Relative to banking, finance, and healthcare the construction AI (artificial intelligence) market is still relatively small - however! It might be very costly to overlook these advancements as with any field of business we should be looking to automate and outsource as much as possible in our pursuit of providing as much value as possible to customers.
Construction may be fertile ground for AI Advancements as the United States Department of Labour considers construction sites to be one of the more dangerous places to work - due to the presence of uneven terrain, heavy equipment.
The fatal injury rate is above the US national average and “struck-by deaths” have risen 34% since 2010.
On the flip side, construction is also a massive sector, and considering that it is Saudia Arabia’s second-largest industry behind Oil, don’t be surprised if we start seeing real traction in this space in the next few years!
That’s not to say that AI in construction is something far off either, AI in construction has definitely arrived and is making things easy for the early adopters!
The Best AI in Construction - What should we look for?
As with any task, we should look to leverage our time and resources as well as we can by implementing automation to outsource routine tasks.
In construction, there are many “intelligence tasks” such as design, risk analysis, budgeting, planning, schedule analysis, schedule reviewing, optimizing, etc - that frankly, a machine might do much better than their human counterparts (assuming they have been well built!)
As for the best AI construction software? Look for something that has already taken a routine task and automated this.
Why is this the best? As it’s an easy sell.
For the technologies that we want to receive wide uptake throughout the industry, we want to look for ones that are very easy to communicate their benefits - and look to provide an immediate impact for the users.
These are the low hanging fruit for AI.
Through machine learning, deep robotics, and other names we might not actually know the meaning of - may be exciting, but there are tasks that are taking up real hours right now for businesses that might be very easy to outsource to an AI software.
The Return of Expert Systems
AI, contrary to what people might think, is nothing new.
An old iteration of AI went under the name of “Expert Systems”.
To put things simply, it’s where an expert or a team of them might sit down with a software engineer and turn their knowledge and experience into code.
Basically, he is making a machine that analyses, diagnoses and provides action based upon that - perhaps better than him.
This is building a “knowledge base”.
All that remains after this is to 1. build a system that turns user demands into a series of algorithms to work through that knowledge base and produce the required action to the user.
And 2. Build a user interface for entering requests and interpreting results (the easy part!).
So the construction intelligent reader might now understand the massive impact these technologies might have.
Construction is very heavy in processes that require an experienced professional with years of study under their belt to sit down and use some (not AI) software tools to try and churn out results in a number of hours or days.
The list of these are many, and really we listed many above, here they are again with some additions for ease of reading:
Design,
Risk analysis,
Budgeting,
Planning,
Schedule analysis,
Schedule reviewing,
Optimizing
All of these are areas right now where people are employing experienced consultants with years of experience to have to do processes over and over again based on that knowledge… can you see what I might be getting at?
These processes may all be ripe for an “Expert System”,
An AI software that takes all of that knowledge and experience and creates rule-based analysis to make that knowledge and experience available to everyone (or data-based, but that’s perhaps beyond the scope of this article).
Will Robots Take our JOBS!?
So with the rise (or return) of expert systems, should the experts be worried
The answer is no... but,
But they need to be ready to adapt.
These systems, no matter how complex are always going to require an expert to use them and produce tailored, beneficial results for there clients.
And today’s current experts are obviously the prime candidates for these positions.
That said, will they adapt?
To understand the need here, let’s take Claim Cracker for example -
Claim Cracker - One-Click Consultant?
Claim Cracker is an AI “Expert System” which has taken over 27 years of knowledge and experience and distilled it into one software.
It now does a routine industry task (schedule submittal review) and produces them at an expert standard in around 5 minutes.
They used to take anywhere from 8 hours to 2 days.
Can we see how this might be very useful for businesses (consultants) that primarily work off a dollar per hour billing?
With this technology, a business-savvy consultant with some fire, might use Claim Cracker to Undercut his competitions bids for work 5 TIMES and still turn a profit!
Let’s see the maths:
5-minute report with Claim Cracker
+
10 minutes hemming in and tailoring manually,
Vs
8 hours of manual work (an optimistic number!)
8 divided by a quarter is 32.
So basically, if Consultant X with Claim Cracker goes to compete with his competition for work, let’s say that the industry average is $200 dollars per hour (this actually is the going rate in some parts of the US for a schedule submittal review).
So 8 * $200 is $1600
Now consultant X offers to do the whole report for just 900 bucks, massive saving right!
What’s he actually charging per hour though?
900 divided by a quarter is $3,600!
He has increased his per hour billing by 18 TIMES the competition - and is still massively undercutting them!
Oh, and Claim Cracker is so quick that he might be able to buy up all the work on the market in a single day.
15 minutes x 10 hours = 40 jobs in a day (i.e. a month’s work).
Calling all experts
So really, we hope that we have demonstrated that AI software is a massive - if not necessary - implementation in the industry.
Whereas in the past one might go to learn a trade over many years, become more proficient to the point that he excels his teach, then later take an apprentice and repeat the cycle.
Or, a business-savvy person might go learn a skill, gain proficiency, then hire someone to do it for him at an hourly rate, then free up his time for more higher-level skills (managing, entrepreneurship) - then outsource them, etc.
Now, with AI “Expert Systems” the story might be very different.
Someone goes and learns a task, gains proficiency in it - then turns this knowledge into code and creates software that does his job for him - basically for free.
… and in a number of seconds.
We might very well be on the verge of the AI race, as experts look to turn what they do into a computer program before someone else does and slashes their billing overnight.
What is the Best AI Construction Software?
Right now, I don’t know one better than Claim Cracker.
But here is a list that you might use to go through and qualify tools that you might use to bring you benefit.
Does it do a task I am already doing?
Does it do it for fewer dollars per hour?
Is it reliable/consistent?
Why focus on outside ideas and these weird and wonderful things, when there are really low hanging fruit - intelligence tasks that only require a sitting down between an expert and someone who can code (and maybe a few coffees).
Thanks a lot for reading, any questions as always, the chat function is in the bottom right corner!
Take care,
Niall
The Project Cracker Team
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