The Construction Technology Handbook. Hugh Seaton

from tutorials and videos, and the same is equally true for almost all software‐based products.

      The technology for learning is, I think, one of the biggest changes coming to construction. This learning is as easy as watching a YouTube video, and can be done from a phone, desktop, or tablet anywhere.

      In the past, workforces have been encouraged to “adopt” things as if it were just one big change, then you'd get back to a steady normal. And maybe that was true in the 1970s, but it just isn't true anymore.

      Software doesn't get updated every few years and get shipped to you like Windows in the 1990s. It is a website hosted somewhere else, in the “cloud.” It is constantly updated, redesigned, replaced. The Prolog of the 2010s is the Viewpoint of today, and the Procore of tomorrow isn't going to look like the Procore of today, because it will keep evolving.

      This poses a risk for the everyday Joe and Jane who don't really want to focus on technology, but actually love doing their real job, whether that be framing walls, setting up mechanical systems, or stringing up electrical systems. The solution is to understand the basics of how software, AI, BIM, Prefab, and other technologies work.

The Rest of this Book

      The next chapter is devoted to software, from the ground up. You might know some of the concepts, but probably not the frameworks introduced. How software gets made will make you a better consumer of software, as well as a better selector and, it is my hope, a co‐creator of software products.

      Chapter 3 discusses the more modern aspects of software: networking and systems of software. This includes the cloud, APIs, and other terms that are essential to understanding how the software you use, from email to Procore to Revit, connect to each other and operate.

Chapter 4 goes out into the field, with a deep discussion of construction management software and a wide range of other field software products.

      Chapter 5 looks at industrialized construction, which is made up of automation, prefab, and manufacturing. Automation specifically is a boogeyman for many field workers, as there is a concern that robots either in the field, or at an offsite manufacturing facility will erode wages or take jobs altogether. We'll explore this from a technology as well as an economics standpoint.

      Chapter 6 looks at the ultimate technology boogeyman, artificial intelligence. As the most hyped technology in many years, AI has suffered from too many stories about what it might do, and not enough practical discussion about what it currently can do. There are hard limits to what current approaches to AI can handle, and a huge gulf between those approaches and any of the nightmare scenarios that have so obsessed some in the media.

      We extend those ideas into Chapter 7, with a review of applications of AI, things you can actually pick up and use right now and in the near future.

      In Chapter 8 we'll get into some of the sexier technologies that are making their way into construction, including virtual reality, augmented reality, the Internet of Things (IoT), and more. These technologies promise to completely change how projects are imagined, planned, and built.

      Chapter 9 explores technology innovation and its adoption by companies and users alike. Well over 100 years of experience and research into how technologies spread and more recent work on how companies can most effectively manage technology adoption as part of a digital transformation strategy give us a strong foundation for charting a profitable path forward.

      Finally, Chapter 10 will summarize the book's core themes of mindset changes and attempt to predict what construction might look like in 2035. Such a prediction will be wrong in the details, as they always are. But we know enough to make some bets that can help you decide on what to do, and learn next.

Note

      1 1 RFIs, or requests for information, are a means of clarifying what an architectural team intended when the plans provided aren't sufficiently clear. They often are necessary when the plans do not contain certain information or specifications.