As we move into 2025, we ask five leading AEC software developers to share their observations and projections for BIM 2.0
The Future of BIM: Harnessing the Power of Data
Amy Bunszel, executive VP of AEC Solutions, Autodesk
The AECO industry has a lot to be proud of. You have constructed iconic skyscrapers, completed expansive highway systems, and restored historic monuments like the Notre-Dame de Paris.
But there’s more work to do. We hold the responsibility of designing and making our homes, workplaces, and communities. We must also solve for complex global challenges like housing growing populations and improving the resiliency of the built world to withstand the impacts of climate change.
Connected data is at the core of how we will solve these challenges. Better access to data will enable new ways of working that improve collaboration, productivity, and sustainability.
Today, AECO firms have more data than ever before, and their storage needs grow by 50% each year. While it’s beneficial to have every piece of information you could ever need about a project digitised, if the data is locked in files, teams can waste hours trying to find the specs for that third-floor utility closet door.
We’re at the start of the next major digital transformation for the AECO industry. And unlocking data’s value is the first step towards building a better future together.
The value of data openness
The ongoing transformation of BIM will empower teams to define their desired project outcomes, like maximum cost or carbon impacts, from the earliest stages of design and planning. At Autodesk, we believe outcome-based BIM is the solution for smarter, more sustainable and resilient ways of designing and making the built environment.
This future starts with data that is granular, accessible, and open. The traditional silos that have long characterised AECO are breaking down, making way for a more connected approach. For example, teams in the design phase can inform product and system performance criteria as documented in specifications – such as which HVAC systems meet the project’s sustainability and energy efficiency requirements. This aids the contractor in making the most informed decision on which product gets selected and installed. And then, in the operations phase, owners would have the spec data on hand to measure the asset’s performance to understand if it achieved its target energy usage. The benefits of enhanced data accessibility across the asset lifecycle are truly unlimited.
Just last year, we launched the AECO Data Model API, an open and extensible solution that allows data to flow across project phases, stakeholders, and asset types. Teams save time by eliminating manual and error-prone extraction of model data. And access to project data is democratised, leading to better decisions, increased transparency, and trust.
This vision is how we’ll unlock the future of BIM. In the connected, cloud-based world of granular data, teams will be able to move a project from one tool to another, and across production environments, with all their data in context. Designers will no longer have to re-create the same pump multiple times when it’s already been built by another designer. Contractors won’t need to save that pump’s spec data to different spreadsheets, and risk losing track of which version is approved.
Throughout this next year, we predict that more design and make technology companies will embrace openness and interoperability to support seamless data sharing.
Data to connect design and construction
Connected data will help our industry understand the health and performance of their business. In fact, companies that lead in leveraging data see a 50% increase in average profit growth rate compared to beginners.
Data is especially valuable in bridging the gap between design and construction. With Autodesk Docs, our common data environment, we are connecting data across different phases of BIM. It’s a source of truth for bringing granular data and files together from design to construction. With a digital thread that connects every stage of the project lifecycle, teams can course-correct early and often to save time, money, and waste.
A great example of this is WSP’s work on the Manchester Airport. The team designed a ‘kit of parts’ that includes a lift, staircase, lobbies, and openings for the air bridge as part of the new Pier 2 construction. By utilising the kit-of-parts, an application of industrialised construction, and rationalising design into fewer, much larger assemblies, WSP with contractor Mace significantly reduced the duration of work onsite. The approach also reduced the amount of construction waste. This process was made possible through the seamless transfer of data from design to construction.
Data to supercharge AI progress
Data and AI have a symbiotic relationship. Better data – both in quantity and quality – is the fuel to unlocking the potential of AI and improving workflows.
Over the next year, we expect to see more practical uses of AI continue to make big strides, such as the day-to-day applications of AI that solve real-world problems. The industry is ready, as 44% of AECO professionals view improving productivity a top use case for AI.
As we transition to more cloud-connected workflows, we’ll see more use cases of AI generated insights to inform design, engineering, and construction at the start of projects to help teams achieve desired outcomes such as minimising carbon impacts. For example, firms like Stantec are using AI-powered solutions to understand and test in real-time the embodied carbon impacts of their material design decisions from day one. This is significant because early concept planning for buildings offers the greatest opportunity for impact on carbon and the lowest cost risk for design changes.
As AI continues to progress in daily applications, it will enable our industry to optimise the next factory, school, or rail system. Because with data, AI knows the past and can help lead to a more sustainable future.
The expanding impact of legislation
To realise the untapped value of our data, it is critical to remember that it all starts with getting data connected and structured in one place.
In fact, another trend we predict in 2025 is that information requirements legislation will continue to grow with the recent introduction of the EU’s Digital Passport Initiative. Alongside existing mandates like ISO-19650, being able to classify, track and validate data across the asset lifecycle will become essential to successfully deliver on projects.
These regulations mean that AECO firms will need to invest in a Common Data Environment that will support their firm’s ability to track, manage and control project data at the granular level.
The road ahead
The AECO industry is poised for a data-driven transformation. Over the next year, we’ll see continued shifts towards connected data that will help us achieve new levels of innovation, sustainability, and resiliency for the built environment. Firms that embrace granular, data-centric ways of working will be able to use this information from the office to the job site and share just the right amount of data with collaborators anywhere in the world and with any tool you choose.
The journey ahead is full of opportunities, and together, we can shape the AECO industry’s future for the better.
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