Artificial Intelligence is set to transform UK infrastructure and deliver over £14 billion a year in new revenue, according to new data from SenSat, the British company translating the real world into a version understandable to AI.
The findings - from an independent survey data of 404 UK decision-makers in infrastructure and large-scale businesses in the architecture, engineering and construction sector - also show the vast majority (90%) believe AI will transform their industry, while 95% believe digitisation already makes their business more efficient..
The respondents also believe four in ten construction and infrastructure firms that don’t embrace digitisation risk going out of business within ten years.
Real skills gap when it comes to digital twin technology
According to SenSat the data also provides insight into where the main thrust of digital innovation is going to come from – and flags up a real skills gap when it comes to digital twin technology.
A digital twin is a digital representation of a real world location or asset infused with real time data sets from a variety of sources. The result is an accurate and up to date digital copy of the real world, in a machine-readable format.
The overwhelming majority of professionals - 99% - say digital twins are important, but less than half (44%) are currently using them.
The survey comes after SenSat recently closed a $10m Series A funding round led by Tencent.
The research is flagging up the ability of AI optimisation to transform UK infrastructure, commenting:
“Modern infrastructure is being infused with sensors that produce continuous streams of data. For humans, this data is often incomprehensible and overwhelming. But for an AI, or a cluster of AIs, these datasets are easy to compute in full – producing holistic picture of the data landscape.”
UK is a leader in Artificial Intelligence research
The research also shows great confidence in British tech - 40% of respondents believe the UK is leading the world in infrastructure AI, 48% believe the UK is a follower, and just 12% say it’s a laggard.
Commenting on the study, Mike Sort, Chief Scientific Advisor, Department for International Trade, said:
“It’s encouraging to see that the UK is not just leading in Artificial Intelligence research - but also increasingly in the digitisation of infrastructure by training AI on real-world data. By speaking to those working at the forefront of infrastructure delivery, SenSat have provided valuable insight into the way our construction methods are evolving - and proved the scale of opportunity in this vitally important industry.”
According to James Dean, SenSat CEO, currently the way infrastructure is planned and delivered is antiquated in context of the automation and transparency that has transformed online industries.
James Dean said:
“Our mission is to build the third platform, an intelligent eco-system that translates the real world into a version understandable to AI. This technology will help us to build a more sustainable future, using the wealth of new insight to help people make better decisions.
“We’re already seeing the kind of changes AI and digitisation can make. We are most proud of the impact we’re seeing to our clients' businesses, and the effect our technology makes on their ability to deliver critical infrastructure in a more sustainable way.”
Image: SenSat flood corridor case study
Recent applications of SenSat’s AI technology in the UK water infrastructure sector include the replication of a 12km flood corridor for the Leeds flood defence scheme for BAM Nuttall, one of the UK's largest construction and engineering companies.
Click here to download SenSat’s Digital Disruption whitepaper
Click here to download the Bam Nuttall Flood Corridor case study
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