The construction industry has a productivity problem: How Gen AI can help fix it
Construction productivity is stagnant, but AI promises to help change that by streamlining processes and boosting efficiency.
It’s no secret that U.S. college education is pricey and often leaves crushing debt in its wake. This spells opportunity for a construction industry that provides attractive alternatives to four-year institutions as it brings a new generation of talent into the fold.
I’m part of that generation – Generation Z – a cohort born roughly between about 1997 and 2012.
Courting this cohort is critical, given the ongoing construction labor shortage, which 58% of respondents of an industry survey described as severe or very severe. Add to that the ongoing “silver tsunami” of retirements in a business where one in five workers are 55 or older.Gen Z will be backfilling those roles regardless – this is a key industry, and demographics will prevail. But what sort of Gen Z talent will do that backfilling – because you want the best, right?
University-level management and engineering programs will continue to be vital feeders for Gen Z in construction. But so many diamonds in the rough are discouraged from higher ed for lots of reasons, from financial limitations to not wanting to sit in a classroom for four more years. Given the chance, they could do great work and rise to industry leadership.
There are two ways technology can help construction businesses reel Gen Z talent in and help them develop to their full potential. The first has to do with the role of emerging technologies for improving how construction projects are conceived, designed, and completed. The second involves tech tools that help recruit, train, and retain the people at the heart of those efforts.
Attracting the digital native: Gen Z in construction
Gen Zers were born into a digital world. The oldest of us were in elementary school when the iPhone emerged; the youngest of us were that age when TikTok exploded onto the scene.
When it comes to job-related technology, the construction industry has it: Building information modeling (BIM), liDAR, drones, and, increasingly, AI that touches all aspects of the business and the projects it develops. It’s time to flaunt it.
Consider AI’s impact on construction: AI can turn pencil sketches into workable design options. By supercharging BIM, AI can assess design data and optimize layouts while taking into account cost, schedule deadlines, space utilization, energy efficiency, and sustainability considerations ranging from sun angles to building materials.
AI analysis of worksite drone and fixed-camera data will soon enable auto-generated updates of progress for work packages and trades. Generative AI copilots can answer questions and make recommendations throughout the process.
With AI and other technologies, the construction industry offers Gen Zers a way to apply their digital skills and get on a career path.
Developing Gen Z construction talent
HR and training-related technologies also are important when it comes to attracting Gen Z in construction.
Say the industry aims to bring in high-potential, but still raw Gen Z talent who opt for trade school or associate-degree tracks rather than four-year programs. They’ll need training to bring them up to speed along technical and job-related lines, as well as developing their soft skills like communication, time-management, and leadership.
What’s great here is that self-paced, highly leveraged online training—whether task-specific microlessons or certificate courses—aligns with how Gen Z prefers to learn anyway.
Training progress feeds into cloud-based, increasingly AI-augmented HR systems that manage recruiting and onboarding, and also provide holistic views of an employee’s skills, work history, performance, certifications, and interests. For employees, these systems can recommend learning opportunities, mentors, temporary assignments, and more.
While those features are more about employee retention, to retain is to recruit—by easing the need to bring in new people, but also by demonstrating that your company actually cares about the professional and personal development of its people. Word gets out.
Everything’s connected: Industry convergence in engineering, construction, and real estate
The engineering, construction, operations, and real estate sectors are among those leading the way in industry convergence. Driven by economic realities—the need to boost productivity in a tight labor market—firms are branching out and collaborating to cultivate growth.
Promote construction’s efforts to improve the world
Finally, in attracting high-potential Gen Z talent, keep cultural messaging top of mind. Gen Z grew up in a world of creeping crises that call for grassroots solutions, and we generally want to be a part of those solutions. The construction industry is playing a big role in addressing two major issues, and it shouldn’t be shy about advertising that fact to young people.
The high cost of housing cost is a huge problem, and it affects Gen Z in particular, as rents skyrocket and entry-level housing prices skyrocket. The problem is obvious: Demand vastly outstrips supply. The country needs an estimated 4 million to 7 million more housing units already, and the population continues to grow.
On the climate front, buildings account for more than one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and the construction business is working to reduce emissions as energy-efficiency efforts and green-building techniques go mainstream.
Digital technologies are playing indispensable and growing roles in building faster, better, and more efficiently in ways that address the housing shortage and climate change. These issues affect Gen Z directly, and our affinity for technology and our desire to make the world a better place make the construction industry an attractive career option.
This business may go back millennia, but it’s solving problems that matter to Gen Z using technologies that fascinate young people at a time when the cost of college is increasingly out of reach. Construction’s a great business and a societally impactful one. Many of my generation’s best minds will want careers in it–if the industry plays its cards right.
