Building Information Modeling (BIM) Hasn’t Progressed Much Because Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hasn’t Been Fully Utilized

Construction projects are becoming increasingly more complex. There is more specialization due to the increased and more technically advanced buildings. At the same time, the amount of information grows exponentially, and it is becoming much harder to manage it. To address this problem one could utilize specialized sub-contractors, thus drawing upon their work-experience for their specific task. However, the amount of information would still be large and hard to manage. The other solution is BIM (Building Information Modeling).

Unfortunately, due to its many challenges, currently BIM successfully supports mostly the design phase of a construction project. It functions as a source of various kind of information that supports decision making. That is why BIM still could not address the various types of complexities on the construction site. There is much data but there are still limited efforts in machine learning, educating Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is still in a stage of development. Many design software developers claim to offer programs for the design of a technological project of a building but none of them are fully automated. Basically, BIM works as a huge library with a great search engine.

In other words, despite the progress brought by the BIM concept in the construction sector, BIM still does not have a specific software application development rules for developing an AI. For instance, there are no claims management software application development rules and therefore there is no claims management software development technology. In summary, there is no basic intelligence that provides to the Claim Manager intelligent alternative claim management scenarios.

Unless a Claim Manager has decades of experience in managing claims in multiple complex projects simultaneously, he or she would not be able to generate instinctive or automatic solutions. Currently, BIM simply offers monitoring without identification of the best solution to a problem. Such solutions could be generated when AI becomes the focus of BIM and the relevant knowledge is transferred via machine learning or the self-education mode.  

In view of the above, to have a fully functional BIM, it is essential to develop AI for each construction planning criteria; Bid management, Job scheduling, Contract management, Permit Management, Subcontractor management, Timesheets etc. However, the development of AI is a very costly endeavor and it is unlikely that one company will dare to venture developing AI in all different construction planning criteria just to create one fully functioning BIM. It is more likely that software development companies will specialize in one or two construction planning criteria and thus offer their services as sub-contractors.   The other solution is to create an AI that with the consent of other parties transfer and combine the intelligence from the specialized AI construction companies.