The Internet of Things (IoT) is still a relatively new concept in the construction industry. Although managers and executives are just now starting to dig deeper into the technology, IoT has already been helping other industries for many years now. Construction is one of the best applications of IoT technology and companies are just scratching the surface on what it can do for the industry.

The Internet has come a long way since the ‘mainframe’ days and has undergone multiple phases of technological growth since then.

The first phase was about defense research (DARPA) with the creation of a limited but safe network with few participants for almost two decades between the 60s and 80s. The second phase in the 90s focused on the development of key open protocols which could enable the use of services such as browsers, which proved to be a pivotal step for the technology as it entered the next phase. After the year 2000 through to today, we have been experiencing the third phase of the Internet. The third phase has been characterized by the rapid growth of powerful applications such as mobile technology, cloud computing, video, and multi-sided platforms to name a few.

This brings us to the next phase, which we are still in the process of entering. The new fourth phase of the Internet is all about Artificial Intelligence (AI), IoT, and Blockchain technologies. This new chapter involves a hyper-connected network full of both people and things, and essentially places more power in the hands of smart devices and machines which are able to operate without any human involvement.

By combining human intelligence with controlled, yet fully-automated technology, we can enter a new era of global productivity capable of improving virtually every single part of the economy.

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