Artificial intelligence (AI) has been top of mind for industry pros ever since natural language processing (NLP) models like ChatGPT hit the mainstream world over two years ago.
This year was no exception; in 2024, companies intensified their focus on AI. Research from McKinsey reveals that 72% of organizations adopted AI in at least one business function—a significant jump from 55% the previous year.
We can see similar trends in the construction sector. According to data from Mordor Intelligence, the AI in construction market is expected to grow from around $3.99 billion in 2024 to $11.85 billion by 2029, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.31%.
To shed even more light on the topic of AI, we reached out to a number of industry pros for insights on how artificial intelligence will shape the construction industry in 2025 and beyond.
"In 2025, AI will be widely utilized beyond just Generative AI and will be used to track and detect non-compliance of safety measures on the field/site. It will also be used to identify site progress and streamline reporting as it continues to improve in the accuracy due to increase in the quality of data collection."
"With the rapid advancement of technology, AI will continue to emerge as an innovative solution, reshaping the way projects are designed, managed, and executed. By 2025, AI will no longer be a futuristic concept but a practical, everyday tool, becoming an essential part of daily operations. It will drive innovation, enhance efficiency, improve safety protocols, advance sustainability efforts, and support inclusive workforce development. AI has the potential to address some of the construction industry's most pressing challenges more quickly and accurately, opening new pathways for growth and equity.
However, AI will not replace the fundamental need for a skilled workforce, expertise, or lived experience. It also cannot substitute the importance of empathy in leadership and collaboration. Human presence and judgment I envision will remain irreplaceable in driving successful outcomes. A few of my predictions for how I believe AI will shape the construction landscape in the coming year include enhanced project planning and design, AI as a catalyst for aiding to building capacity for smaller firms, improved safety and risk management, sustainability through AI insights, and data-driven DEI initiatives."
"I think to some extent we are already seeing patches of the boom of AI in the industry coming into 2025. There are high-value outputs being gained in use cases such as QTOs and LLMs querying project data. However, I think we will see a maturation of the application into the project finances, for example around liquidity risk profiles of stakeholders, or even connections to commodity prices like iron ore to predict the price of steel, and combined with schedules be able to optimize the batching or JIT procurement of materials in a way that has a positive impact on bottom line and cashflow. Construction lives or dies by the bottom line, and that application of AI into the complex and multi-faceted world of project financials has the most to gain (literally and figuratively)."
"Envisioning the role of AI in 2025 and beyond, I predict wider automation, quicker ways to design and construct, new roles and professionals that don’t yet exist in the industry, and better methods of construction using more ecologically based principles and materials."
"As we move into 2025, while generative design is being utilized in conceptual model development, the rules of engagement are still not quite there for MEP design and coordination, and the code is not intelligent enough to replicate a trade person with years of experience installing pipework. However, Machine Learning can reduce the time spent error-checking model files, and performing clash detection, against a set of fixed rules, or automating the Bill of Material (BOM) and offering a cost analysis or alternative product."
"I predict that in 2025, AI will redefine construction for organizations that are ready to evolve. Legacy systems, with their fragmented workflows and inconsistent data, are inadequate for AI integration. AI demands structured, interconnected environments to unleash its potential. Imagine predictive analytics that proactively mitigates risks, AI-optimized designs exceeding expectations, and resource allocation that eliminates waste in real time. These are not distant dreams but realizable outcomes for companies adopting industrialized construction systems. AI thrives on consistent data and streamlined workflows, becoming a catalyst for transitioning from reactive to proactive decision-making.
AI’s transformative power lies in its ability to empower, not merely replace, human decision-making. However, organizations must make the conscious choice to create the connected systems AI needs to flourish. The question is not whether AI will revolutionize construction but whether companies will be ready when it does."
"AI is poised to play a transformative role in the construction industry in 2025. AI is being integrated into various aspects of construction, from design to project management, to improve efficiency and reduce errors. In preconstruction and design phases, AI can enhance collaborative efforts by capturing outcomes, decisions, and action items from immersive, collaborative environments. This allows users to focus on the creative and strategic aspects of their work while AI handles the documentation and analysis.
Looking forward, AI will continue to evolve and will learn to be spatially aware, becoming more adept at recognizing patterns and providing insights that can lead to better decision-making and project management. The integration of AI with immersive technologies like XR will further enhance collaboration and efficiency in the construction process."
"In 2025, we'll witness a significant surge in organizations constructing comprehensive enterprise data catalogs and deploying AI solutions—whether custom-built or purchased—to seamlessly integrate data from multiple platforms in their tech deck. This year, we'll prioritize enhancing AI and data literacy industry-wide, with a particular focus on empowering our frontline teams in the field. By arming our field workers with AI tools, we'll streamline daily tasks and drive unprecedented levels of efficiency and accuracy.
The fusion of interconnected data and AI-powered field workflows will be the catalyst for widespread AI adoption in 2025 - elevating project quality, reducing safety incidents, and minimizing rework. I'm particularly looking forward to the prospect of AI transitioning from a passive information provider to an active agent, prompting individuals to act on data-driven insights. While we'll only begin to see the emergence of AI-driven prompts in 2025, their industry-wide scaling in the years to come promises to revolutionize the way we work."
"Looking ahead in 2025, generative AI and AI applications are revolutionizing the construction industry by enhancing various project aspects and workflows. One significant application is AI for Projects, which involves implementing natural language interfaces to facilitate contract and specification inquiries. Additionally, AI-driven graphical modeling tools are being integrated with large language models within BIM to improve design workflows. Another critical area is the increasing knowledge base building, where AI-powered chatbots are being developed to assist non-technical users in navigating complex technical documentation.
Furthermore, monitoring energy consumption on construction sites has become more efficient with the use of AI and IoT sensors for real-time energy usage tracking. Enhanced site safety is also a priority, with computer vision and live camera integrations being leveraged to automatically identify and flag safety hazards. These advancements suggest a proactive approach to leveraging technology and data in construction, paving the way for more efficient and sustainable practices."
"AI will redefine construction operations in 2025, offering smarter planning, resource allocation, and on-site execution. AI-powered generative design tools will optimize architectural, structural, and subsystems designs, reducing material waste and enhancing buildability. Machine learning algorithms will predict project risks by analyzing historical and real-time data, minimizing delays and cost overruns in the near future.
Automation will expand beyond prefabrication to include autonomous equipment, such as drones for site surveys and robotics for repetitive tasks like bricklaying and welding. AI-enhanced construction management platforms will streamline project coordination by integrating BIM with scheduling and procurement tools.
Safety will benefit significantly, with AI systems monitoring worker behavior and site conditions to prevent accidents. Predictive maintenance will ensure the longevity of equipment and structures, informed by sensor data processed through AI algorithms. AI will also enhance sustainability efforts by analyzing energy consumption and suggesting optimizations during the operational phase."
"I often joke with my children about their "weak decision-making muscles," usually because they lack the necessary facts to make quick choices. This concept mirrors a common challenge in our industry. By centralizing project data in one unified location, we unlock AI's full potential to transform operations.
The first step in this journey is consolidating data on a single platform—an effort often hindered by fragmented tools and disconnected processes. In construction, accessible data is critical to scaling a business successfully. AI tools play a pivotal role by improving efficiency, enhancing accuracy, and enabling better decision-making. They analyze vast amounts of project data, predict risks, and optimize workflows. From preconstruction through execution and maintenance, AI tools will continue to empower teams to work smarter and deliver better results."
In 2025, AI will continue to transform the construction industry. Proactive AI decision-making versus reactive old-school fire drills will be the theme of the future. Tools like Construction IQ will analyze project risks based on outstanding tasks, RFIs, and submittals. Predictive insights will encourage owners, general contractors, and subcontractors to analyze their project data like never before, allowing them to produce metrics and KPIs for evaluating project success. Instead of primarily relying on end-of-project margins to determine success, automated monthly data analysis will be enabled with dashboards monitoring job performance, installation efficiency, and resource management.
Partnering with AI tools like AutoSpecs will continue to be a trend, especially when reducing admin costs, with faster abilities to query specifications, mitigate risks, manage project closeout, and maintain all building code requirements. A multitude of Contech AI tools will continue to emerge, making it crucial for construction teams to identify the most important bottlenecks holding up their operations. Effective research and organized evaluations will be the key to solving real-world problems with artificial intelligence in the construction industry.
"I think AI will be a tremendous asset to construction in 2025. The construction industry is in high demand, and we struggle to maintain qualified labor and attract the newer generations to our craft. AI will help automate some of the tedious portions of our job, while aiding our project teams to be able to work smarter, not harder."
"In my opinion, as the development of RAG-like environments that connect each company's unique knowledge with LLMs progresses, I believe the collaborative domain of knowledge will expand, and UI/UX differentiation will become a focal point in 2025. Along with these developments, I think the establishment of highly versatile protocols and schemas for information integration will become increasingly important and will continue to advance. Since having well-organized company workflows and protocols is a prerequisite for utilizing these schemas, I would like to proceed with organizing such information, albeit belatedly."
"AI will change the way field personnel approach digital tools, be it in 2025 or a few years from now. The previously much-hated admin / desktop work such as raising permits, forms, RFIs, asking and managing latest drawings could be done a lot more conversational via mobile.
In other aspects, generative AI will be a good assistant to speed up works in all phases of project lifecycle in 2025. AI agents can be created for various tasks, such as performing checks on legal documents, identifying risks in preconstruction phase and comparing specifications of different products, all done near real-time. Therefore, we see increasing digital investment in AI in many companies."
According to our most recent State of Design & Make Report:
More and more, industry leaders are understanding and utilizing the power of AI. We are seeing more digitization to capture critical project information which fuels AI and machine learning. Armed with this data, teams are using AI to:
These advancements lead to more confident decision making, better resource utilization, and reduced issues throughout the project lifecycles.
"AI will transform how data is utilized in construction by automating mundane tasks like drawing reviews and change detection. When combined with Workato, AI can drive workflows that flag significant drawing changes and automate data distribution via Autodesk Construction Cloud. This ensures that project teams always work with the most relevant and up-to-date information.
Workato stands out as the pivotal tool for connecting data from multiple sources into Autodesk Construction Cloud. For example, integrating payment applications like Payapps through Synergy into Autodesk Construction Cloud’s Cost Management module provides a comprehensive financial view of projects. These streamlined workflows enable project teams to spend less time on manual data entry and more time on strategic decision-making.
AI-powered chatbots built with Workato are a game-changer for interacting with construction data. These chatbots can access data stored in Autodesk Construction Cloud, allowing users to query and retrieve information directly from a chat window. Whether it's asking for the latest project status, accessing BIM model data, or reviewing compliance with BIM Management Plans, these chatbots make complex data easily accessible, reducing the need for specialized knowledge and manual searches."
"In the construction industry, AI has the potential to transform the sector significantly in 2025. By providing advanced analysis capabilities, it can offer relevant and actionable insights in real time, enabling teams to make more informed decisions on a daily basis. Additionally, AI can automate processes, reducing low-value work by streamlining steps or workflows that are typically manual, time-consuming, and error-prone. Furthermore, AI can augment human creativity and exploration, enhancing the speed, quality, and breadth of options available to optimize design and construction efforts. Overall, AI's integration into construction can lead to more efficient, innovative, and effective project outcomes."
"If 2024 was the year that AI in construction started to walk, then 2025 will be the year it starts to run. In 2025, I predict AI will significantly impact the construction industry by enhancing productivity and addressing labor shortages. Whereas AI in construction was previously geared towards identifying risk factors, like our Construction IQ feature has been doing for years, AI-powered tools introduced this year will aim to simplify difficult workflows and reduce the amount of time spent on repetitive, manual tasks. Project teams spend too much time searching for data and on rework, resulting in an impact on project performance.
While it is still important to have AI tools that identify important information in the background proactively and help teams make informed decisions, users are now also in need of responsive AI assistants at their fingertips who can parse and understand project data better than any human can. Integrating AI into everyday construction operations will enable better project management, coordination, and optimization, leading to more efficient and cost-effective construction processes."
"One of the most effective ways to leverage AI in the AEC industry in 2025 is to avoid viewing it as a standalone solution but rather to combine it with other innovative applications to address project-specific challenges. For example, by leveraging generative AI alongside generative design, teams can automate tedious modeling tasks, streamline drawing reviews, and optimize QA/QC workflows. By 2025, AI is expected to further enhance predictive analytics for risk mitigation, enabling teams to automate project-specific approach comparisons, such as evaluating prefab construction versus traditional methods, while assessing cost efficiencies and schedule acceleration."
"AI will play a pivotal role in optimizing construction processes in 2025. By leveraging big data from BIM models, IoT devices, and historical projects, AI will enhance data-driven decision-making, predicting risks and improving cost-effectiveness. Automated design tools, such as generative AI, will enable rapid design standardization and validation, significantly reducing errors and project timelines. Additionally, AI models will be employed for predictive maintenance, monitoring infrastructure to prevent failures, and extending asset lifespans. Furthermore, generative insights provided by AI will facilitate scenario planning during preconstruction, enabling adaptive and efficient project planning. Overall, the integration of AI will revolutionize the construction industry, driving efficiency and innovation."
"AI is a tool no one realizes they need until they use it, and it will become something they can't live without. We continue to see AI incorporated into our tools at a base level, like suggestions while searching or writing emails. I predict in 2025, AI will continue to assist us in construction when we seek it out. Our tools will begin to incorporate it more and more. But this next year, I think the user will have to initiate the interaction in our tools by opening an AI window for services. I think as AI expands in the future, it will just be incorporated into what we do. We cannot be afraid or avoid AI. It will be a part of the construction industry whether we want to use it or not. We need to embrace it as a tool to take our industry forward."
"As AI becomes increasingly integrated into vertical industries in 2025, the construction sector will likely see a rise in AI-driven tools to automate repetitive tasks and organize construction data for search and analytics. Once construction data reaches a critical mass, Preconstruction will benefit significantly from predictive insights and optimization, leveraging historical data to improve planning and decision-making."
"For the last couple of years, a lot of companies have put resources into "learning what AI can do," as well as creating internal chatbots. This was in an effort to protect their own data, as well as try to innovate with a type of AI that was easier to understand and execute, natural language processing (NLP). In 2025, there will probably be less internal development of AI in the short term and a shift to leveraging AI through 3rd party solutions. Right now, many of us are putting more pressure on our technology partners to utilize AI, especially since we would be pulling the data within those systems out anyway for our own AI usage.
After 2025, we should eventually see the focus internally be more on opportunities where multiple systems or different data sources need to connect. If you are only using data within one single platform, then these 3rd party software companies will eventually catch up and leap ahead of anything produced in-house. This is due to their accessibility to more companies’ data than just our own, as well as more developers. AI has unlimited potential, and it will take time to see the full benefits, but in 2025, we should start seeing some real applicable and effective use cases coming out of our technology partners, quicker than what most construction companies could do internally."
"AI is taking on a whole new meaning, year over year, and Autodesk Construction Cloud seems to be paving the way for this in 2025. AI is already amongst us, and it is being used at construction sites all over the world. Familiarization with the tool will be what it takes to get that next step for most businesses. Once they are exposed to AI and see how it can take care of some of the less technical tasks around them to save time and energy, the ROI will be huge. In 2025, AI is going to save GC’s thousands by allowing them to collect and analyze more data in less time and with more efficiency."
"We have all heard the expression “data is the new gold”, and no doubt AI will feature heavily in 2025 as organizations seek to maximize the profitability and benefits from this valuable commodity. The use of AI will likely be focused first on the quick wins, e.g. collation and formatting of data and initial design renderings, as the available tools for wider uses develop into viable products. I expect the fear and hesitancy of using AI will disappear as it becomes as common as using Google to search for the answer to a query. As we are already seeing at the end of 2024, client requests or acceptance of the use of AI tools and platforms will likely become a more regular occurrence in bids and proposals in many key regions, with the resulting necessity to develop standardized internal processes and documentation to implement them."
