At the March luncheon we heard a panel of industry leaders share their perspectives on how technology development and adoption is accelerating in the built environment. The panel was moderated by Tracey Hartford, VP of Client Services, Windover Construction, and panelists included Jit Kee Chin, EVP, Chief Data and Innovation Officer, Suffolk Construction, Leslie Cohen, COO and Head of Asset Management at Samuels and Associates, and Clelia Peters, a venture partner at Bain Capital Ventures, and formerly co-founded MetaProp, a property tech and increasingly construction tech venture.
A few highlights from the conversation:
- Change is coming to the built world and it is facilitated by technology
- Investments in any technology for the built world is going through an exciting evolution and PropTech was one of the fastest growing industries pre-COVID
- Predicting post-COVID growth like what FinTech companies experienced after the financial crisis
- Pay attention to technologies that are focused on enabling to enhance/improve business, while also keeping an eye on technologies that are disruptive
- Be proactive vs reactive when evaluating/vetting new technologies and create a roadmap to evaluate needs and/or problems you need to solve
- Quantify benefits AND apply a qualitative lens to ensure ease of use and collaboration prior to selecting a product/platform
- Keep an eye out for what others are doing, including start-ups, major industry players, and develop relationships with partners who bring expertise
- Traditionally consumer focused, vision technology is seeing a natural transition to a tangible building industry where photography is implemented as an information source that increases situational awareness and efficiency
- Design-automation and digitalization to ensure code/guideline compliance, along with opportunities in supply chain to ease flow of timely material deliveries are happening
- Increased use of data and AI points solution provides opportunities for thoughtful mining of information to help predict and drive efficiency by shifting from siloed information to transparency between systems/platforms
- Data that’s traditionally been kept private is shifting towards transparency, and digital dashboards allows for informed conversations based that helps predict and avoid risk, and improve decision making
- Security concerns around AI and big data are not necessarily a technical challenge and we should look to how other industries are handling it and similarly implement rules as an industry
Predictions:
- Increased engagement with building users/residents to identify occupancy and amenity use
- Continued evolution of prefabrication/modular building systems
- Scheduling/planning opportunities that comes with challenges that compares to solving “geometry problems”
- Solutions with climate benefit
- Limitless opportunities for increased engagement and investments by women in PropTech
- This is the direction the industry is moving in and from a cost benefit perspective, we need to get on board to not be left behind.
Thank you to our panelists for their insight and an engaging conversation!