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Artificial ingredients The first industries to adopt a new technology are the ones that succeed. Is your firm prepared for the age of artificial intelligence?
A ccording to Zweig Group’s 2016 Financial Performance Survey , net service revenue per employee has steadily risen from about $127,000 in 2014 to $137,000 in 2016 due to efficiencies gained through utilization of technology. Still, that doesn’t change what we know – the AEC industry is notoriously slow to embrace innovation.
Phil Keil
According to CB Insights, merger and acquisition activity for artificial intelligence startups has seen a more than 650 percent increase between 2011 and 2016. There were 38 such transactions in 2015 alone. Most of these businesses were acquired within their first four years. The usual suspects such as Google, Apple, and Twitter were some of the most active, but also at the top of the list are firms such as Salesforce, IBM, and Intel. You may think artificial intelligence is over-hyped, a buzzword, or the stuff of science fiction, but the reality is that you need to start planning
A survey published in The 3rd Annual Construction Technology Report by JBKnowledge shows that the AEC industry’s information technology budget is lower than other industries and only 4.1 percent of construction professionals used two-way cloud and server-based data transfers in project phases such as bidding and estimating. Architect and designer Lee Poechmann cites historical examples in his blog as well. Adoption of Six Sigma took nearly 20 years to become a mainstream manufacturing process and LEAN principles, developed by Toyota for automotive production, are still struggling to be introduced into the construction industry despite the massive benefits seen by firms that adopt these processes.
See PHIL KEIL, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER February 20, 2017, ISSUE 1188
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