**1. Introduction**

Global construction is a \$12 trillion (USD) industry, accounting for close to 13.5% of global GDP [1]. However, in terms of sector productivity, construction lags manufacturing and the total world economy. "Globally, construction sector labor productivity growth averaged 1 percent a year over the past two decades, compared with 2.8 percent for the total world economy and 3.6 percent for manufacturing" [2]. There are strong indications from professionals and researchers in the construction industry that advanced digital technology (DT) can play a pivotal role, either directly or as a catalyst, in improving construction productivity. However, it is also a fact that construction is traditionally slow in adopting technology. Despite being sluggish as compared to the service and the manufacturing industries, construction has been incorporating digital technology gradually over the last two decades—as "technology-push" continues to overcome customary and traditional passivity. BIM, or building information modeling, is a prime example of a digital technology that took a long time to gain acceptance in the mainstream construction industry. It is now widely accepted and is proving itself almost essential in the industry. It is more apparent now than ever before in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. A recent IFS study based on a survey reported that companies concerned with economic disruption were 20% more likely to plan increased spending on digital transformation [3]. It appears that the construction

**Citation:** Elrefaey, O.; Ahmed, S.; Ahmad, I.; El-Sayegh, S. Impacts of COVID-19 on the Use of Digital Technology in Construction Projects in the UAE. *Buildings* **2022**, *12*, 489. https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings12040489

Academic Editors: Yongjian Ke, Jingxiao Zhang and Simon P. Philbin

Received: 12 March 2022 Accepted: 13 April 2022 Published: 14 April 2022

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**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

industry is ready to embrace a technological revolution to address these issues and that the global pandemic is perhaps the catalyst that the industry needed. Numerous studies listed contemporary digital technologies suitable for use and application in construction. For instance, PwC [4] lists eight essential technologies that are making large impacts on the business of construction. They are artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, blockchain, drones, Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and 3D printing.

The early months of 2020 witnessed the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had its adverse effects on almost all regions and industry sectors in the globe. However, many claim that the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry was one of the sectors that was hit the hardest by the pandemic. According to a recent Los Angeles investigation, construction crews reported the highest number of positive cases when compared to workers in other sectors, such as transport and manufacturing [5]. It is with no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic affected the United Arab Emirates (UAE) AEC industry in many ways. Dadlani [6] explained how precautionary measures were enforced in construction companies to ensure prioritization of health and safety of workers. These measures included frequent disinfection programs, social distancing measures, construction worker body temperature checks, and isolation rooms in the event of workers showing any symptoms of the coronavirus. Additionally, during the first six months of 2020, contract awards in the GCC region fell by 20%; this coincided with an increase in payment delays and disputes [7]. In addition, supply chains and subcontractors in the UAE were pressurized by such marketing challenges, causing some of them to go out of business [8].

The premise of this research is that most construction organizations' (owner, consultants, and contractors) investment in digital technology prior to the pandemic was inadequate to deal with the demands imposed by the crisis. It is likely that several technologies already available and deployed were not utilized at the expected and optimum level. The pandemic abruptly made them more useful than before. As an example, the use of technology necessary for virtual meetings can be cited. This technology has become essential during the lockdown phase, although it most likely remained underutilized before the crisis. Perhaps it was not considered necessary or did not have the necessary bandwidth for smooth operations. Therefore, it is important to assess the level of use and investments in digital technology before, during, and after the pandemic. The main goal of this paper is to investigate the use and investment in digital technology for construction projects amid, and in the aftermath of, the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of the UAE construction industry.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows. A literature review about the benefits of digital technology applications in the AEC industry is discussed in the next section. It is followed by an elaborate explanation of three facets of digital technology applications data acquisition, processing of information, and communication. The section afterward explains the methodology adopted in this research. The goal was to differentiate between the levels of usage and investment in the three digital technology categories across the three groups, namely, pre-, during, and post-COVID-19. Finally, the results are interpreted and discussed in order to draw significant conclusions that provide valuable insights regarding usage and investments in digital technology in construction in the context of the UAE (United Arab Emirates).

#### **2. Background**

Digital technology, although not new and having existed for some time, was not utilized extensively prior to the "lockdown" situation caused by the pandemic. The AEC industry has been incorporating digital technology gradually over the last two decades but remains sluggish as compared to other sectors, such as the service and the manufacturing industries, for instance. Ironically, the COVID-19 pandemic has developed an urgency towards adopting new technologies that will play a key role in reshaping the future of the AEC industry, allowing collaboration, data-driven decision-making, and greater control. The utilization of such technologies shall also facilitate the move towards a sustainable

future for contractors and developers [9]. Wallet [10] noted that this pandemic has provided a silver lining, as construction professionals grew more confident in dealing with these technologies, which not only helped keep the industry moving during those drastic times but also provided cost and time saving tools that construction professionals can benefit from in the long run.

Despite their attractive potential capabilities, many advanced digital technologies were viewed as tools that could lead to poor results and inefficiencies in the AEC industry prior to the new realization during the pandemic [11]. For instance, Hinks and Allen [12] discovered that videoconferencing was not in sync with existing processes. Even in the period post-2010, digital technologies remained in an "under-utilization" state. In a study conducted in 2014, only two out of 14 interviewed AEC firms mentioned that video conferencing software was being utilized to communicate information [13]. To sum up, the capacity and value of digital technologies in the business context was poorly recognized by the AEC firms prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The disruptive nature of COVID-19 has pressured many AEC companies to immediately remodel their business strategies via the usage of digital technologies [14]. In many cases, AEC firms lacked the essential digital infrastructure to make the move simple. As a result, obtaining necessary software packages and other resources posed significant challenges, leading to severe inefficiencies [15]. For instance, in the early stages of the pandemic, it was reported that several coordination problems arose due to online communication. Considering a design consultant, such coordination issues caused a delay in the design process during work from home. Additionally, difficulties in meeting with clients were evident, as some of the online meetings turned out to be ineffective and unnecessarily prolonged [16]. In many cases, organizations were required to make additional technological investments to improve their ability to work under the changed circumstances. Several businesses, for example, have invested in Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to acquire remote access to resources and software packages. Only few companies reported that they already had cloud solutions in place to access licensed software and company databases, making the shift smooth [15].

The benefits of using digital technology (DT) in the AEC industry are multifarious and significant. The adoption of technological innovation gives construction companies the opportunity to rebrand themselves as the providers of smart engineering solutions. In fact, adopting such technological innovations is a strategic decision to improve the image of the construction company and its reputation in the market. Not only this but digitalizing the construction industry makes it more appealing to young graduates, as it challenges the traditional notion of construction jobs being dangerous, difficult, and dirty [17] in addition to being labeled as backward. Furthermore, the efficient use of emerging digital technology helps improve communication, collaboration, better project comprehension, improved information retrieval, and increased productivity rates as well as time and cost savings. These benefits contribute to offering a distinct advantage to the market as well as creating a healthier organizational culture where project team members feel more connected to each other through advanced means of communication that raise a sense of belonging and commitment to the construction project [18].

The adoption of these technological innovations helps reduce the risks associated with construction projects by directing the construction industry away from the high-risk and towards the low-risk sector zone [19]. In addition, the nature of today's construction industry demands project teams that are geographically dispersed in different time zones across diverse organizational cultures and boundaries. It is only through using such advanced technological innovations that a collaborative project delivery system can be established where teams can work closely with various disciplines in an effective way [20]. Besides, adopting technological innovations can also help improve the monitoring and inspection of construction sites. For instance, Zhou et al. [21] introduced an AR technique to overlook the inspection process of segment displacement during tunneling construction. The technique enabled overlaying a quality control baseline model onto the real segment and reported the discrepancies.

Despite the benefits offered by digital technology, its adoption in the construction sector is still very low. In fact, Manyika [22] stated that the level of digitalization index for the construction industry ranked the lowest among 22 other industries. Delgado et al. [23] divided the challenges of creation of virtual environment in the construction industry, in terms of limitations, into three categories: social, technical, and economic limitations. The social limitations included (but were not limited to) lack of trained workforce, repugnance to change, and data privacy issues, whereas technical limitations included large space as well as prohibitive processing requirements, lack of user friendliness, and accuracy issues. Economic limitations included expensive hardware, expensive training needs, lack of client interest, and lack of funds for research and development. It can be concluded that the last one, namely, the economic issues, are mainly responsible for the lack of necessary investment for promoting digital technology in construction. Thus, in this paper the discourse is centered around the issue of investment in digital technology. To that end, digital technology applications are broken down into three facets: data acquisition, data processing, and data communication.
