The pressure to innovate has never been greater in the construction and infrastructure industry.
Rapid urbanisation creates demand for smarter, more sustainable solutions to accommodate expanding populations. Increasing design complexity and customer expectations leave no room for error and require unmatched precision, efficiency, and adaptability at every project phase. Compressed timelines are no longer the exception but the norm, compelling project teams to deliver results faster while maintaining uncompromising standards for safety and quality. Labour shortages have made automation and intuitive technology essential for empowering the modern workforce. Meanwhile, persistent safety challenges demand the adoption of advanced solutions to safeguard individuals on site.
These converging pressures are not temporary trends – they are defining realities. Innovation is not optional: Solving these challenges, though it’s no small task, presents a remarkable opportunity to transform the way we build and maintain the world around us.
Standing ready to answer this call are business leaders, surveyors, engineers, and contractors – whose work forms the foundation of modern society. They expand transportation networks to serve growing populations, revamp energy systems to meet rising demands, and build the technological infrastructure that powers the AI-driven future. We join them in pairing experience with innovation and partnership to help make transformation possible.
The first step in any path to transformation is understanding the challenges we face. As building and infrastructure projects grow larger in scale and more complex in design, 97% of businesses are increasing their digital investments, showing a clear commitment to progress through digitalisation.
Timelines are short, and margins are tight, leaving little room for error.
However, despite the rise in adoption, the construction industry still grapples with persistent challenges. The industry leads in workplace injuries and fatalities. Timelines are short, and margins are tight, leaving little room for error. Material waste remains at an alarming 30%. Decisions are made using only 5% of available data, leading to inefficiencies. Even managing and maintaining buildings is often hindered by missing or underutilised data.
Our industry has already improved, but these challenges demand a thorough shift that combines cutting-edge technology with trusted partnerships to drive real-world impact.
Transformative innovation and trusted partnerships
Technology is one pillar of this transformation. This includes precision sensors that capture the highest accuracy data for peace of mind even in complex applications. It also means cloud-connected collaboration platforms that create a single source of truth through real- time data sharing and AI-enabled automation for better decisions and faster workflows.
But technology alone isn’t enough.
Transformation also requires collaboration and trust. By understanding your needs – whether you’re a large firm seeking scalable solutions or a small surveying provider looking to grow – we ensure technology is accessible to you at any stage of your digitalisation journey. Trust is built through reliability, offering the best quality, and being readily available when you need us. For example, our global service teams in 90 countries are ready to help you adopt digital technologies faster.
We listen and collaborate to achieve the extraordinary with you, supporting you as you meet and exceed your own customers’ expectations.
Experience transformation
When we develop our innovations based on the experiences and insights of our customers, it allows us to create technology that can foster real transformation in the places it will be most impactful. We saw key challenges contractors, layout specialists, and craftsmen face such as delivering precision work in short timeframes and working on busy sites between other trades. They need their data to
reflect reality so designs are accurate and installations are smooth. Leica iCON trades extends our manufacturing-grade precision measurement technology to construction layout, offering digital, AI-enabled workflows that help contractors work faster, reduce material waste, and achieve up to 40% faster layouts. With flexible solutions for templating and interior finishing, craftsmen like carpenters and fabricators can measure up to 83% faster, often seeing ROI (return on investment) in just two jobs.
Growth through innovation
Combining transformative innovation and partnerships can also shape efficiency and growth for surveyors, construction engineers, and large contractors. Investing in new technology to meet growing industry demands can help grow your business. As a surveyor, for example, you can seamlessly expand your expertise into areas such as monitoring, mobile mapping, detection, or 3D laser scanning leveraging your existing skills while gradually adopting advanced technologies to specialise further.
Innovation for insights
Growth through innovation isn’t just about cutting- edge hardware, but also the powerful software and services that put your data to work for more productivity and safety. Hexagon’s Building Solutions portfolio integrates and delivers workflows that follow a multi- step process designed to empower you to get the most out of your technology and data by connecting with AI- powered services.
Processing data from a wide range of sensors and datasets provides insights throughout the construction lifecycle. This includes visual documentation, digital asset creation, BIM transformation, and automated construction analysis as a service.
Transforming safety
In addition to productivity, safety has been a critical challenge in the construction industry and the problem is worsening with more than 60,000 fatal accidents occurring globally each year.
Great change happens if you can spot problems before they turn into disasters and address them with immediate interventions and learn for the future. We teamed up with Presien to create Leica Xsight360 – an AI-powered safety awareness solution for heavy construction that offers detailed analytics, hazard detection, and risk mitigation. With cutting-edge human form recognition, it provides real-time alerts and insights and can generate a variety of risk-specific training programmes, fostering a safety-first culture.
Impact at scale
When transformative innovation intersects with trusted partnerships, the results are extraordinary. This synergy drives real-world impact, scaling across teams, projects, and entire organisations. Accuracy and quality are at the core of engineering excellence at scale, and Hexagon technology provides peace of mind.
This is exemplified in the Hinkley Point C twin power station project – a massive engineering and construction feat in the United Kingdom. Spanning 430 acres with each power unit set to produce 1.6 gigawatts, it will power 6 million homes to meet 7% of Great Britain’s total electricity demand. 22,000 people are working on the project, including apprentices who are learning skills that will serve them well into the future. The financial impact is also significant, with the project contributing £13 billion to the economy in the United Kingdom.
A project of this scale demands precise execution to ensure its success. The teams at Hinkley Point C use Hexagon’s hardware and software for everything from setting up and maintaining control to earthworks, verifying as-built structures, and machine control with 3D avoidance. Across the project, Hexagon is delivering the accuracy that helps every piece of the high-stakes build come together, delivering enormous impact to the local community and larger region.
Building the future
The construction industry’s potential is vast, but realising it requires all stakeholders to rise to the challenge. Strong partnerships founded in trust, a shared standard of accuracy and precision, and a collective drive for performance build the foundation that unites all stakeholders in achieving progress. By embracing innovation and fostering collaboration, we can make the extraordinary ordinary. The construction industry will transform. The question is how quickly and effectively we drive progress together. With the right combination of technology and partnership, we can overcome today’s challenges and shape a more efficient, sustainable, and safer tomorrow.
