get to volume and economies of scale, and you can meet market needs, but you’re removing choice.” As a result, Zeppieri added, the end results can be a bit “cookie-cutter.”

For this reason, builders should choose where to apply this process.

“I think our approach will be more strategic,” said Danielle O’Connell, Skanska’s senior director of emerging technology. “Not only do we have to prefab so that an owner wants it, but we can actually identify why this might not work or why it might work really well.”

3D printing

One technology that may still be under the radar for many large contractors in 2024 is industrial 3D printing.

The additive manufacturing method can still be a bit experimental for most buildersand is primarily in the domain of startups seeking to change the way contractors build residential properties or as foothold for construction in space.

However, major builders such as HITT Contracting, based in Falls Church, Va., are also paying attention to the technology: The company is dedicating space to its new headquarters for experiments involving a cutting-edge 3D printing system.

Skanska’s O’Connell said he has noticed a recent surge in interest in 3D printing, although actual commercial results are further away.

“I don’t think we’ve seen anything at Skanska that has scaled to the point where we could use it,” O’Connell said. “But that could change.”

DPR’s Roedel is more optimistic about the technology.

“I think every workplace is going to have some kind of 3D printer,” Roedel said. He differentiated between a small printer, to make custom parts that can be sent to manufacturers, to massive facilities that can make actual formwork.