Construction Industry Leads Drone Adoption and Investment

Drone use continues to rise, with construction leading followed by government

Skyward/Blue Research
Drone

Skyward, a Verizon company and maker of drone operation management software and consulting services, announced results of a custom-built quantitative survey by Blue Research. The data revealed that one in 10 companies with revenue of $50 million and more use drones, and adoption is highest in construction and engineering (35%).

Blue Research sampled 1,736 individuals working for a random mix of U.S. companies with $50 million or more in revenue. Based on responses, the survey revealed that one in 10 companies with revenue of $50 million and over use drones, with the highest adoption in construction and engineering (35%). Moreover, 92% of companies that use drones realized a positive ROI on their drone investment in one year or less. The results also showed that drones are integral to business operations: half reported their company’s bottom line would suffer if their company did not use drones. Also revealed, 19% of the surveyed professionals indicated that their company currently uses or expects to use drones in the future.

“In the last two years since the FAA passed Part 107, we’ve seen drone use accelerate across small businesses and multinational firms, and watched our customers build drone programs into sophisticated operations that increase efficiency, worker safety, and access to data,” said Mariah Scott, President, Skyward. “As we develop our platform and services, I wanted more data about how medium and large businesses view drone technology and how they plan to put it to work in the future. The Blue Research data shows us who is adopting, at what pace, as well as the ROI drones are providing today. It also both validated, and challenged, our thinking about adoption hurdles and barriers to growth.”

Research Key Points:

  • 1,736 individuals working for U.S. companies with $50M or more in revenue were surveyed
  • Drone use among survey responders is at 10%; expected to increase to 20% in the future
  • Drone adoption is the highest in the construction and engineering industry (35%); government is next highest industry (24%)
  • About half of respondents reported their company’s bottom line would suffer if their company did not use drones
  • A wide majority realized a positive ROI on their drone investment in one year or less (92%)
  • Over four in five companies expect their drone flights to increase year over year
  • Three in four expect to increase spending on their drone program over the next 12 months
  • Drone operations management software appears to address important drone program challenges
  • ”Staying up to date with laws and regulations” and “ensuring internal policies are followed” are common challenges

“In speaking one-on-one with executives we’ve heard that many large corporations are rapidly expanding their drone programs. This agrees with existing research in which the potential size of the market within specific industries has been assessed. However, this is the first study in which both adoption and the return on investment has been assessed with companies of this size, across industries. It is fascinating to see how quickly these organizations are obtaining a positive ROI. Although still a fairly nascent market, these data suggest the market is well poised to grow -- and with good reason for doing so,” said Paul Abel, Ph.D., managing partner, Blue Research.

To obtain these data, Blue Research created a custom-designed quantitative survey designed to ensure reliable data and avoid bias. To learn more about Skyward visit www.skyward.io and to download a full report of the Blue Research survey data, please visit, http://go.skyward.io/Drones-in-Big-Business-The-State-of-Drones-at-50M.html.

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