Sensat News

2022: Breaking civil infrastructure barriers with metaverse, automation and sustainability says Sensat

December 29, 2021

Having adapted to a ‘new tech normal’ set out by the pandemic, the abundance of data will move the metaverse, automation and sustainability beyond what’s thought even possible today.

London, UK – 29 December 2021: Sensat, the leading visualisation and collaboration software company for civil infrastructure, today outlines its top three tech predictions for 2022. For an industry focused on boosting productivity, collaboration, safety and establishing a net-zero future, James Dean, Sensat CEO, believes that the metaverse, automation and sustainability will move beyond what we know is possible today, and be focal points for construction and civil infrastructure to surface the right information when needed to make more informed decisions.

Having moved towards a ‘new normal’ over the past year, the civil infrastructure industry has continued to adapt traditional processes whilst adopting new technology in a drive to close the productivity gap experienced by the industry. Over the past two decades, the abundance of information captured and created from the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry has boomed, and we are still discovering how to realise the full potential of this near-constant stream of data. With the metaverse and automation advancing in 2021, in 2022 the industry will really start to make the best use of it.

Dean explained, “2022 is going to be a game-changing year for the construction and civil infrastructure industry. The past 18 months have been a period of adapting and adopting for many as the industry was pushed to explore new ways in which technology and innovation could support traditional everyday processes. In 2022 this is only looking to build pace. I expect civil infrastructure will ride the wave of tech adoption and beyond, embracing newer tech trends such as the metaverse and automation to better understand the built environment and make better decisions that help reduce its environmental impact and fuel productivity gains, time and cost savings.”

1. The Metaverse, Beyond Social

After a year of metaverse hype, from Facebook’s rebrand to businesses across the globe expanding their digital offering, Sensat predicts that the Metaverse is going to drive the biggest changes in the industrial and construction space in 2022. These sectors have caused the most detrimental impact on our planet, so with the metaverse already existing in gaming, social as well as digital replicas of cities and towns, this is an opportunity to drive decisions based on the abundance, and bringing together of data, to start to reverse human destruction and drive huge sustainability wins.

Sensat has already started to help build the metaverse, by creating digital replicas of 20 cities and sites, such as HS2, Heathrow and the M25, for the civil infrastructure industry.

2. Automation, Beyond Level 2

2022 will be the year more industries are catapulted into a future of automation. As we have already begun to see the rise of autonomous vehicles through the five stages of automation, the infrastructure industry is next. Digital twin technology can already take construction from a Level 0 to a Level 2 (partial automation) and as AI in construction continues to evolve, automation will reach a level never seen before.

3. Sustainability, Beyond Human Decisions

As the world wakes up to the need for a more sustainable future, it will be a jumping-off point to bigger things. Businesses will harness the power of tech to take us to a place beyond sustainability. Access to data and information is almost instantaneous, and our ability to make sense of it in new and subtle ways to make decisions is practically automatic. But this technology is not replacing humans; it is augmenting how we engage with the world. As sustainability moves to the forefront of every business agenda, we will see companies explore tech’s ability to not only operate sustainably but give back to the planet.

“At Sensat, we are committed to building visualisation and collaboration technology that will help the civil industry really harness the information all around us to start to close the productivity gap but also positively address the negative impact on the built environment.” Dean continued, “There is a new wave of civil infrastructure upon us and those who choose not to adopt the tech out there today will ultimately fall behind as others benefit.”