Construction, one of the world’s largest industries, is at the cusp of a monumental shift. McKinsey expects annual worldwide construction spend to grow to approximately $14 trillion by 2025 due to a variety of factors including population growth, urbanization and public investment in infrastructure. As demand for construction increases and labor shortages persist, businesses must find more efficient and safer ways of building. While many firms still rely on manual processes for nearly 39% of construction projects—a significant contributor to why projects run over budget and behind schedule—an increasing number of companies are embracing digitization. This presents an exciting opportunity for the industry as technology enables teams to focus on the work they love while staying safe and improving project outcomes.

The construction industry has always had an appetite for innovation, and now platform technologies enabling the application of artificial intelligence, data science and predictive analytics to the construction process are creating new opportunities not just for risk mitigation, but for growth. When firms unify these tech tools, they can see the maximum potential of a digital platform, providing a single source of truth for stakeholders to build smarter and more efficiently. This helps teams stay on budget and on schedule and increase productivity so they can move onto the next project, instead of being stuck on the current one.

This shift toward digitization impacts more than the construction industry alone. Construction touches every single one of our lives, every day. The industry is able to build the schools, homes, hospitals and infrastructure we desperately need. Further digitization will enable construction professionals to make an even bigger impact on the communities they serve and to build a better future for all of us.

A recent survey by International Data Corporation, commissioned by Procore, highlighted how integrated technology continues to positively impact construction. The survey asked North American construction project owners and developers about the challenges they face and how they have responded to these challenges. It also uncovered the benefits of construction industry-specific software to help them meet their goals and deliver projects on time and on budget. For instance, survey respondents cited that enabling job responsibilities to be carried out with better technology (67%) and helping staff improve their productivity in existing tasks (60%) could help retain skilled project staff. The importance of this cannot be understated, given the labor shortage the industry is facing.

One of the survey’s major predictions is that new integrated technologies will provide further value to project delivery teams. Respondents identified the top technologies to have the greatest predicted impact on budget and scheduling in the next three years: BIM (53%), connected supply chain (44%), predictive analytics for cost modeling (34%), digital twin (30%) and data centralization technologies (24%). But to unlock this potential, owners must modernize their digital infrastructure to help ensure projects run on time and on budget.

Data centralization technologies specifically can further power a variety of new systems including:

• Cloud-based scheduling that is accessible to all stakeholders and helps keep projects on time while eliminating human error;
• Sophisticated forecasting that provides insight into the financial health of individual projects and the business as a whole, while promoting improved cost control and capital utilization;
• Standardized project management across projects and access to a single version of the truth, including a conformed set of drawings that is always up to date; and
• Workflow tracking that automatically identifies outstanding issues and notifies key stakeholders.

The survey results underscore the incredible opportunity presented by further digitizing the industry. High-performers in the survey were least likely to exceed their budget and time estimates, which corresponded with embracing integrated technology.

Ultimately, there is an opportunity for growth. Adopting digital tools can help enhance processes, drive efficiencies, and deliver better project outcomes, which will be critical to working through growing backlogs amid a shortage of skilled labor. Construction continues to be disrupted by digital transformation, making it easier for individuals—from designers to project managers to tradespeople – to be safer and more productive. This trajectory will enable more projects to be completed on time and within budget so that the industry can better serve the people and businesses in their communities.