Preparing for technological change in the infrastructure sector

As part of the New Zealand Infrastructure Strategy we identified technological change as a significant trend for consideration. At present, the infrastructure sector is not as digitally sophisticated as it could be and to varying levels lags behind benchmarked peers internationally. The infrastructure sector, like the rest of the economy faces enduring productivity challenges.

This research identifies a range of emerging technologies that can have an impact on infrastructure. These include Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things and digital twins.

This research also makes a number of recommendations, including the creation of digital twins of infrastructure projects, piloting digital consenting, shifting to a more fully open data environment, designing use cases for AI in infrastructure, and the creation of a Decarbonisation of Infrastructure fund.

This research was undertaken through a number of workshops with technology experts from a range of infrastructure organisations from both the private and public sector. This research was developed by Beca Ltd and Polis Consulting Group.