By Huw Roberts, CEO, Graphisoft

Huw Roberts

Hybrid workplaces, the lingering pandemic, and the war in Europe are major narratives shaping the global economy, and the AEC industry is fielding the fallout on several fronts.  Workplaces and workflows are changing, materials and resources are in short supply, and a general slowdown has increased competition for larger projects.  What has remained consistent is that the repercussions have accelerated the trajectory toward digital collaboration with teams, partners, and clients.  While remote work greatly influenced the move towards collaborative work in dispersed locations during the pandemic, supply chain complications and high energy costs have encouraged teams to continue embracing technological solutions to fill the gaps.

Looking ahead, Graphisoft CEO Huw Roberts orients resurging industry themes, highlighting trends in digital collaboration, environmental sustainability, globalizing talent, and evolving technologies as they adapt to a resource-scarce landscape.  As teams adapt to external factors, seamless virtual collaboration and smart workflows have helped shore up limited resources while bringing innovative solutions and new opportunities to the table.

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By Arcturus

From the first days of mixed reality, it seemed inevitable that the architecture industry was going to be an early adopter of the technology. After all, if a picture is worth a thousand words, how much would a fully immersive virtual environment you can interact with and explore be worth?

The rise of game engines gave firms and designers the opportunity to build 3D models — mostly for clients, but in some cases to rally support for a new proposal. Telling someone about a new commercial structure is one thing, but allowing them to tour a future rooftop garden or check out what a future restaurant space might look like is another. In many ways, architectural visualization was a precursor to virtual production, which is having a major impact on entertainment. And as we’ve seen countless times in the past, as goes entertainment, so goes innovation across multiple industries.

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By Richard Taylor

The demand for technology to support distributed and collaborative work environments plus increased BIM productivity will continue

Richard Taylor

Who could have predicted the events of the last 3 years? The global pandemic, stay-at-home orders, and continued desire by some people to work from home have dramatically changed many architecture, engineering, construction, and owner-operator (AECO) firms from traditional office environments to more distributed remote work situations. I believe that the changes launched during this difficult time will continue to evolve as companies plan for continued success in 2023 and beyond.

The AECO community is very collaborative and social; although I don’t expect the flexible work environment to go away, I do think there will be a continued trend towards collaborating within an office for most of the work week. To support employees while working from outside the office, I expect that AECO companies will implement software tools that allow the social interaction and collaboration of their extended teams from virtually anywhere.

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By Allison Scott, Director of Customer Experience & Industry, Autodesk Construction Solutions

Allison Scott

Access to a skilled workforce will continue to challenge the construction industry in 2023. Seasoned professionals are retiring and leaving institutional knowledge gaps within firms. In parallel, the industry is not replacing one-to-one for those leaving, creating a delta for the next generation of construction leaders going forward.

Knowing that the industry cannot attract and retain a workforce fast enough, we have to increase efficiency and effectiveness with advanced digital construction management methods and tools. Digital upskilling and training for specific technology, as well as a broader focus on knowledge sharing, is critical to capture institutional knowledge and IP that is leaving the business due to retirement. We’ll also continue to see more construction firms reduce silos for digital methodologies and pull that skillset and methods across the organization. The knowledge will no longer live within the BIM/VDC or innovation departments – it will be more broadly part of the means and methods of preconstruction and operations. This shift creates compelling opportunities for digital natives to flex their experience to help firms adopt more sophisticated workflows, enabling them to attract and retain emerging leaders due to an increase in career paths that are tech-enabled.

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By Brad Bishop, Founder, Docupoint

Brad Bishop

As the Founder of Docupoint, a leading provider of document management solutions, I am excited to share my industry predictions for 2023.

First, I predict that the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will continue to accelerate in the document management industry. AI-powered systems will help organizations process and organize large volumes of data more efficiently, allowing them to extract valuable insights and make better-informed business decisions.

Second, I expect to see an increase in the use of cloud-based solutions for document management. The benefits of the cloud, such as improved security, accessibility, and scalability, will continue to make it an attractive option for businesses of all sizes.

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By Pascal Strupler, Business Director of Autonomous Reality Capture at Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon.

“In 2023, companies will be moving more into digital workflows, especially as industry leaders digitize the process of monitoring construction projects. These digital workflows will rely on automated reality capture to compare the current state of a construction site with BIM plans. Then, to quickly close the loop, corresponding insights will be brought back into the field using augmented reality to point out inaccuracies or missing installations. However, automating this process requires frequent capturing of a construction site using reality capture technology. The most cost efficient way to do this is through the use of autonomous reality capture to minimize user involvement without compromising the integrity of the scans.”