The World Economic Forum (WEF), in collaboration with Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC), Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and dozens of other stakeholders, believes that full-scale digitisation of the construction industry could save up to $1.7 trillion globally within the next decade.
The Shaping the Future of Construction: Future Scenarios and Implications report published by WEF looks at the impac of emerging technology such as 3D printing, AR and even autonomous construction and is the first ever attempt to integrate consideration of new technologies and trends into three consistent scenarios for the future of the global engineering and construction industry.
The report represents a year-long collaboration with more than 30 leading companies in the engineering and construction industry, including CCC, and highlights that new digital technologies, such as building information modelling (BIM), 3D printing, wireless sensors and autonomous equipment are disrupting a range of industries, including the Infrastructure and Urban Development (IU) industry, and that stakeholders can no longer afford to ignore these fundamental changes.
The member of the Steering Committee for the Future of Construction Initiative, CCC’s manager M.I.S. & business processes re-engineering, Aref Boualwan, said that the digital technology megatrends in the report are crucial for the industry to meet global needs in the future.
The three futuristic scenarios we identified in the report are extreme, but conceivable they analyze how multiple current megatrends could establish different versions of a future world. The scenarios Building in a virtual world, Factories run the world and A green reboot are not designed to predict the future but to help us prepare for emerging trends, said Boualwan.
He added that, in his opinion, there is little doubt that it is realistic to assume that the evolution of the construction industry will be driven by elements of the three scenarios – including major advances in robotics and artificial intelligence, automation and cloud technology – identified in the report.
Elements of this scenario are considered very likely we predict new businesses will emerge, software players will gain more power and more residential, recreational and passenger mobility assets will be required, Mr. Boualwan stated. As a result – transformation imperatives are crucial for all parties in the construction industry, to help them adapt to new realities. We must capture new opportunities and adopt advanced technologies at scale including initiatives like wireless equipment, cloud & real-time collaboration, 3D scanning/printing and augmented reality and visualization. We have seen digital technologies completely transform global industries in recent years from social media to e-commerce and digital based mobility companies. But only very recently have digital technologies begun to emerge in the engineering and construction industry. This is the way of the future and this report will help companies across the industry adequately prepare for it.
For a copy of the report please email: contact@meconstructionnews.com
