By Shanthi Rajan, CEO, Linarc

2023 is poised to be a dynamic year for the construction industry. Given numerous large-scale economic factors there are many ways the construction industry is expected to change in the coming year.

While no one has a crystal ball, some projections can be made with reasonable confidence. Here are ours.

Less spending on office buildings.

With much of the workforce working from home and office space vacancies skyrocketing, the demand for more office space is low. Existing resources provide plenty of space for current and future needs. Downtowns across the nation are sparsely populated and are but a shadow of what they were before the shutdown. Employees have grown accustomed to working from home and employers have relinquished their offices to save costs. The need to start new office space projects is relatively low in many areas and that’s expected to continue throughout 2023.

Per a recent SFGate article, “Today San Francisco has what is perhaps the most deserted major downtown in America.” It has a 24% office vacancy rate. Various sources including Statista cite the national average at 16.3% in Oct 2022, with pre-pandemic levels at 8.6%.

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By David Ward, CEO, Safe Site Check In

David Ward

The combination of digital transformation, the Infrastructure Bill, and the potential of a recession will impact the industry in the following three ways next year:

1. Development projects will continue yet profitability will remain flat due to rising prices, labor shortages and supply chain challenges.
2. Infrastructures will continue to improve – this is long overdue – as a result of recent legislation. This will create more opportunities in AEC but only for general contractors (GCs) that can successfully navigate labor and pricing challenges. In turn, strategic GCs will invest in technologies including virtual design and construction, digital jobsite management tools and BIM to address these issues.
3. Despite 95% of construction workers reporting higher productivity by using digital technologies on jobsites, these tools will be under greater scrutiny next year. They’ll only be adopted if they deliver immediate payback or if they’re required by the project owner, local regulations or insurers. In fact, don’t be surprised to see insurers start requiring digital tools on jobsites in order to create more efficient records on workers and projects and align premiums based on the data.”

By Burcin Kaplanoglu, VP Innovation, Oracle Industry Labs Oracle Vertical Industries

Burcin Kaplanoglu

As the engineering and construction industry continues to confront disruptions stemming from COVID-19, shifting project types, increased competition, and a retiring labor force, we are starting to see how the way we work has changed forever.

In the construction industry, the primary use cases for new technologies during the pandemic were remote worksite monitoring to bolster worker safety and progress reporting, supply chain management, and enhanced sustainability for green construction projects.

Here is how I see those technologies continuing to transform the industry, as well as others to come in 2023:

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By Amy Bunszel, Executive VP Architecture, Engineering and Construction Design Solutions

Amy Bunszel

Leading the way to the future of design

Author and media theorist Steven Johnson says, “If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect.”  When I look toward the future of the industries that design and make the world around us, I’m inspired by the opportunity for collaboration and idea exploration that will shape a brighter tomorrow.

By the middle of the 21st century, we will live, play, and do business in buildings designed to nourish the environment rather than take from it. Our infrastructure networks will be resilient and sustainable, and they will extend to exciting unknown places from the metaverse to the universe. We’ll buy products designed with zero waste that are assembled in smart factories. And Autodesk technology will enable this future, every step of the way.< We’re celebrating the last few decades of Autodesk innovation by envisioning what the future holds. Autodesk already boasts a track record of transforming the industries we serve. But what lies ahead has me even more excited.  >I asked my peers across the organization to share their vision for how design will evolve in years to come. I spoke with Raji Arasu, executive vice president and chief technology officer; Jeff Kinder, executive vice president, design and manufacturing; and Diana Colella, senior vice president, Entertainment & Media Solutions. As I expected, they are dreaming big, and so are their teams.

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