These days, it’s hard to talk about the AEC industry without talking about AI. At international conferences like INTERGEO and Bentley Systems’ recent Year in Infrastructure event, industry leaders discussed the promise of AI and explored new ways to bring efficiency and accuracy to their work. Moreover, every day at worksites and offices around the world, AEC professionals are debating how AI may replace—or at least enhance—their operations, and exploring how they should allocate resources to get the most they can out of this groundbreaking technology.
Because AI will continue to be a critial issue for AEC professionals, it’s important to have up-to-date and accurate information on how the technology is being used across the AEC space. To help, AEC service provider Bluebeam, part of the Nemetschek Group, has released a comprehensive report on the state of AI in the industry. Titled Building the Future: Bluebeam AEC Technology Outlook, the report presents findings from a survey of more than 1,000 AEC professionals from US, UK, France, Germany, and Australia. The report addresses rates of AI adoption, return on investment for projects that incorporate AI, future plans, barriers to integration, and more.
Here's a look at some of the top findings from the survey:
- Adoption of AI: Only 27 percent of AEC firms responding the Bluebeam’s survey said they use AI for “automation, problem-solving, or decision-making.”
- Return on Investment (ROI): In the survey, 68 percent of respondents said that they have saved “at least $50,000, and nearly half (46 percent) have saved 500-1,000 hours using AI tools.”
- Plans to integrate AI: 94 percent of AEC companies that currently using AI “plan to further increase investment and use of AI in the next year, moving from pilots to workflow integration.”
- What’s standing in the way of AI integration: 69 percent of survey respondents said that the possibility of AI regulations stood as a major challenge to greater integration of the technology. In addition, 42 percent said that data sharing security was top challenge, and “cost and complexity” was cited as a significant issue by 33 percent of respondents.
- How are AEC companies using AI and digital tools: In the Bluebeam survey, 56 percent of respondents reported that AI is helping to offset skilled labor shortages, and 44 percent said the integration of advanced digital tools is “key to attracting and retaining top talent, alongside culture and compensation.”
- Further AI integration challenges: Study findings show that many AEC firms are concerned with gaps in employee skills when making decisions around AI. Some 19 percent of respondents cited “a lack of digital skills” as an issue, and 23 percent said “difficulty in keeping up with rapidly changing technology” was a top challenge. Despite these concerns, 65 percent of survey respondents said they “invest less than 10% of technology budgets on training.”
Commenting on the report findings, Bluebeam CEO Usman Shuja, said, “The question now isn’t whether AI works – it’s how to integrate it effectively. Our customers are thriving when AI fits the way they work.” Looking ahead, Shuja stated, “When AI stops being hype and starts solving real problems, that’s when we see true impact, and that’s where the AEC industry is headed.”
