Insights from 35+ countries on what’s actually happening with AI in practice.

I just got back from Helsinki, where I opened the AI in AEC conference with attendees from 35+ countries. 

Across dozens of conversations, one question kept coming up: 

What’s actually happening with AI in AEC, not in theory, but in practice? 

What stood out most wasn’t just the technology, but how seriously organizations are engaging with it. It was obvious that this is no longer experimental, but progress is happening globally. 

Four shifts I saw across the industry at the event: 

1. AI is becoming a collaborator. AI is no longer just assisting. Companies are embedding it into workflows, combining data, calculations, visualization, and reporting into unified systems. 

2. Agentic systems are replacing coordination. Work is no longer stitched together manually; multi-agent systems are starting to orchestrate fragmented processes end-to-end.  

3. AI is moving into decision-making. Beyond reports and summaries, AI is now influencing early-stage design, cost estimation, and strategic decisions. 

4. The bottleneck isn’t technology.  Across organizations, the constraints are largely structural: disconnected data, lack of standards, and workflows designed for a different era of work. 

All of these point to a deeper shift: We’re moving toward hybrid human–AI teams. AI agents are no longer just tools. They’re starting to take on roles, execute tasks, and coordinate work. 

A few ideas I shared in my keynote: 

• Most organizations are still designed for human limitations, not for AI.  

It’s like putting a Formula 1 engine into a horse carriage and expecting high ROIs. 

• Many organizations today still use AI for 10% efficiency gains, while the real opportunity is a 10X transformation that changes the game entirely. 

• Your biggest competitors won’t be the one who does what you do better and faster. It will be the one who makes what you do… irrelevant. 

• AI transformation requires redesigning three things: culture, business model, and operating model. 

 

The leaders pulling ahead aren’t asking, “Where can we use AI?”, but they’re asking, “Which parts of how we work no longer make sense?” 

Because optimizing systems that weren’t designed for this shift doesn’t create an advantage. It just accelerates irrelevance. 

Across conversations spanning 35+ countries, one pattern was clear: 

Everyone is experimenting. 

Everyone is learning. 

But very few are redesigning. 

The companies that will lead in the age of AI won’t win by adopting tools faster. They’ll win by rethinking how work happens, from the ground up. 

So, what about your organization? Are you using AI for 10% efficiency… or 10× value? 

If you’re aiming for 10X, that’s exactly what we’ll be working on with a small group of visionary executives at our upcoming AI Summit in April.