The construction industry is massive. People all around the world need buildings to live in, work in and relax in. As more people join the population, more buildings will be needed. With 8.6 billion people estimated to inhabit this planet by 2030, we'll need to build an average of 13,000 buildings every single day to accommodate everybody. Last week, Autodesk held its annual Connect and Construct Summit in London to discuss how the industry can tackle the growing demand.

Autodesk's latest addition to its BIM 360 AI suite enables industry tools such as Construction IQ to predict and play a role in the reduction of tragic occurrences at the workplace. By predicting when falls are likely to happen, along with other dangers to life, limb or work; it is already proving dramatically useful in reducing risk dividends for businesses. Construction IQ uses NLP algorithms – parsing human language – in order to assess risk and warn of hazards that might go unnoticed by human safety managers. By adding to this suite through the use of tools such as 360-degree cameras etc, this technology is well on its way to saving lives. Other research suggests that soon automatic detectors could even assess the toxicity of air in relation to life expectancy and other predictive capabilities.