The Role Of Ai In The Built Environment: A Q&A

If you visited Digital Construction Week 2024, you’ll know that Artificial Intelligence (AI) was a resounding theme across the two-day event. Karoliina Torttila, Trimble’s Director of AI, led a talk around AI and its role within the retrofit industry. Missed it? Hear some of Karoliina’s thoughts around AI and the value it offers the built environment in this Q&A…

Q) What is AI and how can we use it in the built environment? 

I think the implications of AI for the built environment are so varied that it’s impossible to give one answer to this. That said, there are two benefits that are perhaps the most exciting for me. The first is AI’s role in creating more freedom in our design processes. This could be the ability to design from different data modalities, from your floorplans and scans of the physical world to simple natural language. 

The second is the unparalleled efficiencies in creating deliverables – whether this is taking your project specifications, creating your submittal logs and then matching the two; automating quantity take-offs; or processing your reality capture data. 

Q) How are we already using AI? 

Today, we’re able to efficiently capture a lot of physical world data. However, in doing so, this has created a volume of data that we just cannot manually handle. AI can help by taking this data and processing it in real time with high levels of accuracy, to information that can then be readily consumed – essentially, helping to connect the physical and the digital. 

Q) What are the benefits of using AI for designers?

First, there is the element of conceptual design and the quick design iterations that AI can enable. Then, there is more of the practical detailing work and the efficiencies to be had in detailing complex rebar, as an example. Even in the design space AI has a valuable role to play, both in the exploration of design alternatives and creating those very detailed designs. 

Q) How can we use AI to move data from the design office to site?

Already, using AI and other technologies, we have successfully brought design data from the office onto site. Now, we can look at bringing this site data back to design. Whether it’s a worker filling out inspection reports or tracking site progress to automatically trigger payments, there is a bi-directional data flow that needs to happen. AI is an important facilitator of achieving this at scale. 

Q) Where do you see AI addressing some of the industry’s current issues?

Over the recent months and years, there has been various discussions around AI assistance. For me, one way of looking at AI assistance is as the smart friend in the room, that can hold your hand as you are upskilling yourself. As we see more of our industry ‘veterans’ retire and we begin to lack that mentorship, I do think AI has a role to play in helping to mentor the younger professionals and accelerate their learning curves. 

Q) How can we implement AI strategy and what does that mean for our data?

Put simply, it is impossible to implement and deploy AI without first having a decent data strategy and bringing that data together into a common data environment. These foundational pieces need to be in place before you can really take advantage of AI at scale. 

Q) What are the challenges and industry impacts of using AI?

While AI offers us unparalleled automation, it also presents the risk of moving too fast and not having those sanity check points in place. I think it’s on all of us to figure out how can we take advantage of this automation and implement the processes to check and verify, where we still have trust in the output and deliverables.

Q) Are you an AI optimist or AI pessimist? 

I’m definitely more on the optimist scale. Personally, I believe very much in open-source data and these transparent discussions around where this technology is developing. Nobody - no technology provider, no contractor, no design consultancy - is going at this alone. It’s through conversations as an industry that we can ensure we are collectively moving forward, in a way that makes sense and that we can trust. 

Learn more about AI at Trimble: https://www.trimble.com/en/ai-at-trimble