Taylor Cupp, Senior Manager of Building Solutions at Hexagon AB, outlines the findings from Hexagon’s first-ever Autonomous Construction Tech Outlook survey.

The building construction industry has faced significant turbulence in recent years, prompting a shift towards data-driven solutions. The pace of change is intensifying. The market faces pressing challenges, including a scarcity of skilled labour, pervasive inflation and disruptive supply chain issues. These factors are reshaping the building ecosystem, demanding swift and decisive action from construction firms. 

Solution-oriented, forward-thinking leaders within the construction industry turn toward autonomous solutions to transform operations and improve productivity, sustainability, supply chain and more. 

Hexagon’s first-ever Autonomous Construction Tech Outlook surveyed over 1,000 technology decision-makers from commercial General Contracting firms in Australia, the UK and the US to research industry challenges, short- and long-term priorities and the adoption of autonomous technology. The research demonstrated that technology is key to overcoming construction firms’ most pressing business challenges. The study provides valuable insights into how business leaders are shaping their technology strategies, the role autonomy will play, and the disconnect between the adoption of autonomous tech and its application in addressing business pain points and priorities. 

Embracing autonomous technology in the construction industry 

Autonomy has moved out of the emerging technology space in commercial construction into widespread adoption. In fact, the research found that 84% of firms are using autonomy in some part of their operations. These companies reported seeing benefits from within their operations across many of their near and short-term challenges and priorities, including improved sustainability, less waste, better supply chain mapping, better safety compliance and faster decision making. Autonomous tech does more than automate tasks — it closes the data leverage gap between the data created during the lifecycle of a project and the data used to produce actionable insights.  

The construction industry’s adoption of autonomous technology includes software and tools, self-driving construction vehicles and robotics. Today, the most popular application of automation is for project management that underpins many construction processes. With 30% of utilised autonomous technologies requiring no human interaction (being fully autonomous as opposed to partially, conditionally, or limited), key resources are freed up to spend time on more complex tasks. 

Commitment to autonomous tech is expected to grow as firms plan on investing an average of $7.1M in autonomy within the next three years. Despite this, the survey’s findings show a disconnect: Companies understand the benefits of autonomous technologies, but often do not apply them to their specific pain points. For instance, among survey respondents who stated that improving supply chain management is a top priority in the next 12-18 months, only 28% reported their companies had invested in autonomous monitoring technology, one of the top reported technologies that aid in this area. Additionally, 37% of respondents found fully autonomous robotics drove sustainability benefits, the leading priority in the next 3 to 5 years, yet only 17% of firms are investing in this type of technology.  

Opportunities for improvement and adoption 

Despite a reputation for being resistant to change, the construction industry has identified technology investment as key to solving its most pressing business challenges, ranking it above traditional approaches such as training and hiring external consultants. In fact, 60% of respondents believe autonomy will have a significant impact on market competitiveness.  

The key now is to help the industry leverage this technology to directly target key pain points and ensure lasting and scalable results. Changing the perception of autonomous technology from hardware — robots and self-driving vehicles or tools — to understanding the broader applications and how they can be applied directly to specific business challenges will ensure that firms can improve their bottom line and stay competitive in the rapidly changing landscape of commercial construction.