In 2022, while tech giants poured billions into artificial intelligence and cloud computing, the construction industry spent a mere 1.5% of its revenue on technology—a figure that has remained virtually unchanged for decades. This isn't unique to construction. Many of our most physically intensive industries seem to lag in tech adoption. But why? As I was chatting with a friend in supply chain and logistics we theorized that the overhead of translating the physical world into the digital may be a major obstacle.
In the world of retail, keeping an accurate picture of inventory where theft, damage, loss and other unexpected elements can be difficult. In agriculture, weather, disease, and pests can skew your numbers. In construction, unexpected site conditions, material delays, and the inherent variability of human labor can make it challenging to maintain an accurate digital representation of project progress and resource allocation. The ongoing record keeping to maintain an accurate digital view of the world creates additional overhead to leverage technology.
Given these challenges, is there a way to bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds without adding significant overhead? If it no longer needs to be ancillary work that an otherwise useful person needs to do but is instead a task that can happen automatically, does that enable this space to become more digitally trackable? In the construction example for instance, could off the shelf web cameras stream worksites video that AI then processes? Could this enable more easily generated progress reports and estimate progress or perhaps even create an alert to potential structural issues that may be evident in photographic evidence but not as apparent to someone on the ground due to the gradual nature of the changes? Certainly, AI query prices would need to come down but they are already trending in that direction and perhaps greater value could be seen if the data gathering were more persistently possible.
As industries like construction, retail, and agriculture continue to grapple with the physical-digital divide, AI may offer a path forward. The question remains: can AI truly bridge this gap and provide tangible value, or will it become another overhyped solution in search of a problem?
