The learned dispute – is AI a blessing or a curse?

2034-02-26

On Thursday April 25, 2024, at 10:00 - 10:20 am, the Nordbygg Live stage will be taken by Jenny Carlstedt, Project Manager at RISE (construction and property) and Kristofer Sjöholm, Sustainability Manager for Sweco’s digitalisation consultants. Both will give their views on how artificial intelligence affects the industry.

The next step in the digitalisation process of the construction and property industry is here; Artificial Intelligence (AI) will undoubtedly change the industry. The question is how and if the expectations are too high. 

– A positive aspect of digitalisation and AI is better prerequisites to create a more sustainable and efficient construction industry, says Kristofer Sjöholm of Sweco. He points to the fact that AI above all gives the opportunity to, in the early stages, compile, analyse and simulate cost and sustainability effects based on for instance material choices, logistics solutions and smarter planning. 
The stage performance at Nordbygg with him and Jenny Carlstedt of RISE is to give an understanding of the possibilities and the challenges of the new technology and what it will take to use it more efficiently. Digital projects that show the way to the industry will be highlighted, but also the lack of standardised, qualitative and available data, and old-fashioned work processes that may constitute obstacles. 

How AI is being used today

The construction and property industry has many amazing digital tools to access on the market today, and many of them will be seen at Nordbygg. The rules-driven programming and the parametric (data-driven) design have now been established on a broad front among the industry's more forward-leaning companies. But pure AI tools are still used on a very small scale in projects. Why is that and what will it take for them to be used more often?

– We can actually see that the recession to some extent has accelerated the process to transform digital visions into practice. A few years ago, when the industry was really busy, people didn’t have time to fundamentally think about digital processes and uninterrupted data flows. Now, we see how a number of customers are taking the opportunity to work smarter and more efficiently. But this is foremost companies with good finances and time, since projects have been paused, to see how and where in their businesses that they can change their processes, says Kristofer. 

Nordbygg puts the spotlight on development 

Nordbygg is a gathering force for exchanging information and developing the industry. 

– We would like to contribute to making it easier for the industry to take sustainability steps together, and here we see that the role of digitalisation to reach the goals can be paid more attention to. That is why we want the relationship between sustainability and AI to be highlighted on the stage, says Lina Hann, Project Manager at Nordbygg.

But the lecture ‘AI for more sustainable construction’ is just one of several programme items during the week that aim to spread the knowledge on technology advances.

– For many, it is really hard to keep up with the development of technology. To help to sort these things out, we will for example have one programme item where we sift out the future scenarios of digitalisation from a five, ten and fifty year perspective, Lina says. 

The lecture Trend Scouting on digital flows is being held on Tuesday April 23, 2024, at 10:00 - 10:25 am by a panel consisting of among others Anna Söderholm (Jarnehammar), Vice president of IVL on the Building Materials stage. 

Jenny Carlstedt, Project Manager at RISE (construction and property) and Kristofer Sjöholm will speak on Thursday April 25, 2024, at 10:00 - 10:20 am on the Nordbygg Live stage.