AI Isn’t Killing Software — It’s Killing Bad Operating Models in AEC

Recent headlines have been loud: AI announcements spook investors, software stocks dip, layoffs and suddenly, people wonder if we’re seeing the beginning of the end for traditional AEC software.

That story is seductive, but wrong.

What’s under threat isn’t software itself.  It’s the way most AEC firms have built their businesses around software.  The real shift that investors are pricing in is that AI hasn’t suddenly become good at everything. What’s changed is the trajectory.

General AI systems are rapidly absorbing professional capability, not as bolt-on tools, but as embedded judgment. When that happens, value is no longer tied to hours spent in software.

AEC has spent decades optimising for the opposite:

• charging for effort

• measuring utilisation

• justifying software by seat count

That model cracks the moment output is decoupled from labour.

Why does this feel uncomfortable for the AEC sector, you might ask.

In my opinion, most practices lack systems. What they have is smart people compensating for gaps between tools.

For example, the coordination of design works because someone experienced is watching.  Standards hold because a BIM lead polices them.  Risk is “managed” because “we’ve always done it this way”.

AI doesn’t replace that expertise.  It forces a question AEC has been able to dodge for years:  Is this capability intentionally designed — or simply inherited?

BIM, revisited (properly)

This is where BIM either becomes an accelerator or an anchor.

If your BIM environment is:

• vague

• inconsistent

• reliant on human enforcement

AI makes the chaos faster.

If your BIM environment is:

• explicit

• standardised

• machine-readable

AI becomes a lever.

This is why a BIM Reset matters.

The BIM Reset^TM

You don't need new templates or another BEP. But you do need a fundamental rethink of how intent, information, and delivery connect.

Scale is changing shape.  Historically, growth meant more people,  more projects, more staff, more risk.  That equation is breaking.

Firms that redesign workflows, extract knowledge, and automate decision-heavy tasks can increase output without proportional headcount.

Those that don’t will feel busier, riskier, and less profitable — even with AI “tools” in place.

This is what our offering, Scale Without Suffering, actually looks like in practice. it gives you exit readiness in an AI world

AI doesn’t reduce risk.  It exposes it.

Firms with:

• undocumented processes

• personality-driven delivery

• knowledge locked in individuals

become less investable, not more.

Exit-ready firms look boring from the outside:

• predictable delivery

• repeatable decisions

• systems that work without heroics

That “boring” is suddenly very valuable.

The real question for the industry is not whether your software vendor survives the next five years. It’s whether your firm has anything worth scaling once tools stop propping up broken systems.

AI won’t kill AEC.  But it will reward firms that finally design how they operate, instead of relying on good people to hold everything together.

Want to discuss how you can refactor and reshape what you're doing in an AI world? We should talk.