Digitisation has become a powerful tool for digital planning and construction. Digital transformation bears high potential to aid both economical and efficient building project life cycle but requires responsible handling. My ongoing dissertation work discusses social, educational, economic and political impact by implementing artificial intelligence (AI) from an ethical perspective. In order to fundamentally rethink technological progress in construction and keep up with digitisation in a sustainable manner, everyone involved is challenged.

Through open discourse with new technical possibilities and proactive and technically competent help in shaping such a technological landscape, companies can lead this process to success. Tackling this challenge is a top priority in construction. Nevertheless, there is a lack of recognising fields of application and potential. Knowledge of digital technologies and methods must first be acquired comprehensively in order to be able to assume digital responsibility for something that many do not yet know or cannot assess. It is a prerequisite for the greatest possible social benefit, economic prosperity and protection of our natural foundations of life. It should be of such a design that companies can guarantee secure data management as well as access and use of new technologies by everyone.

Educational landscape must be adjusted

The relation of morality and technology plays a significant role enabling the evaluation of corporate responsibilities in digital environments, the fields of using AI and developers’ and users’ ethical responsibilities. Opportunities and risks of human-led technologies undergoing digital transformation need to be examined. Major outcomes of my study include that standards and binding rules of the ethical framework of using AI must be set on the political level. Furthermore, the educational landscape must be adjusted such that the next generation of engineers will not only have expanded skills in digitisation and AI but will also possess the necessary ethical and multidisciplinary competencies. In fact, to enlarge value chains, save long-term costs and achieve sustainable development goals, it has been suggested that ethical decision processes should be institutionalised in corporate culture on a global basis.

Such holistic research and aspects are impulses for this study going beyond dominant financial focus and aims to create societal and economic benefits at its core. The construction branch may encourage other branches to recognise the potential of the ethical implementation of digital transformation within a strong corporate culture.

The study adds the construction engineering discipline to the general scientific ‘Ethics in AI’ debate. Construction has just started to examine first digital methods and first tools from AI, considered to be a new work-life that makes human work on construction easier. The understanding and knowledge of such technologies are still limited to a minority of people who develop or start using them. The study has come to the conclusion that the opportunities, risks and weak points of AI need stronger communication and transparency. They enhance the efficiency of the project life cycle by defining ethical principles when using human-led AI and lead to sustainable digital transformation.

‘iEthics’

A clear distinction between human intelligence and AI is required to define risks, potential and areas of application: it is human intelligence that programmes, guides, controls, corrects, manages and maintains AI.

This work uses a qualitative, structured research methodology, based on actual experiences and observations of multiple real-life applications in the construction industry, for example expert surveys in research, academic representatives and ethics and AI institutes, and political and business areas.

Partial results were presented at the IAO Fraunhofer Institute. The research results will also be made available to a global player company, defining its corporate ethical framework for AI, as well as to an association that certifies the ethical management of German construction companies by incorporating new ethical guidelines for digitisation and AI.

This concept inspired me to create and define the new term ‘iEthics’, which implies the ethically led, entrepreneurially responsible digitisation in the construction industry that makes meaningful, intelligent use of AI methods.

Experts conclude that machine learning has an estimated potential of value creation of $5.8 trillion. This means that AI has greater potential than the steam engine. There is an enormous unexploited potential for improvement. The entrepreneurially responsible design of the digital transformation basically applies, supported by the professional and personal competencies and skills of all involved in the construction project.

For their mentoring during my research studies, I sincerely thank Prof JV Retief, Civil Engineering, Stellenbosch University, and Dr Greg Ker-Fox, now Associate Director PwC, Johannesburg.