New £32m AI projects to improve construction training

The government has unveiled £32 million worth of AI projects to improve productivity and public services in various sectors including construction.

The aim of the new technology innovations for construction is to ensure the UK has a skilled workforce while improving safety on construction sites.

The projects total 98, with funding to be received across Britain and Northern Ireland, involving more than 200 businesses and research organisations spanning a range of sectors including public services, driving efficiencies and reducing administrative tasks.

Among the projects is V-Lab Ltd, which has received £165,006 to further develop software powered by AI to help people train in the construction sector.

The system offers immersive, scenario-based virtual simulations of real construction sites to train workers on risk assessments and safety protocols.

Minister for digital government and AI Feryal Clark said: “AI will deliver real change for working people across the UK – not only growing our economy but improving our public services.

“That’s why our support for initiatives like this will be so crucial, to give us new ways of maintaining our vital infrastructure.”

The funding announced aims to support solutions in ‘high growth’ industries, prioritising AI to help improve productivity and efficiency across key areas of the economy. 

This comes amid the announcement of a new AI platform to tackle the growing issue of underinsurance by Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) and Intelligent AI.

The BCIS Intelligent Rebuild Cost Platform was launched to address the underinsurance issue head-on which leaves property owners vulnerable to significant losses.

Partnering with risk management firm Intelligent AI, the platform draws from data sources to create rebuild cost reports for residential and commercial properties, planning applications and satellite imagery.

Intelligent AI CEO Anthony Peake said of the platform: “We’re essentially trying to avert disaster”, which has been developed using new AI tools, with support from Lloyd’s Lab and insurers, to provide the industry with the tools necessary to communicate the importance of reliable and regular assessments.

While fear remains over the potential for artificial intelligence to spur job losses in the sector, a report by the The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), argued AI could instead be a tool for job creation.

David Philp, chairman of CIOB’s Digital and Innovation Advisory Panel, said last month: “I think it’s going to attract more young people into the construction sector who will see it as being much more digitised, and more advanced, where they would have gone into something like biosciences with manufacturing.”

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