President Lee Chungjae of the Korea Institute of Construction Technology: "AI Data Will Be the Key to Preventing Construction Accidents"

Interview with Lee Chung-jae, President of the Korea Institute of Construction Technology
AI Enables Proactive Safety Management in Construction
"Transition to a 'Proactive Defense System' Based on Data"

Lee Choongjae, President of the Korea Construction Industry Research Institute, is being interviewed by The Asia Business Daily at the Construction Hall in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jinhyung

"If datafication through artificial intelligence (AI) becomes possible, it can transform the paradigm of the construction industry. I believe it is the key to fundamentally resolving the long-standing challenge of safety."

Lee Chungjae, President of the Korea Construction Industry Research Institute, explained in a recent interview with The Asia Business Daily that AI can play a role in improving safety issues, which have been a major topic in the construction sector since last year. He emphasized that AI transformation (AX) can fundamentally change how the construction industry operates.

President Lee, a former official of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, is an expert in urban planning and real estate studies. Since being appointed as president of the institute in 2022, he has been driving the "Rebirth of the Construction Industry" research, focused on finding fundamental solutions to the structural reform and paradigm shift issues facing the construction sector.

His focus on AI stems from the belief that it enables proactive responses to safety. "In the past, the industry only responded after accidents occurred, investigating the causes," he said. "But it is now possible to shift to a 'proactive defense system' that controls risks in advance based on AI-driven data." He added, "AI can analyze complex variables in real time, allowing it to predict hidden risks that people might miss. The vast amount of data accumulated on site will continuously enhance the risk models, leading to a dramatic improvement in prediction accuracy."

He stressed that datafication is the most crucial factor for this transformation. To immediately identify causes and resolve issues without trial and error when problems arise, it is necessary to digitalize the entire process from project ordering to design, construction, and implementation.

"Everyone agrees on the importance of the data underpinning AX," President Lee said, "but in reality, the construction industry has relatively neglected this area. The government should step in to provide a common data environment and lay the groundwork so that individual companies can build their own data ecosystems based on this standard."

President Lee anticipates that, once AX is realized, structural issues such as labor shortages can also be addressed, in addition to safety. As foreign workers are increasingly replacing on-site labor, shortages in the domestic workforce and skilled technicians are becoming evident. With the advancement of physical AI, he predicts that on-site workers will transition into technology operators, and that construction sites will evolve into intelligent collaborative systems where people and technology work together.

"Physical AI can directly intervene in construction production methods, as it is a technology that perceives, judges, and acts in the real world," he emphasized. "AI integrated with drones, robots, sensors, and digital twins can collect on-site data in real time, predict risks, and optimize processes."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.