Construction companies in Kazakhstan that fail to adopt artificial intelligence and digital technologies within the next five years risk losing their competitive edge, according to Timur Nurtayev, director of the Almaty branch of the Kazakhstan Builders Union, as reported by infohub.kz.
He noted that the level of digitalization in the country's construction industry remains extremely low.
"To be honest, in my personal opinion, the digitalization of Kazakhstan's construction industry is at an extremely low level. There are a few companies that are leaders in this, but globally speaking, it's a real problem," Nurtayev said.
One of the issues he highlighted is the insufficient use of BIM technologies (the process of creating a digital 3D model of a building or road that contains all data on dimensions, materials, and systems) during design. According to the union representative, many design organizations still do not use such solutions because neither legislation nor clients require it.
The consequences become apparent during construction. For example, engineering communications may intersect, forcing some work to be redone. This increases developer costs and ultimately affects the cost of construction.
Nurtayev believes that more active use of digital technologies at the design stage would allow such problems to be identified in advance and reduce the number of reworks.
Another area for digitalization, Nurtayev mentioned, is the state expert review process. He said that the current review period for a project is 45 working days, or about 60 calendar days. Moreover, a project may not pass on the first attempt, further extending the timeline.
As an example, the expert cited Armeta, a company that applies artificial intelligence in the state expert review. He claims that its technologies can reduce the process to three to four days, and in some cases, to just a few hours.
According to Nurtayev, digitalizing design, expert review, and construction processes themselves can lower the cost of building projects.
Additionally, Kazakhstan's construction industry should more actively consider robotization and the use of drones. The specialist noted that such technologies are already being used, for instance, in China.
The union representative believes that implementing new technologies will eventually become not just a way to cut costs, but a matter of company competitiveness.
"Companies that do not adopt AI and digitalization in the next five years simply will not survive in the market, because those that do will have lower construction costs," Nurtayev said.