Automation provides an excellent opportunity for the Indian construction space to better the industry, according to Andrew Anagnost, President and CEO, Autodesk.
The company has recently announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Pype, a provider of cloud-based solutions for automating construction project management workflows. In an interaction with BusinessLine on the occasion of the launch, Anagnost said, “Construction is going back to work. Many went dormant for a while, but they’re coming back, and we see it in the usage of our products.
“During this cycle, we had customers who never use our cloud-based solutions leverage it, and now they’re not going back. As we head into next year, going back to work, it’ll be a lot more digital than when they started,” he said.
Talking about the construction space in India, the Autodesk CEO said, “India is witnessing a high uptake of modular techniques with its construction sector slowly transforming and behaving more like the business of manufacturing. However, it has taken a little longer to adopt technology related to the construction of real estate and infrastructure.”
“Several hurdles that India’s construction sector face include frequent miscommunication and workflow disruptions, leading to project delays and cost overruns. Automation presents an opportunity to do things better - technologies such as AI, BIM, and cloud-based collaboration can help to address these challenges for increased productivity, lower risks, and better quality of output,” he added.
With the partnership with Pype, the company will further integrate Pype’s India team with Autodesk.
“We have a pretty sizable team in Bangalore and which is our Center for AI and machine learning centre for excellence, who are also going to be part of Autodesk,” said Sunil Dorairajan, CEO and Co-Founder, Pype.
Pype integration with Autodesk
Since 2017, the construction cloud company has invested in nine construction technology startups, including its acquisition of Assemble, BuildingConnected and PlanGrid accounting for over $1.1 billion.
Following the acquisition of Pype, it plans to Pype products with Autodesk Construction Cloud including AutoSpecs, Closeout, eBinder and SmartPlans.
“With this partnership, the integrations will go much deeper. We will integrate with more of Autodesk’s products. Like for example, Autodesk acquired Plan Grid and Building Connected some time ago, and now with this acquisition, we will integrate with those products as well and probably will focus on building new solutions,” said Karuna Ammireddy, CTO and Co-Founder, Pype.
“We will be definitely working towards automating the workflows beyond Pype already provides and what Autodesk already provides for automating the different aspects such as planning, designing phase through building operations and maintenance,” said Dorairajan.
Amireddy further added that companies are now interested to understand the challenges that can be solved through Big Data.
“Pype by merging with Autodesk is in a unique position to address big data needs of the construction industry. When you take large companies, and you want to do the same analysis on plants and spikes across a project, that's a big data problem that companies are interested to understand,” Amireddy said.
“When you talk about big data, you also need a good reporting solution as well,” he added.
“Reporting technology, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and mobile are the four technology areas that we think will penetrate more and more in the construction industry,” he further said.
According to Anagnost, the future of the construction space will be, “Digital. Connected. Automated.”
“The future is about helping construction teams meet the world’s rapidly expanding building and infrastructure needs while making construction more predictable, safe and sustainable,” he said.
The US-based construction cloud major has also recently partnered up with India-based Aurigo software for its cloud construction platform.
“We will be announcing our first product integration with Aurigo in the coming days,” Anagnost said