At Zanola, we have been interested to see how technology will change the way homes are built. The video below features a presentation on this topic at the 2013 BUILDER's Housing Leadership Summit by Andrew McAfee, a research scientist at MIT. He asserts that the technology of home building as we look to the future will include smart machines that can perform construction functions.

McAfee addresses the concerns of this phenomenon. As with the integration of computers into everyday work and life, it is possible that robotics as the future of homebuilding - as well as other industries - could negatively impact job production and average income.

McAfee leaves us with two questions - If this is the world we're heading into, what are the smart business moves? And secondly, if we don't like any of these trends, what are the policies we can try to put in place to mitigate them or deal with them?

What do you think? What do these trends mean for your industry's future?

By Rachel Ballard