Construction Industry in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

Since 1956, when the term Artificial Intelligence (AI) was first used, it is creating its impact in every industry. Today, almost no industry or country exists which is not influenced by #AI or is not trying to capture and get value out of this. Project Management in specific construction industry has been traditionally slow at innovation as well as accepting the change and adopting new technologies in comparison to other industries. This is one of the key reasons behind a slow #growth of the sector over past few decades rated 1% globally in comparison to 3.6% of manufacturing sector and 2.8% of the global economy [1]. Further, not only growth of the sector has been very slow, the productivity of the sector in the #construction industry did notice any increase in contrast to agriculture, manufacturing and retail sectors enjoyed 1500% increase since 1945[1].

One of the prime objectives of any construction project for the stakeholders is to complete the project within the pre-estimated budget beside accomplishing optimum quality and delivering on time. But are these objectives achieved in the real-world projects? Unfortunately, studies have revealed that one of the three competing priorities influence other two objectives impacting negatively on one of them or all of them at many instances. Out of several factors, some of the key reasons behind failure to achieve the project objectives are, incapability to identify and quantify risks, estimation errors in budgeting as well as changes in design or scope.  

In general, huge amount of data and information is generated, processed and stored in all sort of projects which is required to be maintained both as lesson learned and Project Management Information System in accordance with best practices of #Project Management as well as contractual obligations. This large collection of data is a gold mine in itself though carries challenges in terms of its management and analysis. However, at the same time offers significant #prospects for firms having that data to enhance the estimations for both cost and schedule in the future projects through proper data mining. Capturing and storing the significant data itself is of no value unless the organizations develop the ability to analyse the data, data patterns and trends in it. Developing such a capability by the firms can pave the way to successfully deliver the projects, reducing the gaps between actual and planned values, and providing support for operational and strategic decision making.

AI is a very wide terminology which is used to define for machines who try to imitate logical thinking like human brain such as troubleshooting problems, identifying patterns, forecasting trends and learning from the information [2]. Machine learning, one of the subdivisions of AI, employs statistical techniques enabling the computer systems to learn from the available data without explicitly programmed, moreover studies have revealed that bigger the data these machines are exposed to the better learner and results are delivered by them [3][4][5].

In context of mega projects specially from construction industry gathering plenty of data have the bright prospect to utilize AI. Despite the forecast of slow embracing of AI by the construction industry [6], change is knocking at the door and adoption of AI will become a vital element in near future success of projects in terms of their cost, schedule and quality. It is high time that all the stakeholders of Projects and Construction industry appreciate AI and start benefiting from this under-utilized #technology.

AI can assist stakeholders in better baseline budgeting and avoiding cost overrun because of poor estimations. Leveraging the different available solutions based on machine learning, firms can get significant edge in design along with build phase of any project. For instance, by capturing and processing the conflicting information and design received from different teams of architects, engineers and electro-mechanical from different teams AI can provide a consolidated output of 3D model by early stage mitigating and avoiding risks during build stage. With capability of learning from the data AI can assist in better planning and forecasting the resources, their deployment as well as under or over utilization.

Researchers have conducted many studies to gauge the success factor of AI into forecasting of cost and schedules. One of the such study [7] in which non-parametric bootstrapping and ensemble modelling was employed into artificial neural networks feeding a data of 1600 completed projects to get a forecast for new project with a little information available at start of it. Results revealed that 92% of the 100 validation predictions were within ±10% of the actual final cost of the project whiles 77% were within ±5% of actual final cost. This study endorses that AI can be instrumental for projects success to mitigate the cost overrun at a larger extent.

In my view, AI would be giving competitive edge to firms championing it first. The future is right there while 4th industrial revolution is making difference by adding great value to all industries. Stakeholders in construction industry should start investing into their digital transformation in general and specifically in AI to benefit themselves in an era of digitization.

[1] https://tinyurl.com/yajoko73

[2] Nilsson, Nils J. (2009), The Quest for Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge University Press

[3] Bishop, C. M. (2006), Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning, Springe

[4] Arthur Samuel (1959) {[5] Koza, John R.; Bennett, Forrest H.; Andre, David; Keane, Martin A. (1996). Automated Design of Both the Topology and Sizing of Analog Electrical Circuits Using Genetic Programming. Artificial Intelligence in Design '96. Springer, Dordrecht. pp. 151–170}

[6] https://tinyurl.com/y9xgtx67

[7] Ahiaga-Dagbui, Dominic & Smith, Simon. (2014). Dealing with construction cost overruns using data mining. Construction Management and Economics