AECCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – Part 2

Welcome to the second installation of our series of AECCafe Industry Predictions for 2019. This week we have a number of submissions focusing on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning implementations as primary technologies featured for 2019. The trend has already begun but definitely will be shaping the AEC industry in the year to come and beyond.  As Tibor Szolnoki of GRAPHISOFT says, “Augmented Reality becomes common practice: in collaborative design processes, in job-site applications, and in consumer applications (like home-design solutions).”

This week’s submissions include executives from GRAPHISOFT, Autodesk, Visual Vocal and McCarthy Building Companies. Each company serves the AEC industry and witnesses vital trends moving the industry forward in 2019.

Tibor Szolnoki, GRAPHISOFT

Tibor Szolnoki, ARCHICAD Implementation Team Leader at GRAPHISOFT

“The adoption of BIM will continue to grow in the foreseeable future. The release of ISO 19650 standards will give an additional boost to this trend in 2019.

New prefabrication and modular construction processes will be implemented by major construction companies. These methods will increase the efficiency of the construction industry and result better quality, more eco-friendly buildings.

The implementations of Artificial Intelligence & machine learning solutions in BIM applications has already started and this trend will continue to grow in the future. The primary focus of these developments will be assisting design decisions and optimizing building quality and performance. These technologies will fundamentally change the dynamics of the labor market and the role of humans in the construction industry going forward.

The need for Automation will continue to grow, both during the design process – where many repetitive tasks previously done by humans can be replaced by algorithms – and in construction, where the share of prefabrication is rapidly growing. Robots, 3D printing and other technologies that used to exist in factories only, will find their way to the building site. Remote controlled construction robots, futuristic exoskeletons, autonomous -driving vehicles have already been put to test by innovative construction firms Cloud computing and the development of online collaboration and data sharing platforms continue to be a major focus for the key players of the BIM industry.

Augmented Reality becomes common practice: in collaborative design processes, in job-site applications, and in consumer applications (like home-design solutions).

“Smart home” solutions such as virtual home assistants and intelligent devices connected to the Internet (IoT) will be accessible for significantly more people until the end of this decade. These new technologies will transform the way we design, construct and operate buildings.”

Andrew Anagnost, CEO, Autodesk

Andrew Anagnost, President and Chief Executive Officer of Autodesk.

• 
  “AI / Machine Learning in Construction:Autodesk anticipates the increased exploration and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered algorithms in construction, which already demonstrates significant benefits to the industry. In the year ahead, we will more regularly see AI and machine learning on the jobsite and as a result, more firms will realize its benefits to the construction workflow, saving companies time, money and, most importantly, increasing workers’ safety.
  • Background: Autodesk is the earliest developer of and investor in machine learning on construction sites with Autodesk BIM 360 Project IQ and io, respectively.  Using Autodesk BIM 360 Project IQ, more than 40 contractors report improved quality and reduced risk to personnel, specifically reducing risk of the ‘fatal four’.
• Investments, M&A in Construction: In the past year, we saw a significant increase in the amount of money invested in construction – $1.05B was invested in construction tech startups in H1 of 2018, with 119 funding deals involving construction tech startups (up from 104 in 2017 and 97 in 2016). These stats, coupled with many acquisitions within the industry, demonstrate how this trend will only continue as the industry delves further into its digital transformation.
  • Background: Autodesk invested in seven construction startups in 2017 and 2018 (3DR, io, Project Frog, ManufactOn, Assemble Systems, eSub, Rhumbix), and acquired Assemble Systems and PlanGrid. Autodesk has also signed a definitive agreement to acquire BuildingConnected.
• Industrialized Construction Comes into the Spotlight: In 2018, we saw many construction firms begin to turn to industrialized construction practices to meet the ever-increasing demand for commercial and residential buildings. We are seeing more and more firms adopt methods like prefabricated and modular construction, resulting in building components being created quickly and more accurately, with less waste. In 2019, we expect to see wider adoption of these methods, and more manufacturing techniques including additive and subtractive manufacturing, to be used on construction sites.
  • Background: Autodesk is leading the industrialization of construction, including investing in companies that manage an evolving supply chain (similar to manufacturing), bring manufacturing and additive construction processes to the field (robotics and cargo container), and supporting prefabrication and modular methods.”

Dr. Anagnost’s career spans more than 25 years of product, business, and marketing experience focused on driving strategy, transformation, and product development — and includes positions at Autodesk, Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company, and EXA Corporation. He also completed a doctorate degree at Stanford University and worked at NASA Ames Research Center as an NRC post-doctoral fellow.

Anagnost began his career at Autodesk in 1997 and has held a wide range of roles in the areas of marketing, new business development, product management, and product development. Prior to becoming President and CEO in June 2017, he served as Chief Marketing Officer and SVP of the Business Strategy & Marketing organization. In this role, Andrew served as architect and leader of Autodesk’s business model transition—moving the company to become a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions provider. Previously, Anagnost held various executive positions across Autodesk. Early in his Autodesk career, he led the development of the company’s manufacturing products and grew Autodesk Inventor revenue to over $500 million. 

John SanGiovanni, CEO, Visual Vocal

Visual Vocal CEO John SanGiovanni

“In 2019, Augmented Reality (AR) glasses will come out of the lab and into the enterprise.

Microsoft’s HoloLens leads this trend, with the first large-scale enterprise AR deal. As their HoloLens dev kit enters its third year, many speculate that it is due for a significant update, Recent peeks into the tech signal that this is likely, and that such a product would continue to be enterprise-focused, leveraging Microsoft’s expertise in enterprise solutions.

Magic Leap, having previously shown primarily consumer-related examples for their AR HMD, has signaled an increased focus on productivity by showing several enterprise-focused demos at their LEAP conference in October. Although Apple, Google and Oculus have yet to confirm plans for AR hardware, all have made significant investments in software platforms for AR (AR Core, AR Kit, etc.) and filed countless patent filings in the domain of wearable AR.

These developments, together with a trend of jobsite digitization, suggest increased demands for software layers and platforms that enable fast and efficient capture, annotation and sharing of location-relevant content at scale. Video will no longer be the preferred method for bringing a remote expert into a critical on-site decision process. New telepresence technologies such as AR, VR, Reality Capture, and Immersive Communication software will allow jobsite foremen to quickly and efficiently teleport stakeholders, owners and experts to the workface. Platforms like Visual Vocal will start to become more commonplace as a medium for rapid decision-making, and will be drivers of jobsite efficiency.

In the same way that BIM technology has transformed project planning and documentation, Immersive Communication technologies such as AR will empower jobsite teams to share insights directly from the workface and mitigate some of the expensive and unexpected jobsite visits that can impact project efficiency.

In this way, 2019 looks to be a year of greater efficiency brought upon by this new breed of wearable devices and software solutions.”

Visual Vocal CEO John SanGiovanni has more than two decades of experience as an entrepreneur and inventor. John has authored more than 20 patents in the areas of augmented reality, wearable hardware systems, and UI, many of which have subsequently been licensed or purchased by Apple, Microsoft, and others. Between ventures, John served as a Technical Evangelist for Microsoft Research, where he led external research funding in the areas of mobile technology and AR, and co-invented several UI metaphors now used on more than a billion devices worldwide. John currently serves as CEO of Visual Vocal, a powerful platform for multi-user VR/AR productivity and communication.

Dave Burns, McCarthy Building Companies

Dave Burns, Director of Innovation & Field Applications for McCarthy Building Companies.

“2018 was a major year for venture capital investments and a several high profile acquisitions.  I would expect to see more activity in 2019 where the large industry players set aggressive build or buy strategies on the pure field management technologies – those focused on time capture & productivity tracking, safety, equipment management, material management and logistics.

Expect to see a major uptick in AI-based technology solutions – computer vision and reality capture technologies will lead the way, but I’d expect to more ’embedded’ AI capabilities within leading BIM, project management, planning, and data analytics tools.

As design build and other integrated delivery methods become common place in the industry, I expect to see a host of new capabilities emerging to address the more fluid, agile collaboration requirements required when designers, contractors and clients work together through the design phase.”

Dave has over 14 years of technology implementation experience within the construction industry, with a strategic focus on systems design, evaluations and deployments. In his current role, Dave is responsible for developing the organization’s innovation competencies, including best-in-class research, identification, prioritization and execution of new value-add technology capabilities across the organization.

Tags: 3D, 3D cities, AEC, AI, architects, architecture, artificial intelligence, AutoCAD, Autodesk, BIM, building design, building information modeling, collaboration, construction, design, engineering, machine learning, Open BIM, visualization

Categories: 2D, 3D, 3D PDF, 3D printing, AEC, Archicad, Autodesk, BIM, building information modeling, buildingSMART, civil information modeling, Cloud, collaboration, construction, engineering, file sharing, holograms, infrastructure, lidar, mobile, point clouds, reality capture, rendering, site planning, sustainable design, virtual reality, visualization, wearable devices

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