Despite the past years chal - lenges, the global construction industry is as robust as ever, consuming upwards of 10% of the global GDP and growing at a compound annual growth rate of 4.2% from 2018 to 2023, according to forecasts. 1 However, it still struggles with the same old challenges, par - ticularly low productivity and profitability. In fact, produc - tivity has barely grown over the past 20 years, 2 and profit margins continue to hover at around 2%, a tenth of what some other industries enjoy. 3 Boosting productivity is our industrys golden fleece. To find it, were going to have to change the way weve been doing things for the past 50 years. Take mechanical, electri - cal and plumbing installations, for example: Mistakes in planning and execution can lead to inefficient on-site improvi - sations and costly rework. Coordinating multiple play - ers with overlapping applica - tions can be complex and Wait, we need help? Introduction The robots are coming! Actually, theyre already here in their less sensational forms of digitization and automation and ready to help us tackle our industrys biggest challenges: inefficiencies, low productivity and labor shortages. Best of all, they can do it with technology were already using. expensive. Repetitive work can be time-consuming, error-prone and even demoralizing. Overhead work is particular - ly inefficient; it can also be physically demanding, which doesnt help ease the labor shortage and makes main - taining your employees health more critical than ever. Skilled labor shortages can result in poor-quality installations that need to be redone. Even a slight bump in pro - ductivity can translate to a significant amount of money, especially on multimillion-dollar projects. The World Economic Forum estimates that just a 1% rise in construction To boost productivity, were going to have to change the way weve been doing things for the past 50 years. JOBSITE AUTOMATION 2