Many forces are combining to cause 2016 to be the year where
even the most skeptical of observers is beginning to wonder, all this
technological change – what do you suppose it means to me and the way I do my
job? For example, most real estate
industry executives have tried Uber or Lyft and wondered, will there be companies
in the business of renting space that aren’t actually landlords? The answer is yes, and there are
several.
Perhaps you have read about or seen an office where the
workforce needs to reserve a spot to work at their regular office location, via
a mobile app (for example: Deloitte’s
newest offices). These types of digital
applications have the potential to disrupt not only the way physical space is
being utilized but the resulting work outcome and processes by which we
undertake the work - in ways we haven’t yet conceived.
Robotics is another field that has revolutionized
manufacturing and more recently legal and journalistic research. Are you aware of how it has disrupted
logistics and is poised to disrupt the construction industry? Likewise, revolutionary high performance materials
and artificially intelligent operating systems are being utilized to substantially
improve environmental performance of the newest state-of-the art projects to
save occupants 50% or more on their electric bills – material in jurisdictions
like Ontario where power costs are 2.5 times the North American average
price.
We have entered into an era known as the Fourth Industrial
Revolution where cyber physical systems, streaming technologies, online
marketplaces and artificial intelligence among other innovations are supplanting the way things used to
get done. Our infrastructure investment
is lagging at the same time that the merger of scientific
research and engineering applications are pushing the boundaries of what kinds
of buildings and places of the future are conceivable. All of these changes are ushering an era of
great opportunity for those quick to notice the patterns and embrace new
technologies.
If you would like to learn more about a sampling of these
technologies and major themes at work, I invite you to read my recent Topical Report.
