South Korean builders are expanding the use of artificial intelligence technologies such as drones, video analytics and robots to improve job-site safety and quality, but their applications largely remain focused on video-based safety management, industry officials said. Overseas competitors, by contrast, are extending AI across the full construction process, widening the gap.
As of April 22, the industry said domestic firms are gradually broadening AI-based tools, but remain at an early stage in building an ecosystem that includes data sharing and collaboration with subcontractors.
GS Engineering & Construction is applying a real-time translation app for foreign workers, a four-legged walking robot and video analytics systems at sites. It has introduced the AI translation program “Xi Voice,” “Xi Book,” which updates standard specifications in real time, and an AI system for reviewing design drawings to strengthen safety and quality control. A GS E&C official said, “A translation application for communication with foreign workers and drone video analysis technology are already being used at sites, and the four-legged walking robot is being applied at some pilot sites.”
Samsung C&T is using floor construction robots for automated finishing, anchor robots for automatic bolt installation and video analytics systems as it pushes job-site automation. It has also introduced autonomous forklifts and material-transport robots, along with cleaning robots, water-spraying drones and wearable robots. A Samsung C&T official said the company is currently placing more emphasis on development and verification to advance the technology than on broad deployment at active sites.
Hyundai Engineering & Construction is using drones for infrastructure safety inspections, four-legged walking robots and video analytics systems. It also plans to apply an AI-based smart around-view monitor, or SAVM, and an overload warning device, or OWD, to equipment such as excavators to strengthen worker-approach detection and overload-risk alerts.
Daewoo Engineering & Construction and Hyundai Engineering are using video analytics and robotics, while DL E&C and POSCO E&C are applying AI in design and crack management. Lotte Engineering & Construction, SK ecoplant and HDC Hyundai Development Co. are also expanding AI use, mainly for safety management and quality analysis.
Even so, the industry’s AI use is still largely limited to adopting individual technologies. Analysts say gaps between large and smaller firms, and a structure centered on site-by-site use, have kept it from spreading into broader digital transformation and AI transformation across the sector.
Overseas, construction companies are expanding AI across all stages — from design and construction to operations — based on a common data environment, or CDE. In the United States, firms are focusing on process optimization using generative AI and data analytics; Bechtel is using neural-network-based process planning, and Turner is boosting productivity through equipment-operation analytics systems. In Japan, Obayashi Corp. is advancing AI-driven design automation and Shimizu Corp. is actively building robot-based “smart sites.” In Europe, data-driven applications stand out, including Hochtief’s analysis of construction errors and Strabag’s risk prediction.
Jeon Young-jun, a research center director at the Korea Research Institute for Construction Policy, said AI use at domestic construction sites has started first with video analysis based on safety CCTV. “Drones have spread relatively widely, and four-legged walking robots have also been introduced in some cases, but overall it is still at an early stage,” he said.
Jeon said the faster shift in the United States and Japan toward “intelligent AI,” such as process optimization, reflects not so much a technology gap as whether an integrated ecosystem has been built to include subcontractors. “A structure in which prime contractors and subcontractors share and use data together, based on a common data platform, is important,” he said, adding that South Korea remains focused on technology development led by individual companies and lacks an integrated system that includes partner firms.
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.