Julian Geiger, chief AI officer at Nemetschek Group, outlines his vision for AI’s evolution ahead of the AEC/O sector’s major UK trade event
It would be fair to assume that AI is going to be front of mind once again for the 8,000 or so visitors expected to attend Digital Construction Week 2026 in London.
Given the rapid pace at which technology evolves, they’ll be keen to see how the AEC/O sector has implemented AI in the 12 months that have passed since last year’s show, when AI was the talk of the industry.
Show me the ROI
While 2025 was all about AI hype, hope and promises, this year the sector is asking to see tangible benefits and real ROI from AI implementations.
There’s a growing appetite for proof points demonstrating how the technology can make inroads into helping the sector address its problems – from woeful environmental credentials to 90% of projects running late and over budget, and how it can help slash the amount of raw materials wasted each year.
While the sector recognises those issues, the truth is that – unlike other sectors – it has been relatively slow in investing in technology to help overcome its many challenges. Yet creating digital assets from a building has positive outcomes, from the design and planning of a building right through to its construction and day-to-day management.
That’s why at Digital Construction Week 2026, AI needs to do more than look good on a vendor’s booth; it needs to show it has now made the leap from being useful in some projects to being a core part of essential, data-driven workflows with the ability to prove itself across the entire AEC/O ecosystem.
From our perspective, we see AI as a partner. It adds value by taking on the repetitive, time-consuming tasks, enabling AEC/O professionals to do what they do best: drive by curiosity and connection.
When we use machine learning to automate performance analysis or generate spatial variants, it clears space and time for the architect to consider the all-important ‘why’ behind the form: how people will experience the space, how it interacts with its context and what emotional resonance it carries.
At the same time, it opens new professional pathways in data-informed design, scenario curation and outcome orchestration. Implemented well, AI is a true ally.
The harmony of AI, digital twins and BIM
Of course, it would be naïve to assume that AI alone is a silver bullet. But by working hand-in-hand with other established technologies – like digital twins and BIM – it offers the sector a comprehensive toolkit that brings efficiency, visibility and sustainability to every build or project.
The positive impact of fusing advanced technologies like AI, digital twins and BIM – and how they benefit customers – is what we’ll be showcasing on our booth D240 at Digital Construction Week 2026.
With the overarching theme of Turning AI into Performance Across the Built World, you’ll see how over the past two years our promises have become a reality for the industry. We have successfully integrated AI initiatives across the brand portfolio with partners, alliances and customers.
We’re proud of what we’ve achieved to date, such as our AI Visualizer (a feature in Archicad, Allplan and Vectorworks) and 3D Drawings (part of Bluebeam Cloud), while Bluebeam Max utilises AI to transform drawing intelligence. It includes advanced features like automated takeoffs, AI-REVIEW and “Stitching” to speed up construction workflows.
Further support for customers is provided by Nemetschek’s AI layer. So much more than a virtual assistant, it’s a revolutionary foundation aimed at addressing a variety of longstanding, industry-specific challenges facing stakeholders across the entire building lifecycle.
It’s already adding value to Archicad users, and we have more agentic use cases are in the pipeline. And of course, we’ll be demonstrating our well-established dTwin platform, which is already helping users increase productivity and sustainability in their processes.
But we haven’t let our enthusiasm for the technology cloud our responsibilities. As we declared from the outset, ethics, trust and sustainability lie at the heart of desire to ensure that AI is developed and deployed responsibly.
AI should be a mindset, not just a technology
There’s more work to be done though if the AEC/O sector is to fully realise the benefits of AI and other related solutions.
It must actively show how it is embracing digital technology in order to encourage fresh talent to join it.
This is imperative, given that skilled workers leaving the profession outnumber those joining, which is a major contributor to the sector’s ongoing skills crisis. At the same time, it must upskill highly valued and experienced “old hands’’ with essential digital skills, marrying their knowledge with the latest in productivity-boosting technology.
In the meantime, I join you in being excited about all that Digital Construction Week, the AEC/O sector and, of course, AI has to share with us in early June. I look forward to welcoming you at the Nemetschek Group booth to demonstrate how we’ve made AI a measurable reality for AEC/O professionals.
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