Pandemic Induced Tech Reshaping Brick & Mortar Industry

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The Better Co is a technology driven Construction Company. It shares in brief the technologies that are playing a pivotal role in construction industry. The pandemic caught everyone off-guard and changed the way we lead our lives. With people being strongly reminded to observe social distancing and the government imposing constraints on travel, the construction industry is having trouble keeping its projects and operations afloat. The contractors' major focus is worker health and site safety, and thus, numerous sites have had to postpone or slow their activities which has consequently resulted in significant delays. The pressure to finish projects on time and within the allocated resources has pushed the traditional brick-and-mortar industry to embrace technology, which appears to be a viable answer to a variety of construction-related challenges. During this pandemic-affected period, companies have started to deploy technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), big data, and other tools intended to increase efficiencies, lowering costs, and ensuring that projects are delivered on time. Artificial intelligence: AI-powered virtual assistants facilitate engineers and on-site workers with various construction techniques and inform engineers concerning construction flaws to ensure a smooth construction process and a better plan for prevalent modifications. With the incorporation of an AI chatbot, customers can communicate directly with contractors and vice versa. Contractors can understand the concern of the customer and respond to numerous queries, allowing the industry to avoid bumps in the road. Augmented Reality (AR): An interactive 3D experience created by an AR computer-generated model assists project managers in gathering data pertaining to the plot's height, depth, and width and visualizing what the building will look like when finished. AR enables developers to make modifications in the design phase prior to construction, resulting in the efficiency and flexibility needed for the operations. Virtual Reality (VR): Wouldn’t it be nice to know what your house would look like before you build it? With VR, one can pre-plan their home interiors and change anything they want before construction begins, as well as walk through every inch of the property. Even developers can use this technology to sell projects before they are complete. And end up making their customers understand what their future home would look like without them being physically present at the location. Building Information Modeling (BIM): It is a digital representation of each and every attribute of the built asset prior to construction. As everyone can add their ideas to the same model, the use of BIM allows for real-time collaboration between architects, engineers, and contractors. An appropriate visualisation gives construction experts an advantage in the process of planning, design, and construction, allowing them to anticipate challenges, eliminate risk, and boost productivity, leading to a higher lifetime value of the asset. Final Thoughts The adoption of these technologies will be a boon to the construction industry and a game-changer. This will be a watershed moment in how we interact with data and use technology to provide better experiences and ease of access to the customers. This transformation is necessary to address the future housing and infrastructure needs that have and will continue to emerge as a result of the pandemic.