AI Unbuilt: Revolutionizing the Uncharted Sectors
From Code to Concrete: How Generative AI is Reshaping Healthcare and Construction
Generative AI continues to make progress at a blistering pace - this week OpenAI announced customizable GPTs (agents) and an upcoming GPT store at the DevDay earlier this week.
The internet has been abuzz with all the possibilities, all with no code. The potential of the GPT store is endless. For context, Apple's App Store has 1.8 million apps which generated over $1.1 Trillion last year1
While generative AI continues to make huge strides in improving our daily lives and efficiencies, the area that I was focused on was verticals/industries that are most under-penetrated. Healthcare, construction, supply chain, legal & financial services seemed the most logical - either because of lack of data, unstructured data, privacy & regulation, or how niche and specific the use cases are and the industry context that goes into it for horizontal players (think large incumbents) to penetrate.
Let’s look at the construction industry. The construction industry is valued globally at over $14 trillion2 compared to construction tech (ConTech), which is a mere $5B in 2023. Construction technology refers to the collection of innovative tools, machinery, modifications, software, etc. used during the construction phase of a project that enables advancement in field construction methods, including semi-automated and automated construction equipment.3
It has been the slowest industry to digitize & innovate. But that is fast changing - it is estimated that 40% of the US construction force will retire by 2031. This, combined with strong demand for infrastructure has fueled a significant increase in adoption. AI is specifically targeting construction's perennial pain points: cost overruns, design efficiency, risk management, project planning, productivity, and safety. Translating to an explosion in the VC Investments in ConTech - 2022 saw $5.38B invested in construction technology companies.
Interested in knowing more about the companies in this space, here is a market map of the companies with the largest fundings since 2019, As of Jul 2022 as per PitchBook4. Also, the Top 10 AI construction companies.
And the VC’s focused on ConTech? Below is a list of the number of deals done by the most active VCs in the ConTech space since 2022.
Or healthcare, here is a super well researched piece on what’s happening with generative AI in healthcare.
And the challenge with some of these under-represented / under-invested verticals; they are under-penetrated for a reason - there is a general lack of data and a lack of expertise/teams in the space that are able to address the problem. Let’s be fair - healthcare & construction have not been the most exciting industries for AI folks.
What can help address this under-representation : A founding team that has AI specialists passionate about the problem and industry insiders. And a lot more VC money!
Lastly, here are some weekend reads -
Buzziest AI startup: Humane demo-ed this week.
GPT that i created after this and this LI posts : Market Maven
Q: What do you call a ChatGPT that’s been trained on too much Shakespeare? A: A Bard.
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/05/developers-generated-one-point-one-trillion-in-the-app-store-ecosystem-in-2022/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/global-construction-industry-forecast-market-144000024.html
https://www.construction-institute.org/resources/knowledgebase/knowledge-areas/construction-technology
https://www.svb.com/industry-insights/hardware-frontier-technology/construction-tech-startups-the-vc-funding-journey