By Zack Devin
Artificial Intelligence is a broad term that comprises many technologies. The objective of these technologies is to mimic human cognitive functions. For example, a sensor mimics the human skin, a calculator does the sums and represents the human brain, and a face recognition device mimics the human eyes.
There are many more technologies and devices that together form the realm of artificial intelligence (AI). It looked like a futuristic science, but some quick advances have made AI a commonplace technology finding widespread applications. AI-assisted road flares are an excellent example of AI application in the contraction industry.
What is AI?
An integral aspect of AI is machine learning. While AI chiefly denotes machines and devices that mimic human cognitive functions, machine learning is the computer’s ability to quickly analyze big data and find relevant information.
Machine learning is a part of AI. With the analytical ability of machine learning combined with various technologies that mimic human cognitive functions, AI is a powerful technology that impacts industries and ordinary lives alike.
AI in the construction industry
The construction industry employs 7% of the world’s total workforce and spends $10 trillion per year. These are massive figures, and they give an idea of the size of the industry. When so much is at stake, it is bound to attract be best of technologies.
By nature, the construction industry is labor-intensive, where a lot of routine work such as mixing and pouring of concrete, laying of bricks, and plastering of walls take place project after project. That’s an area that makes the construction industry slow and low on productivity. These factors impact the RoI.
The use of AI is aimed at all these factors, and it’s showing great results. Here are some of the areas where AI is being used in the construction sector:
Predicts and prevents cost overruns
Since AI can analyze big data, it’s a great asset for the construction sector, where most of the things are in significant numbers.
AI helps construction companies work out big data and come with an accurate assessment of the number of workers and the number of materials needed. They also leverage historical data to make their plans more full-proof.
All these elements go on to make different estimates, including the cost, more accurate. Cost overruns are very common in the construction industry. Still, with the application of AI, it is now possible to work out the cost accurately and prevent cost-overruns by sticking to the plan.
AI gets better design options.
We have software that can give a thousand designs based on any single set of specifications. This allows the architects, civil engineers, and designers to think along those many lines and see which design suits their project the most. For large projects, manual designing can take months to create the blueprint of a single project.
With AI-assisted software, you get hundreds of designs in a single day of work. It expedites the designing process, gets hundreds of design options, and has little or no scope for any mistake creeping in. AI is an integral part of designing in the construction sector.
Risk mitigation
Big construction projects carry significant risks. It can be about safety, quality, time, and costs. A lot of people with various backgrounds work on a single big project. It is not possible to give a rating to each of them for their sincerity, commitment, efficiency, skill set, and other variables.
But the AI-assisted software can analyze the data and see it in the context of historical data to work out grading and ratings for each individual.
This takes out the element of risk in decision making. Similarly, AI can be used to evaluate and contrast other inputs such as materials, suppliers, contractors, and even investors.
Project planning
We have seen how AI helps in churning out hundreds of designs based on a simple set of specifications. But AI can be used in a wide range of applications.
Software programmers have developed programs for each aspect of the construction industry. This includes project planning. It is not merely designs or risk assessment; it can do virtually all kinds of data analysis to make your project a perfectly planned venture.
Final thoughts
AI has become a very mature and powerful technology in a short time. It helps the construction industry in myriad ways. This article has discussed some of the use cases, but AI has numerous more applications in the construction industry.
For example, AI-assisted road flares can be used to keep large danger areas earmarked on a big contraction site.
