Ethics-Aware Application of Digital Technologies in the Construction Industry

The construction industry plays a prominent role in global economic and social development, with 15% share of the world’s GDP. Yet, it suffers from inefficient decisions, unproductivity, time-consuming activities, resistance to change, and high rates of accidents, wasting significant monetary and natural resources. With the recent advancements of industry 4.0 technologies, Artificial IntelligenceArtificial Intelligence, and Digital Twins, the construction sectorConstruction sector is experiencing a drastic shift toward automation, optimization, and digitalization, which could be the perfect solution for the issues mentioned above. However, the potential harms, biases, and discriminations embedded in and caused by such technologies in ethical and social contexts are overlooked. Moving toward the Industry 5.0 revolution, emphasizing the human-centric technologyEthics or Technology concept, the role of developing ethical standardsEthical standards and regulations, designing ethical systems to make fair and moral decisions, and assessing the productivity of projects based on their social impacts and not merely financial profit become critical. As creators of the built environment, engineers, architects, and construction managers have a vital social responsibility to represent the needs of all social groups, regardless of ethnicity, race, and gender, in their projects to serve sustainable development goals. This chapter aims to delineate the potential harms and ethical issues that might arise during different stages of digital technologiesDigital technologies’ application process, as well as the criteria to consider while designing an ethics-aware technologyEthics or Technology implementation framework. It can serve as a driver and a basis for an objective and ethical cost–benefit analysis of technology integration with current processes in the industry.