What’s next for design?

Digital innovation has the potential to transform the AEC industry, allowing significant advancements in the speed and quality of design. But with the industry still relatively immature digitally, where is the real value to be found right now, and what do we need to do to ensure we capture it?

The AEC industry has come a long way in the past few years. Since McKinsey's 2016 "Imagining construction's digital future” report which alarmingly ranked construction as one of the least-digitised industries, above only agriculture and hunting, there has been a widespread surge in awareness and enthusiasm for digital adoption. Across the industry, we’ve seen a rise in the number of digital-first firms, clients mandating a digital approach, and of projects delivered at significant cost and time savings when digital approaches are embraced and combined with integrated team working.

But the relative immaturity of digital adoption in the industry and the transactional nature of many contractual relationships means that, in many ways, we are still wrestling with what digitally mature design and engineering looks like.

So as we approach the next stage of our digitalization journey, let’s take a look at some of the key technologies that can really add value to the design and engineering process over the next few years.

Artificial Intelligence

There is an enormous amount of hype around AI right now, as advances in user-friendly tools such as Chat-GPT spark speculation about what the future could bring. But while AI and machine learning have been used to varying degrees in design and engineering for years and are predicted to have a very significant impact on our industry, they are still a developing technology and we may be a few years away from real solutions in some areas.

Most AI design tools currently focus on the vertical building space. Here, it is already beginning to be leveraged in lower-complexity design and master planning, to optimise building layouts and model new concepts. For example, generative AI can be used within a structure, to plot the best position for facilities such as bathrooms, kitchens, and stairwells. Generative AI can also be used at the concept stage, to quickly visualise new designs.

In the future AI might also be leveraged for lower-complexity commoditized design, but it’s currently a long way from being mature enough to use in higher-risk safety-critical work. We also don’t expect to see much AI work in the linear infrastructure space until the technology has significantly matured thanks to the much larger scale of the projects and the amount of data needed to train the models.

Automation

While automation has been around a while now, we still aren’t using it to its full potential.

There are a lot of repetitive processes in what we do, and automation scripts have been repeatedly shown to remove significant amounts of labour from projects – in some instances eliminating up to a third of the hours from a straightforward design. Likewise, with the right governance and testing, automations can deliver improvements in accuracy and quality by removing the risk of human error and rework, and free up the team to focus on higher-value tasks.

To ensure that we are capturing the full value automation offers, we need a mindset change in the industry. At the moment automation is often only used on an ad-hoc basis to tackle particularly repetitive design tasks, but by assessing the design needs at the beginning of the project, and targeting automation effort more strategically, teams can realise much larger benefits.

Data solutions

Microsoft Excel is a brilliant piece of software, but why do we still use it for everything in 2024?

There are significant benefits to be gained from using more specialised pieces of software for tasks like Master Information Delivery Planning and custom scheduling – from time savings to more authoritative data. These tools improve visibility on project progress and deliverables, reducing the risk of bottlenecks, delays and unexpected challenges. They can also significantly reduce the administrative burden (and at the end of the day you can always export to Excel if necessary!)

The value of data is much better understood now than it was eight years ago, and we are seeing a lot more emphasis on systems that can deliver improved data insights. Yet at the same time a lack of standardisation across the industry and of commonly accepted ways of measuring factors like quality, means that we still aren’t maximising this value.

And given strong data management is the foundation on which all other digital solutions are built, it’s clear there’s still a long way to go.

Digital rehearsal

Digital rehearsals are also not a new technology. However, they are not being used to their full potential.

Thanks to improvements in BIM software and data management tools, it is now possible to model the construction process from beginning to end in exceptional detail. This allows contractors to plan their approach for maximum efficiency, reducing the risk of delays and preventing expensive rework and overruns.

This approach can be transformational, allowing complex work to be carried out to tight deadlines and a higher standard of safety. But it only works in close collaboration – and with full buy in – from an integrated design and construction team where everyone’s contribution is valued. Unfortunately, this continues to be challenging to achieve, and we are unlikely to see real industry change until this mindset challenge can be addressed.

People. Data. Technology.

Today’s technology presents an enormous opportunity to our industry.

Both new and old innovations can offer transformational benefits, allowing us to deliver a higher quality of work faster and with more predictability. But if we are going to capture this value, we need to make a few key changes.

The first is to get our underlying data infrastructure in order so that these technologies can be used to their full potential – and the results accurately quantified.

The second is a mindset change. It doesn’t matter how extraordinary the technology is if we don’t use it, and in many ways the industry is still very resistant to change. Productive adoption will require that we start looking at these tools during the project planning stages, so we can capture more value, collaborate with clients and contractors, and make sure that we are maximising efficiency and productivity across the lifecycle of the project.