Artificial Intelligence in Construction Drives Better Outcomes with Data

Original article on the Oracle Construction and Engineering Blog

Construction projects can be complicated, especially when it involves managing costs, scheduling, and meeting deadlines. Incorporating data analytics in the construction process can remove much of the uncertainty by improving project performance, corralling costs, and improving efficiency.

But what does data analytics mean to the frontline construction worker? For one, data analytics can help your electricians minimize rework by more accurately and efficiently installing conduits and wire lighting, switches, and converters. But artificial intelligence also is playing an increasingly important role in helping save lives on a jobsite by predicting safety risks.

Ensuring the safety of employees

AI in construction isn’t just a theoretical concept. Practical uses of AI drive enterprise level business value creation, including safety.

Employee safety remains of paramount importance on a construction site, and many organizations utilize the latest safety innovations and technologies including predictive analytics to help manage safety risks on project sites. Leveraging data from project sites and complex algorithms to give a risk rating to jobsites indicates how likely a safety incident is to occur based on certain conditions that have been observed to correlate with incidents in the past.

Predictive analytics can identify situations that have higher risks of a safety incident occurring. These tools can forecast incidents like weather reports predict dangerous conditions before a storm hits a community. When the risks of safety incidents are heightened, project teams can take the necessary steps to alleviate the risk and potentially save injuries and lives.

Taking a proactive approach

Recent advances in predictive analytics are helping organizations stop being reactive and start acting more proactively. By employing innovative solutions in AI and measuring everything they do, organizations can better track safety results and progress.

Construction safety technology works across multiple disciplines. Commercial construction, energy, oil and gas, and manufacturing all benefit from AI and predictive analytics.

A new ebook available for download titled, “Construction and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Better Outcomes with Data” addresses how the art of building meets the science of data to mitigate risk and improve decision-making.

Artificial intelligence holds enormous potential to help engineering and construction organizations achieve this goal by unlocking new predictive insights from project data. The ebook offers keen insight into how readers should understand that historical data is a treasure trove offering a critical starting point to deeper analysis.

While safety is a major concern, other predictive aspects of analytics in AI remain important to owners. Here’s where AI also can help reduce risk on projects:

Schedule
Cost
Health
Quality (design review risk/design document versioning)

Data-driven decisions are important, and having easily accessible data through the power of AI we can start to see what tomorrow might look like and decide what actions we to take today. Using data is one way to stay ahead of the competition. But as technology grows on the jobsite you’ll also minimize errors, reduce risk, and perhaps most importantly keep employees safe since a perfect safety record should be every contractor’s goal.