Why Industry Optimism is Aligned with Technology Outlook

While construction industry sentiment across Asia Pacific region remains remarkably strong, Australia is falling behind in technology adoption, a report from Procore has found.

How We Build Now: Tracking Technology in Construction 2022 is the third instalment in Procore’s series of independent reports designed to benchmark technology advancements across the industry.

Procore commissioned research firm YouGov to take the pulse of 1138 construction leaders in Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines and Singapore. While 91 per cent of respondents across the region are positive about the 12 months ahead, this falls to 85 per cent in Australia.

Australia is also behind its regional peers in almost every area of technology adoption and investment, from artificial intelligence to advanced analytics, building information modelling to big data.

One in five Australian construction businesses say they are “digital first” but 20 per cent have decreased their investment in technology in the wake of Covid and 11 per cent are not investing in technology at all.

Why are Australian businesses lagging? Speaking at the launch of Procore’s report as part of a panel discussion, YouGov head of research Julie Harris said that it might be because “ASEAN businesses are younger and perhaps more likely to be born digital”.

Meriton director of construction David Cremona said a generational shift was under way and the next wave of workers “born with the iPhones in their hands” would be the natural champions of digital technology.

SafeWork NSW executive director of compliance and dispute resolution Matt Press said he expected the “rise of the digital worker”, automation and prefabrication to coalesce and take over “probably a third” of construction tasks over the next two decades.

Prefabrication, in particular, would deliver “far fewer touchpoints” and eliminate a lot of waste.

Waste was a perennial problem for an industry operating on razor-thin margins, the panel observed. The average Australian construction company spends 12 per cent of its time on rework. One in five construction leaders admits digital technology would help them save money through fewer errors and less rework.

Press made a connection between waste and rework. “People see rubbish as an environmental problem—but it’s a productivity problem. Everything that ends up in the bin can be a mistake.”

According to How We Build Now, 27 per cent of Australian construction companies still use paper to capture, track and manage data across everything from quotes to safety audits to environmental reporting. This is not limited to small businesses. Some of the region's largest companies rely on analog systems in the digital age.

Cremona said that, prior to adopting Procore, Meriton had “ample paper and data that we couldn’t really use”. Now everyone in Meriton’s team—including subcontractors—could access the same information.

While 43 per cent of Australian construction companies accelerated their investment in digital technology in the wake of the pandemic, this is behind the 53 per cent regional average. If Covid’s global disruption and the pivot to digital working weren’t catalysts for digital transformation, what would be?

Construction company Urban Core managing director Dominique Gill said Covid had been a “completely paralysing event” for smaller companies with tight budgets and fewer resources.

Many construction leaders had taken a “wait and see” approach over the past two years and this was about to pay off. “We know it [digital transformation] needs to happen. We’ve seen what we need to do – and now we are doing it.”

Download your copy of How We Build Now 2022.

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