Educating a Workforce for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Construction

Artificial intelligence and robotics will change construction practices and education sufficiently to require new approaches. Starting with design and continuing into facilities management. Current linear relationships of the parties to construction shall change to become clustered relationships, to allow better integration of services. Clustered relationships will cause owners, designers, constructors and managers to pool their knowledge to plan, build and operate buildings with maximum efficiency and economy. Robots will be used not only to build buildings but also to maintain them. Skilled workers will be dichotomized between primary, who actually perform construction, and secondary, who maintain the sophisticated equipment which does most of the work. Education is reviewed from a constructivist point of view, and models are offered as guides for strategies for adapting education to a rapidly changing technical environment.