Summary written by Andy Holtmann and appeared on the Viewpoint blog.

Construction Dive Looks at Top 5 Trends for 2020

Construction Dive, which over the past few years has become a significant industry source for news and trends in the AEC industries, gave its take on five key ways construction will evolve in the year ahead. The article points to more scrutiny of structural design and safety processes by government agencies, insurance companies and others in the wake of several high-profile accidents and structural flows; increased adoption of more efficient building methods like modulization and prefabrication; more diversity among future generations of construction professionals; and continued automation of processes through technology — without negatively impacting jobs. “Contractors seem primed to welcome more automation, because it seems increasingly inevitable that jobsite and back-office technologies will integrate,” the article noted.

The Takeaway: The article hits the nail on the head in terms of the trends to watch in 2020 — especially with automation. With once forward-looking technologies like robotic construction processes, autonomous vehicles and virtual reality becoming actual reality, contractors are starting to embrace the notion of automated construction processes. On the back end, modern construction software is already driving the digitization and automated workflows of the data and documents driving construction processes. As this digital transformation advances, we’re entering a period of data transformation in the construction industry, where contractors are taking advantage of the cloud and the latest business intelligence tools to drill deeper into data analytics, developing new industry benchmarks and richer data that will further fuel and drive automation in the industry.