As construction of data centers accelerates, history suggests caution
By now, all of us have interacted with artificial intelligence (AI), at least through ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, etc. The list of AI products multiplies in what seems to be daily abundance. And for many in the precast industry, AI is rapidly deploying in our businesses, helping improve efficiency across the board, with much more in the way of application opportunities yet to come.
I watched all this once before, with the advent of the internet in the late 1980s and its boom throughout the 90s, which underpinned a decade-long period of adoption and the attendant financial speculation. But in the clarity of hindsight, it ushered in an exceedingly long period of increased efficiency and productivity to the global economy, particularly here in America. Remember, Google, Facebook and Amazon were virtually unknown 25 years ago and have become behemoths today. Others, like MySpace and AOL, fell by the wayside as they were outmaneuvered by subsequent competition.
So, are we replaying this historic wave of adoption again with AI? It raises the question: is AI a boom or a bubble?