EDWARDS, Ill. (NewsNation) — Many people think of construction as a job that involves working in muddy boots, but as the industry faces a chronic worker shortage, artificial intelligence and other technologies are changing the way work gets done.
For every five construction workers who leave the workforce, just two new workers are hired to fill them, says Jim Barrett, chief innovation officer at Turner Construction, the largest construction company in the U.S. Construction companies are turning to high-tech solutions to make up for the shortage of new workers.
Drones equipped with AI technology can help companies plan building projects and predict obstacles to keep them on time and on budget.
As construction owners and site managers look for new ways to make up for a shrinking workforce, artificial intelligence is being used to train robots to move and lay bricks on traditional work sites.
New technology helps attract a new generation of construction workers. In his interactions with trade school students, Barrett said technology is helping put a modern spin on a profession that many consider “old-fashioned.”
“Cool and construction aren't always talked about in the same context,” Barrett told NewsNation, “but I think the cool factor is increasing significantly.”
Matt Magness, Cat Command product specialist, demonstrated how the company uses Cat Command technology during the company's Construction Technology Day at the company's Proving Grounds facility in Edwards, Ill. (Jeff Arnold/NewsNation)
Joystick Generation Build
Matt Magness sits in a swivel desk chair in an air-conditioned room at Caterpillar's demo site in Edwards, Illinois, a suburb of Peoria.
Just beyond the arms of his chair, his hands operate a pair of controls that operate tons of construction equipment some 1,643 miles away in Tinaja Hills, Arizona.
A collection of video monitors and microphones gives Magness the same perspective he would have if he were actually in the driver's seat, and the ability to hear real sounds as if he were there on the scene.
Another screen displays a control panel identical to the one found inside the machine's cab.
The technology, called “Cat Command,” can be operated remotely or by line of sight using a portable control station carried over the shoulder.
With the flip of a switch, Magness can turn off a piece of equipment in Arizona and travel to another job site in North Carolina that appears on a screen in front of his eyes in southern Illinois, thanks to technology that allows one worker to operate five pieces of equipment in multiple locations, as long as each location has a reliable WiFi connection.
Caterpillar executives say technological advances have opened up jobs to many people, including veterans, who couldn't work in a physical field where slip-and-fall accidents are commonplace.
Company executives say Cat Command technology is an effort to make the industry safer and more efficient.
“When I first saw it, it was unbelievable,” Shay Stutzman, president of Stutzman Gerbaz Earthmoving in Aspen, Colorado, told NewsNation.
“Once you get down to it and see the value of what operators can do by having real-time information, it's incredible what they can accomplish in a day.”
A Caterpillar employee uses a shoulder-mounted Cat Command remote system to operate a construction machine at the company's proving grounds in Edwards, Ill. (Jeff Arnold/NewsNation)
A Caterpillar spokesperson said the company spent $2.1 billion on research and development for product innovation in 2023.
Ronnie Fritz, senior market professional for construction at Caterpillar Inc., said the technology has been introduced gradually by the company, which is “trying to walk before it runs” when it comes to fully autonomous equipment.
Caterpillar developed its first autonomous mining truck prototype 30 years ago and has continued to develop the technology since then, and Fritz said that if the industry moves toward “full autonomy,” the company will continue to move in that direction.
How technology will address worker attrition
The construction industry has struggled to recover in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with about 383,000 job openings remaining as of April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Ken Simonson, chief economist for the National Association of General Contractors, told NewsNation that labor shortages have been a chronic issue in the construction industry for decades.
While other professions have allowed for remote and hybrid work opportunities, the construction industry has been slow to address some of the work-life balance concerns of potential employees.
New technologies could help provide that balance for workers, while also enabling businesses to work more efficiently and less hazardously.
Despite the worker shortage, Labor Department officials estimate that 8.1 million Americans remain in the construction industry, which Barrett, the Turner innovation executive, said is often dominated by the industry's largest companies.
Cost of doing business
The costs associated with implementing AI and other technologies are a clear barrier for businesses looking to update their systems, especially small and medium-sized businesses.
While some companies may find the high-tech tools offered by companies like Caterpillar too expensive to purchase, they are increasingly going to need a willingness to invest in some technological advances to stay competitive on larger, more technical projects.
Barrett argues the technology will enable small and medium-sized construction companies to compete on an equal footing with their larger competitors.
“Artificial intelligence will do more to transform our industry over the next decade than any innovation in the last 100 years,” Barrett said.
Advances in technology have introduced new types of tools that others adapt to, and increased the number of young people on the path to the skilled labor force rather than college.
According to the National Association of Home Builders, the average age of a U.S. construction worker is 42. However, the number of construction workers under the age of 25 grew 1.8% between 2015 and 2022.
Meanwhile, the proportion of industry workers aged 35 to 42 years old fell from 71.8% in 2015 to 67.3% in 2022.
There are also concerns that new technology might replace humans in the actual construction work, but Barrett says the industry will ultimately be about laying brick upon brick to build complex structures that often have a life of their own.
Barrett said technology was needed to help companies tackle the more expensive, sophisticated projects they faced with an industry job shortage that showed no end in sight.
The 30-year Turner Construction veteran expects AI to become more prevalent over the next decade, but he said construction managers must strike a delicate balance of convincing current employees that the technology is being used to make their jobs easier, not to take away theirs.
“By putting AI in the hands of ordinary people, we can augment and extend its capabilities,” Barrett says. “You don't have to rely on experts or hire expensive software developers. When you put a tool like Chat GPT in the hands of someone with less skill and experience, they can suddenly do things that maybe someone with 10 years or more of experience couldn't do.”
But if it accomplishes that mission, it will generate a level of buy-in among some of the industry's more traditional workers who might be resistant to shifting their mindset to more high-tech ways of doing things.
“There’s always a little bit of uncertainty moving forward,” Curtis Blank, director of maintenance and engineering for Associated Terminals, told NewsNation, “but when you actually see the project and the product itself, you see how reliable it is, how efficient it is and not only that, how much it’s going to change your day-to-day role.”
