Digital transformation isn’t a single piece of technology or a change that happens overnight. The architecture, engineering, and construction industry has been undergoing a sea change for years. Key elements of digital transformation include:

• Moving to digital processes to enhance skillsets and improve productivity 
• Embracing cloud-enabled collaboration and data management for real-time access to data and better insights 
• Automation and scaling of processes. Adopting a digital-first mindset to transform business practices 
• Unlocking data and design circularity with a digital twin to reuse and refine digital and physical assets

AEC firms with a digital-first mindset use BIM-based software together with technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), extended reality (XR), predictive analytics, and simulation to realize benefits that include reduced risk, business resilience, and improved sustainability. 

The convergence of BIM and multidisciplinary technologies is at the heart of successful AEC projects worldwide. And already the industry is moving into the next phase of digital transformation, one powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. In this phase, AEC firms will use data and insights to connect processes, automate workflows, and provide a better understanding of the built environment.

BIM is the foundation of digital transformation in the AEC industry. The BIM process connects teams, workflows, and data across the entire project lifecycle—from design and engineering to construction and operations—to realize better ways of working and better outcomes.

Better project delivery in AEC firms starts with connected teams, data, and processes, and is united by shared standards in a common data environment. From planning to design collaboration, design management, construction management, and operations, every stakeholder can access projects and collaborate in real time. This dramatically increases productivity and reduces expensive rework, errors, and data loss. Learn more about digital project delivery.

Autodesk’s Architecture, Engineering & Construction Collection is a powerful set of BIM and CAD software that provides designers, engineers, and contractors with the tools they need, supported by a cloud-based common data environment that facilitates project delivery from early-stage design through to construction. 

With integrated analysis, generative design, visualization and simulation tools, plus workflows for document management, conceptual design, modeling, coordination, and documentation, the AEC Collection can help you accelerate your company’s digital transformation.

In addition, Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro, a cloud-based design collaboration and design management software, gives teams the power of centralized data, flexible workflows, automated analysis, and full project visibility.

Small and medium-sized companies are not alone in struggling with how to best approach the digital transformation journey. In Autodesk’s 2023 State of Design & Make report, only 36% of AEC firms rated themselves “digitally mature.” Fully 46% saw themselves as in the early or middle stages of transformation. The takeaway for firms of any size is to build on the lessons of the pandemic and subsequent economic upheavals. Firms with limited resources can start by handing over basic processes to digital tools and committing to remote work in order to compete for digitally skilled talent in more regions.

Digital processes, shared data environments, improved insights from data, and other elements of digital transformation can help organizations make better decisions and achieve more sustainable outcomes.

The complexity involved in green building practices is beyond manual processes—digital solutions are essential within a systems-thinking approach to how resources are consumed and retained in a closed-loop economy. But by exploring and adopting net-zero strategies and circular principles, for example, the AEC sector can convert inevitable change into a business opportunity, not a cost.

For an in-depth examination of drivers, gaps, and opportunities for AEC to achieve more sustainable outcomes—with the goal of a more resilient, sustainable, and equitable built environment in the future—read this report.

As digitization accelerates—particularly with AI tools like ChatGPT making lighter work of previously complex, time-consuming processes—companies that have lagged in their digital transformation will catch up. This will put more pressure on digitally mature organizations to increase innovation and the competition to attract and retain skilled talent. These coming shifts require firms to prepare for tomorrow by putting an innovation-first culture in place today. Read more about future-proofing your AEC firm here.