New York-based Veea and German firm Conxai are fusing edge computing, connectivity and AI technology to provide intelligent, real-time AI-powered services for the construction industry.

With a common mission to transform the global construction industry using AI-driven network edge technology designed to make worksites safer, more efficient and manageable, Veea, a specialist in integrated smart edge connectivity, computing and security, has announced a joint effort with Conxai Technologies, a start-up that puts AI capabilities into the hands of users without writing a single line of code.

Munich-based Conxai’s modular no-code platform applies AI techniques to job-site imaging and sensor data collected by Veea’s edge platform, extracting information and synthesising knowledge to reveal opportunities for operational and safety improvements.

According to McKinsey, the global construction industry is valued at over $12tn, is highly inefficient and among the least digitalised sectors. Over the past twenty years, McKinsey says, there has been only one per cent productivity gains, which costs the world $1.6tn in waste based on the gap.

The construction industry has historically been slow to adopt disruptive digital technology. Recently, however, leading construction companies have recognised that the worksite is a prime candidate for reaping the benefits of AI to increase efficiency, quality and safety. They have begun to adopt AI for various use cases, including optimising manual labour, while making management simpler when it comes to routine, yet essential tasks.

Conxai has selected Veea’s edge platform to support jobsites due to its flexibility and speed in deployment, making it easy to establish a local communications and computation capability at the worksite, while increasing system responsiveness and reducing bandwidth to, and reliance on, the cloud.

The resulting monitoring, management and maintenance offering is designed to improve safety, reduce risks, improve expensive machinery management efficiency and provide remote access to information in real time. The platform also enables users to create and simulate cognitive digital twins of their jobsites and spot deviations from plan, design and best practices early on.

“The upside opportunity for real estate developers and the construction companies they hire is limitless, especially as nearly every asset can be instrumented with increasingly low-cost sensors and camera systems,” said William Hurley, chief revenue officer at Veea. “With Veea’s edge computing platform and mesh networking, we can collect and analyse data locally while supporting automated systems and providing data in real time to jobsite managers that can improve safety and productivity. We can also ship data to multiple clouds, feed existing enterprise systems and enable remote management, which is extremely valuable to large, distributed construction companies. Conxai’s advanced no-code AI is intuitive and appreciated by the IT teams who support digital transformation initiatives.”

Sharique Husain, CEO and co-founder of Conxai, added: “AI is the construction industry’s greatest opportunity for improvement of safety, quality and productivity. By empowering the construction industry with no-code AI, we are accelerating a widespread adoption of data-driven operations in the construction industry and closing the productivity gap. To work consistently in real time, while supporting mission critical programmes, we sought an innovative collaboration partner who could remove many of the adoption barriers that traditional edge computing would face in the dynamic construction site environment. Veea’s platform, including connectivity, computation, security and management services, was the natural choice. Conxai’s AI simply works best when supported by a world-class edge and communications infrastructure.”

The McKinsey study found AI adoption had been relatively slower in the engineering and construction industry compared with others, and recommended these two sectors embraced AI and edge computing and communications to catch up.

The report states: “We predict this effort will lead to the allocation of more resources to build the necessary capabilities and to AI playing a more significant role in construction in the coming years.”

In the same report, McKinsey said while AI in the construction sector might be modest at first, they said a monumental shift was coming in the near future.

“Stakeholders across the project lifecycle, including contractors, operators, owners and service providers, can no longer afford to conceive of AI as technology that’s pertinent only to other industries,” said the consulting firm.

A PlanGrid and FMI survey of 600 construction companies revealed $177.5bn in labour costs are spent fixing mistakes, looking for project data and managing conflicts while another $31bn was spent on rework due to miscommunication and inaccurate data on the job site in 2018.