Artificial intelligence in the built environment
The real estate and construction sector is enormously important to individuals, communities, and the economy as a whole. After all, we grow up, work, and spend our free time in the built environment. The way we collect, process, and use information related to the built environment has both an immediate and a long-term impact on our well-being.
From search engines to financial services to marketing, artificial intelligence (AI) already affects our daily lives in many ways – even if we may not always notice it. When it comes to construction and real estate though, AI applications are still quite rare. That’s beginning to change, however – meaning that now is the right time to start getting acquainted with the possibilities and limitations of AI in the built environment.
Data on the built environment is increasingly generated from environmental surveys, real estate systems, and planning processes. At its best, data is location bound, standards compliant, and maintained – and in this regard the construction and real estate industries still have room for improvement. In construction, data processing has been largely based on manual work and paper documents. Now, however, the situation is changing as various automatic data collection systems have become more common.
Who is it for?
Especially in the construction industry, there has been a shortage of skilled labor in recent years. The use and automation and AI can gradually alleviate the shortage of experts and increase the productivity of construction sites by improving planning and management. With the help of AI, workers will be freed up to focus on construction-related tasks.
Using AI to process data makes it possible to implement solutions in cases where human labor is too expensive or too slow to be feasible. Machine learning can help us predict housing prices, the need for structural repairs, or energy savings. It can also be used to analyse how a construction project is progressing, whether occupational safety regulations are being complied with, which demolition waste is recyclable, and how nearby residents perceive the construction site.