By Naoki Kitamura, Tektone
Participating in Digital Construction Week 2025 offered a powerful snapshot of where the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry currently stands – and where it needs to go. From the conversations I had on the show floor to the conversations I had after my presentation on Tech Stage, one theme was abundantly clear: while innovation is happening, the path to integrated digital transformation remains fragmented and, in many areas, underdeveloped.
The fragmentation challenge
Despite the growth of digital tools in AEC, many companies continue to operate in silos, with project information dispersed across disconnected platforms. There is no single source of truth – no unified environment where data flows seamlessly from design to handover. This fragmentation not only delays decision-making but also increases the risk of costly miscommunications. Attendees repeatedly voiced frustration over the difficulty in aligning teams when project knowledge is spread across spreadsheets, PDFs, and multiple disconnected systems.
Requirements management still needs a better home
One topic that resonated with many attendees was the inefficiency of managing project requirements. Even on high-profile projects, it’s common for crucial requirements to be stored in documents that aren’t easily shareable or traceable. There is a growing recognition that the AEC sector urgently needs purpose-built solutions for structured requirements management – tools that support traceability, collaboration, and change tracking. Without these, teams risk losing sight of what truly matters in delivery and compliance.
AI: promise vs reality
Artificial intelligence was a buzzword across the event, but there’s a clear disconnect between interest and adoption – particularly in the UK. While pilot projects are emerging, the use of AI in AEC remains limited. Most teams are still grappling with foundational digitalisation issues, and many lack the clean, structured datasets that AI tools require to be effective. There’s real potential here, but the industry must first address the basics: standardising data inputs, integrating systems, and building digital confidence across teams.
The hidden cost of knowledge loss
Another recurrent theme was the challenge of institutional knowledge transfer. With large amounts of past project data buried in unstructured archives, teams often struggle to reuse insights or onboard junior staff effectively. The reliance on informal knowledge holders – experienced professionals who “just know how things are done” – creates a brittle structure that’s hard to scale. Companies need better ways to capture, organise, and make historical knowledge accessible. Until this is solved, each new project risks repeating the inefficiencies of the last.
Where do we go from here?
DCW 2025 underscored that digital construction is no longer just about adopting new tools – it’s about rethinking how we work. The technology exists to solve many of the industry’s pain points, but it requires systemic change: greater collaboration, smarter requirements practices, unified data environments, and a proactive approach to knowledge retention. These aren’t trivial shifts, but they are necessary.
If there’s one thing the event made clear, it’s that the AEC industry is full of people ready to have these conversations. The question now is how quickly we can turn insights into action.
About Tektome
Naoki Kitamura is the CEO of Tektome, a company that turns project data into structured knowledge, helping AEC teams find critical information, analyse documents, and design faster with intelligence and precision.