Employers and employees alike are keeping a close eye on how the future of work is shaping up. For a lot of sectors, reading about the future of work evokes a picture of remote work and Zoom meetings. But that isn’t the case in construction: It’s one of the industries where remote work isn’t really possible. The construction industry has also remained steadfast in the ways of yore, with updates to processes and adoption of new tech being few and far between.
That’s not to say that construction has entirely shunned new ways of doing things. “Move fast and break things” may not be a phrase you want associated with construction, but when an innovation brings a lot of upside while minimizing the negatives, it’s hard to ignore. Even when a problem becomes too big to work around, the industry has shown a willingness to turn to bleeding-edge tech to find a solution.
We’ll be doing a deep dive into what the future of work in construction is going to look like in the coming days. To build more context around it, we’re taking a general look at construction tech trends to get a basic idea of where the industry is headed. We spoke to a few construction tech founders, who shared their vision on the sector.
Who we spoke to:
Ritwik Pavan, founder and CEO, Krava
James Swanston, founder and CEO, Voyage Control
Constantin Kauffmann, co-founder and CEO, Oculai
Yosh Rozen, founder and CEO, PartRunner
Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Ritwik Pavan, founder and CEO, Krava
How different will the construction industry look in 2030? What nascent tech do you expect to be commonplace by then?
By 2030, I believe that several aspects of the construction industry will be fully digitized and automated. Technologies like drones for site surveying, AI for design optimization, and robots for tasks like bricklaying or concrete pouring might become standard. Additionally, augmented reality could play a role in real-time project visualization, and advanced 3D printing might allow for rapid prototyping and even full-scale building components production.