Harrison Law makes a point of providing current articles, news, guidance, and other helpful input from authoritative sources spanning the Internet. In addition to maintaining this blog, our Arizona-based law firm also posts regularly to our LinkedIn business page, with certain posts singled out for attention and summarization here. Today we would like to call your attention to an article by Maria Brown, originally posted on the real estate thought leadership site GlobeSt.com. It’s entitled, “Construction Tech Will Not Replace Humans.”
Brown’s article addresses the important issue of automation’s effects on the construction industry. It begins by pointing out how technology now plays an ever-increasing role in the construction industry, both for residential needs and for commercial developments. Users place high hopes on artificial intelligence and related technology applications for making dream projects easier than ever to conceive and build. Along the way, however, concerns have arisen over whether machine learning and construction technology will actually supersede human effort in the creation and implementation of such projects.
According to the President of Rider Levett Bucknall North America, Julian Anderson, the answer is most likely “no.” Anderson’s reasoning hinges partly on the fact that much of the new construction currently going up has to do with renovations, rebuilds, and build-outs as opposed to all-new construction. This type of work requires “somebody to have an eyeball for it,” in Anderson’s words, with human creativity and experience playing a critical role in evaluating current spaces and envisioning the changes that must be made.
This human contribution transcends the current abilities of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence does indeed have tremendous potential for analyzing data and coming up with highly efficient spaces and cost-effective supply chain processes. However, the resulting plans and designs would be based entirely on cost-effectiveness, which is only one aspect of successful construction and supply chain management.
Anderson adds that the ultimate responsibility for choosing a final design will continue to call for human minds, using a university campus layout as an example. An AI program might be able to generate a number of options to determine the most logical positioning of the campus’s various departmental buildings, but in the end a school chancellor would have to make the final selection.
The ongoing need for human involvement inevitably raises the possibility of human error or misunderstanding, which in turn may lead to a variety of legal disputes. In my work as a construction law attorney, I regularly help construction contractors and other business owners navigate payment disputes, change order disputes, delay damage claims, mechanics’ liens, and allegations of defective or incomplete work. Just as certain elements of the construction industry will always require human insight and experience, construction law will continue to call for specific kinds of legal expertise as long as humans are involved.
You can read the entire article here in its entirety by registering as a Free ALM Digital Reader. Our next highlighted LinkedIn post will discuss an article about new laws that may affect businesses in a variety of states, including Arizona, in 2020. You can read this post by clicking HERE. The first post in our LinkedIn Spotlight Series post can be found HERE. Click HERE for the second installment of our most recent LinkedIn Spotlight Series.
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