#DigiBuild

[mark-matos]

🚧 Construction Industry in for a Major Shake-up: AI Set to Revolutionize the Industry! 🏗️🤯

Artificial intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT, are set to transform the construction industry, according to industry insiders. Early adopters are already experiencing spectacular results with significant improvements in efficiency and cost savings 💰

DigiBuild, a supply chain and building material software company, has been using ChatGPT for months, and the company's CEO, Robert Salvador, says that the technology is "market-changing." 👨‍💼

ChatGPT has enabled DigiBuild to automate the job of sifting through suppliers to find materials and schedule work, reducing the hundreds of labor hours that previously went into the task to just a matter of seconds. The tool has also enabled the company to communicate with hundreds of suppliers in minutes instead of a few hours. 💻

The potential cost savings and efficiency improvements brought about by AI technology are enormous. Salvador cited an example where ChatGPT helped one of DigiBuild's clients, VCC Construction, to find a vendor that provided closet shelving for a project in Virginia at a cost of $70,000, compared to the original quote of $150,000. ��

Salvador believes that AI technology will become widely adopted in the construction industry, bringing about a digital transformation that is long overdue. With the construction industry worth $10 trillion globally, the future looks bright for the industry, thanks to the power of AI. 🔮

[veryballoonartisan]

The Impact of AI on Residential Home Construction

A February 2022 Forbes article discussed the increasing role of AI in building houses with robots. The article also mentioned that AI will help control the work of robots in residential construction projects.

Before 2022, the industry had AI-powered tools for nearly two decades. In its early years, construction professionals used AI in predictive maintenance to monitor equipment performance. Since 2022, AI's role has expanded to managing repetitive work, improving production efficiency, and enhancing work safety. Regarding construction robots, AI lays bricks, paints, and welds, among other jobs.

In addition, AI can create a digital copy of the home during construction. Programs like Digs organize the building process using room segmentation and data association. These tools enable builders to work efficiently, giving homeowners organized information, such as floor plans. Users can then drop files within a space, and the program will correctly associate with each room.

Other AI-powered programs allow builders to streamline the bidding and sourcing process. Programs such as DigiBuild enable users to gather an average of 10 bids while filtering out factors to source materials. For instance, builders can filter information based on sustainable, women-owned, veteran-owned, and minority-owned businesses to find suppliers. This tool is invaluable in reducing the 750,000 pieces of paper involved in home-building.

AI also has a place in job site safety. EarthCam has developed an algorithm that calculates the height at which a construction worker is working. Additionally, it provides safety departments with detailed footage of any incidents to determine whether the worker followed safety protocols, including wearing fall protection and personal protective equipment. This technology also includes weather sensor data, activity heat maps, and equipment identifiers to keep workers safe and reduce risks.

Edge Computer Vision and AI Object Detection send personalized alerts related to climbing a ladder, working on scaffolding, operating on an elevated lift, or other activities. The AI Object Detection software detects specific types of vehicles and license plates and verifies deliveries. It also sends alerts when workers are too close to the equipment and allows remote inspections.

Professionals in the home building industry have assistance with making sales through AI-powered digital assistants and chatbots. This technology is available at all hours of the day, meeting buyers wherever they are in the day. Many of these AI-powered communication platforms provide customers with a conversational experience.

Depending on the technology, buyers get answers to most of their questions, convey their preferences, and receive home recommendations. The digital assistant/chatbot helps the builder by engaging them. After, the builder only needs to contact the buyer to continue the process.

Finally, AI has also made the home design process simpler than in previous times. Planner 5D has introduced the Design Generator program, which supports home designers in drafting a design. The AI allows users to upload a picture of an area, and then the program will give them multiple designs for that space.

After designers upload their photographs, the program asks them to input what type of space it is, such as a kitchen, living room, bedroom, or bathroom. Designers can use this program for furnished and unfurnished spaces. Furthermore, designers can share these pictures with others, making it an effective collaborative tool and a handy tool in renovation projects.

AI has streamlined work in home building and reduced costs. By making work efficient at nearly every stage of construction, productivity improves, timelines decrease, and automation reduces construction costs.

[truthblockchain]

Concerns Citibanks Tokenization Project May Threaten Bitcoin

Following Citibank's recent announcement of a blockchain project, Robert Kiyosaki, author of "Rich Dad Poor Dad," has questioned the future of both Bitcoin (BTC) and the US dollar. On Tuesday, Kiyosaki expressed his concerns on social media platform X, reacting to Citibank's plan of tokenizing client deposits for faster cross-border transactions.

Citibank aims to provide "real-time, always-on, next-generation transaction banking services" to its institutional clients through this service called Citi Token Services. The service leverages blockchain technology to convert customer deposits into digital tokens. The tokenization project could facilitate round-the-clock swift and seamless payments using smart contracts.

In his post, Kiyosaki wondered if this move could threaten the position of Bitcoin as a faster and more convenient payment method than traditional banking. However, DigiBuild CEO Robert J. Salvador argued that this development wouldn't change anything for Bitcoin or its value proposition. He suggested that it might drive further adoption and usage of cryptocurrency.

https://m.investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/kiyosaki-questions-bitcoin-and-us-dollars-future-after-citibanks-blockchain-announcement-93CH-3182958#google_vignette

[deepgreenfutures-blog]

Blockchain 3D-Printed Construction

New Post has been published on http://www.deepgreenfutures.com/2018/11/26/blockchain-3d-printed-construction/

Blockchain 3D-Printed Construction

Prefab & any construction ripe for disruption with blockchain

From Thefifthestate.com.au by Poppy Johnston Nov. 22 2018

Topic: Blockchain 3D-Printed Construction

There’s hope on the horizon for the construction industry, which has been criticised for sluggish innovation. In the UK, proptech startup Ehab is using blockchain to decentralise the development process for the likes of prefab and 3D printing companies so that they can produce more affordable and sustainable housing.

Josh Graham started building Ehab, a blockchain-based platform designed to help smaller developers build sustainable, affordable, customised homes, because he personally found it “incredibly hard” to get this kind of project off the ground.

Fresh out of university and with boundless enthusiasm for saving the planet and solving housing accessibility issues, Graham and his friends looked at ways of building environmentally-friendly housing. He says his earliest attempt at a sustainable building project “inevitably failed” because in the UK it is “so incredibly hard to do what we needed to do.”

“There are so many barriers to small developers, and a large proportion of developers are trying to build in a better way,” he told The Fifth Estate from the UK during a recent phone conversation.

“So we wanted to build a platform to unlock building sites and money for smaller developers to help them build something more sustainable.”

Graham noticed other big problems plaguing the building and construction industry, such as poor management of onsite construction processes causing delays and budget blowouts. He also noticed people and communities were not engaged enough in the development process.

This is why the group set up the Ehab platform. The idea was to help get sustainable and affordable projects from the “idea stage to completion in a frictionless digital way” using blockchain enabled smart contracts.

Combined with 3D printing and modular construction, this technology has the potential to drastically reduce efficiencies so that sustainable and affordable building projects reach completion in bigger numbers, Graham says.

The plan is to start with residential with the aim of eventually expanding into commercial buildings and other areas.

How it works On any given building site, there’s typically a complex web of subcontractors and several interactions going on at one time. There’s also various assets to keep track of.

By using smart contracts, which are codified, self-executing contracts that exist across a distributed, decentralised blockchain network, the construction of a house can benefit from much-needed transparency and automation.

Graham says that that platform would be used by a project manager, for example, to handle the delivery of bricks or other materials to a site. They’d be able to access the platform through their phone to see when the order had arrived – no matter where they are on the site – and confirm that the order had arrived as expected.

Everyone on the site then knows that this order has arrived, because “it might be relevant for someone else on the site to know it has happened”.

At this stage, Graham says all the blockchain is doing is storing the information and that “the humans have to confirm it is true.” So there is still potential for inaccurate data to make it into the ledger.

Imagine automatic payments so if the builder goes under it doesn’t drag all the subbies with it But the plan is to keep minimising the chances for error by adding smart codes into the system that trigger digital actions, such as automatic payments. This means that once the brick order is delivered and signed off, to return to the original example, the supplier is paid automatically.

By “‘disintermediating’ all that potential for error” and getting the money “straight to whoever is adding value at that time”, you help protect individual stakeholders. This could help minimise damage when things go awry, such as when British construction services company Carillion infamously collapsed and took many of its subcontractors with it because they hadn’t been paid.

Even further into the future, sensors will streamline this process even further. GPS-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) devices will be able to tell when material orders reach the site, for example.

The transparency afforded by the platform is the “biggest win”. Graham says.

For a big project with multiple subcontractors, lead contractors then have a secure, accurate paper trail to refer to.

“It becomes a providence piece. Ten years later you know exactly what materials were used and who constructed it.”

This construction aspect is just one of five portals in the platform. The first three are about connecting homebuyers, landowners and developers to bring a project from inception to a final design, and securing funding from investors through the Funding Marketplace. The fifth is for investors to keep track of their investments.

Graham says there are companies doing elements of what his company is doing, with UK-based Brickchain “probably the furthest ahead”. There’s also a US-based company called Digibuild that focuses on commercial buildings, and “obviously a lot of the blockchain real estate companies trying to enter the market.”

Could the platform be used in Australia? The goal is to turn the platform into a “globally relevant system,” but Graham admits that this come with its challenges.

Smart contracts will likely need to be modified to accommodate the unique legal requirements in each country.

“Each new country we move to will need a dedicated set of contracts, but that’s just a cost,” he says.

Who’s interested? Graham says there’s been strong interest from investors and potential partners.

“I’ve never had someone who said they wouldn’t want to use it.”

Currently, at the beta stage in development and in the first stage of seed funding, the company of three is looking for strategic construction partnerships to help it scale, including partners with 3D printing capabilities.

He says the enthusiasm is largely driven by the “buzz of blockchain”, but he also believes there is momentum building to innovate the construction industry in the UK.

“The construction industry knows they should be innovating but are waiting for that silver bullet,” he said.

“The younger people want change to happen, but that’s not even strictly true… there are people that have obviously fought for change for a long time.

“There’s a bit of momentum now, not just in proptech. There’s a convergence from a variety of things that are pushing and pulling the construction industry.”

Topic: Blockchain 3D-Printed Construction

Source: https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/building-construction/prefab-construction-disruption-blockchain/