Construction industry in the age of robots

The construction industry was always slow at adopting new technology. You might think that it changed recently. Drones, BIM, Autonomous vehicles, VR, AR, robotics or exoskeletons. Those are trends to watch in 2018.

However, the construction as a sector still drags behind the others. The main reasons are fear of change and slow regulation changes. The shift is happening, though. Slow and steady, yet inevitable. And I would like to calm down the pessimism that surrounds it.

I see a big fear of the recent changes. What will happen to the workers? Can we expect a massive increase in unemployment in years to come?

The market is rising, at the time of writing this post, we are 10 years away from the last economic crisis in 2018. And there are no signs of stopping it. We can expect that there will be lots of new technologies adapted throughout next few years, that will change construction sites as we know them.

Should workers fear? I believe that they do not have to if they can accept some changes. The world is faster than it ever was and those who can adapt have nothing to be afraid of.

We want to build more, new technologies will simply allow us to build faster and more efficient while maintaining the same quantities of workers. The workers will just bury hammers and learn how to operate new machines, coordinate them, learn how to fly drones, how to use unmanned vehicles and many other new gadgets.

And if a certain percentage will be laid off, they can just slightly shift into designing the buildings, because, with increased effectivity, there will be bigger need to design new buildings. And that would be awesome because just a small percentage of buildings is designed by capable professionals.

Therefore I believe all new trends that will be adopted by construction industry are a step in the right direction. They can increase effectivity and therefore at the same time allow the designer numbers to grow which will provide all the people with the better environment.

Urban planners, architects, landscape architects and designers can do what they are great at and new technologies will make it easier to make their dreams reality.

Cheers