Author: Peggy Smedley
Manufacturing has always been shaped by tools that extend human capability, which is why we are kicking off the new year with a new blog series looking at both utopian and dystopian views of technology. I will be taking a historical perspective of the utopian view of technology in the manufacturing industry today, and then I will tie it to what is happening with AI (artificial intelligence) today—and what will come next. If you look at the construction column, I have been exploring this topic over there as well. It’s a great topic and one that deserves deep contemplation. The…
Every major technological shift arrives wrapped in big promises—and big fears. AI (artificial intelligence) is no different. Today, AI is often framed as either the construction industry’s ultimate problem-solver or a looming threat to jobs, safety, and human judgment, which is why we are kicking off the new year with a new blog series looking at both utopian and dystopian views of technology. History suggests we should pause before embracing either extreme, which is exactly where we stand at this moment in time. It’s no surprise, we have been here before. Electricity transformed construction by refining workdays, improving safety, and…
All year, I have been sounding the horn that the future of work isn’t just about technology, but rather it is about people and skills. The technologies transforming work—which we discussed last week—are powerful. But technology alone won’t determine the future. People will. The question is: How can workers prepare to thrive in this new era? Let’s explore five key areas workers must consider in 2026. Embrace Lifelong Learning The days of static skill sets are over. The future worker needs digital fluency—not just the ability to operate tools, but to understand data, interpret insights, and collaborate with intelligent systems.…
What lessons can we learn from 2025, as it relates to the construction worker shortage? And how can we use this information to prepare for 2026? These are the questions we are going to answer in today’s blog. The labor challenges facing construction are well documented and as we close out 2025, they remain front and center. Across the United States, demand for labor continues to outpace supply in nearly every region and trade. According to estimates from ABC (Associated Builders and Contractors) earlier this year, the construction industry needs hundreds of thousands of new workers just to keep pace…
The construction industry is at a crossroads as we wrap up 2025. The construction industry is facing one of the biggest challenges with a labor shortage. For today’s blog, let’s narrow in on women in construction and we will return next week to focus on the overall workforce. Women make up nearly 47% of the U.S. workforce overall, yet in construction they represent only about 11% of workers—and even fewer in the skilled trades. This is improvement over the 9% statistic we consistently shared years ago, but the progress is still far too slow. There is still hope though. A…
With 2026 right around the corner, it is time to give some thought to the technologies that will enable new ways of working, learning, and creating value. For today’s blog, let’s peek under the curtain at some of the current technologies shaping business, and how they will continue to unfold in the next 12 months and beyond. The Rise of Agentic AI One of the biggest breakthroughs in shaping work today is agentic AI (artificial intelligence)—intelligent systems that don’t just assist humans, but perceive, reason, and act autonomously within defined domains. Unlike earlier AI models that require constant oversight, agentic…
Imagine, for a moment, that we’re stepping back five years into the past. Digital twin was just a buzzword. BIM (building information modeling), while discussed for decades, was only just beginning to gain any meaningful traction. Now, here we are today, witnessing an extraordinary rise in all these technologies—and what’s even more exciting is all this momentum will certainly drive new applications and transform business models unlike anything we have ever witnessed before. Now we can confidently say we find ourselves at a thrilling crossroads of technological growth poised to shape the next five years with promising unprecedented transformation. The…
When 2025 began, the anticipated term of the year was generative AI (artificial intelligence), a term that has been gaining momentum for a few years—and then somewhere in the first or second quarter of 2025 agentic AI smacked us in the face. If you have been following along here at Connected World and The Peggy Smedley Show, then you know we have been covering agentic AI in depth, looking at the impact on industries like manufacturing, supply chain, construction, transportation, energy, smart cities, and more. It certainly has been the talk of the second half of 2025 for many industries.…
His name is Irfaan Peerun, Griffith University, Australia. That’s the name you should be pondering as we continue to introduce you to him. And if you have been following this blog for some time, then you will likely have heard many of the statistics related to the labor shortage in the construction industry. Here in the United States, we know the industry is short roughly half a million workers on top of the normal pace of hiring. Over in Australia, the government needs to have 1.2 million houses built by 2029—and the country is hosting the Olympics in 2032, thus…
Many of us are taking to the stores to buy food, gifts, or other holiday goods—and if we look carefully there is innovation all around us. Retailers are leaning into technologies like robotics and RFID (radio frequency identification), just to name two, to bring goods to market faster than ever before. Let’s look at a few case studies this holiday season. Walmart’s RFID for Freshness If you want to see innovation at work in the retail industry, look no further than Walmart. The retail giant has used RFID technology for more than two decades to track packages in order to…