The World Economic Forum says we are living in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Today, there are more than 2.2 million apps in Apple’s App Store, and nearly three million in the Android store. A Time Magazine article published in early 2016 found at that time that 72 percent of Apple’s apps were aimed at toddlers and preschoolers. The WEF predicts 65 percent of the children in primary school today will “end up working in jobs that don’t even exist yet.” Our world is inundated with artificial intelligence, machine learning, robots, nanotechnology, smart systems in homes and factories, and other technological advancements that we could barely fathom even just one decade ago. According to Time, 10 years ago, the Pentagon had fewer than 50 drones. Early last year, that number was 7,000, and is likely exponentially higher today due simply to the rate of technological growth. Today, you can get a roof scope at the click of a button.
The restoration industry might not be as tech-driven as other industries around us; but all of us can likely admit technology is driving us to change how we do many things. It’s unlikely many of you are still using Excel spreadsheets for estimating, or faxing over multitudes of documents to carriers. It’s no longer necessary to start putting holes in walls and ripping out drywall to find moisture problems. And it becomes less and less necessary to repeatedly climb on roofs to assess damage as satellite and drone technology become more readily available to the masses.