Time-tested construction technology has proven essential in keeping jobsites open and projects running amidst the pandemic. With COVID-19 sparking an urgent need for remote work solutions, the construction industry’s demand for reliable tech tools accelerated dramatically through 2020, compressing three years of construction tech market growth and adoption into the past nine months alone.
According to JLL’s State of Construction Tech 2020, established technology categories like digital collaboration platforms, virtual scanning tools and safety-focused wearables each gained significantly more ground this year than had been projected, due to the unforeseeable impacts of the pandemic. These proven toolsets quickly became industry lifelines, as small and large firms alike hastened to implement virtual inspections, connect remote project teams to workers onsite, and support social distancing.
Adoption has grown for foundational technologies, yet investment in emerging technology has been more tempered. Although venture capital funding is still flowing to construction technology startups, most new funding is concentrated in categories that have grown because of the pandemic.
Following are key drivers behind the current, if uneven, momentum, and insights on the categories coming out ahead.
How 2020 Exposed All-New Value in Construction Tech
While COVID-19 continues to ravage the broader economy, it’s had a net positive impact in the construction tech space, with social distancing and remote work pushing many new requirements. In 2020, 67% of construction firms enabled remote work for construction office jobs, driving up industry need for cloud-based digital collaboration platforms.
Remote collaboration tools have also made it possible for execution to continue at the site itself by cutting down on the number of people typically needed there. Usually, coordinating with teams and subcontractors requires many-hands-on-deck meetings and walkthroughs. By leveraging scanning tools, virtual walkthroughs, virtual inspections, and digital issue tracking, however, firms can accomplish much of that remotely, with only a couple of people physically onsite.
Construction firms have also found tech solutions make it easier to facilitate safety protocol onsite. For example, wearables and monitoring devices provide real-time data to help companies enforce social distancing, and support contact tracing if needed.
Five Construction Tech Winners, Ranked
The overall story is positive for tried-and-true construction technologies. Following are key categories experiencing adoption boosts related to COVID-19:
Foundational construction tech tools have become a must-have for many firms, while less mature technologies remain in the nice-to-have column, and yet others land somewhere in between.
Early-stage technologies have also experienced comparatively less momentum. The economic downturn continues to reduce demand for new projects, and with backlogs falling, firms often have fewer discretionary dollars to risk on less mature technologies like robotics, augmented and virtual reality, and 3D printing. As such it’s likely that overall growth in construction tech investment will be tempered, thinned out by smaller startups struggling to regain traction and revenue.
But one thing is clear: construction technology adoption reached historic levels in 2020, with foundational tools emerging as an essential means of weathering the many impacts of COVID-19.
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