Introduction

The construction industry has not been typically early adopters of technology. However, new technology, and particularly AI, is set to change this. The potential of AI to improve the construction industry is huge.

Its ability to process complex and diverse data sets quickly means that it can automate tasks and provide guidance to workers, as well as predict potential issues on a project, which could drastically improve the outcome in terms of productivity, cost, and time. Currently, large construction projects rarely finish on time, with cost and time overruns being the norm.

There are often thousands of variables at play, and AI has the ability to process and identify patterns in vast amounts of data that would take humans far longer to do. The recent understanding of the potential of data is fueling the use of AI in construction. A paper titled 'Application of artificial intelligence in construction project cost and schedule estimation' provides a good overview of the types of AI but highlights the potential of neural networks to estimate likely cost and time overruns.

The article is over 10 years old now, but it is only really in the last 5 years a number of companies have started to use data analysis effectively due to the cost for data storage reducing and sheer volume of data now available. This has been particularly prevalent in companies involved in public sector projects who need to keep accurate records for auditing purposes, though this has often been a requirement with no benefit beyond the minimum. AI can automate the analysis of this data to provide predictive models which can inform decision making and risk.

Benefits of AI in Construction

AI main benefit is increasing efficiency and productivity, a similar function is the automatic generation of accomplishment reports, which takes information from various parts of the project. This is an alternative to having a superintendent or foreman make daily reports by observing the worksite.

With a more advanced level of AI, there is potential for a virtual construction project manager. This manager would take on the responsibilities of a superintendent or foreman, make all project decisions, and assign and coordinate workers. The closer a virtual manager is to a real person in decision-making under uncertainty and dynamic coordination of people and resources, the more it will be able to free humans from these mentally intense management activities.

Firstly, AI's automatic project management allows for efficiency in time, as it creates and assigns task lists according to the project plan. This allows the construction workers to go through the task lists at a faster pace with less confusion. All task list changes are detected and reflected with task list updates. This keeps the workers from backtracking and thinking about what to do next if a change were to occur. It would also notify them for overdue tasks, preventing workers from falling behind the project plan. Closed and overdue tasks are detected through the automatic tracking of completion dates.

This is an alternative to having a manager manually keep track of task completions, often with a check on the worksite or by workers reporting to the manager. This process is also a way to monitor worker productivity without having workers feel the pressure of being checked on.

The implementation of artificial intelligence in construction has transformed the industry completely. It has helped not only in improving the speed and accuracy of complicated construction tasks and projects, but has also maximized the productivity of the construction workers. AI does this by using modern technologies such as machine learning algorithms, software, and image recognition to make intelligent decisions.