Digital Adoption in Construction Kicks into High Gear

The US construction workplace looks vastly different today than it did even six months ago. Construction companies are getting back to work, and as they do, they’re having to observe safety standards and restrictions that require creativity at the very least in order to maintain a project’s workflow.

In order for companies to comply with myriad new rules while getting their projects back on track, the new jobsite restrictions are causing an acceleration in the adoption of technology. And this is all taking place in an industry that has made halting progress in adopting technology for the past fifty years.

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Contractors that may not have been planning on taking the leap so soon are learning to utilize innovative tools like 3D scanners, drones, smart devices, collaborative software like Autodesk BIM 360, thermal cameras, and remote inspection platforms in order to facilitate the path forward. Some pundits characterize the recent adoption of technology by these companies as exponential in scope.

A June, 2020 article on the NASDAQ blog, “Coronavirus Boosts Augmented Reality Adoption,” agreed there is a tech adoption trend and observed that augmented reality (AR) is being adopted rapidly by “almost every major sector including consumer, healthcare, retail, gaming, entertainment, construction, and tourism” so workers can interact between the real world and 3D virtual objects in real-time.

While it seems like there already is an overabundance of tech innovations for construction companies, there are only so many tools that can fill a need on the scale and diversity that’s required to accommodate this huge industry, which, to complicate matters, lags a little behind the tech adoption curve. Cloud based tools are available, but entire companies – inside workers included – are now needing to be connected to the action without actually going to the field. 

According to the June 12, 2020 PitchBook article, “Pandemic speeds up digital transformation in construction,” the 3D media platform developer Matterport partnered with Autodesk to “enable construction builders to virtually track projects via 3D walkthroughs.” Matterport provides an immersive 3D experience using virtual reality and referred to as an all-in-one reality capture system. The business development director of Matterport, Tomer Poran, explained the dire need for technology solutions, “Suddenly, ‘the way we’ve always done it’ isn’t possible.”

Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost told CNBC in a recent interview that one technology that Autodesk is championing is generative design – the use of artificial intelligence – to give businesses in the construction industry “options that increase the creativity of the way they’re solving the problem.”

As the construction industry transforms, if your company is in the situation of “business not as usual,” contact Applied Software today for a quick discovery call. The industry-trained experts of Applied will help you get your company back on track as quickly and efficiently as possible using the best innovations for your company’s specific needs.