🌆 The End of AEC Software?

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Could This Be The End of AEC Software?

Will construction firms -- and their design and engineering partners -- stop buying new software? Alice Leung, Principal at Brick and Mortar Ventures, thinks this might be the case in the near future.

It might sound like a confusing prediction, but it actually makes a lot of sense and illustrates an important trend in technology driven by generative AI.

In order to understand where Leung is coming from, it’s important to understand AEC software’s recent history and the seismic shock AI has created in the world of software over the last couple years. The impact has been felt both in the way software products themselves work, as well as in how software itself is created.

Phase 1 – Early software (1980s to early 2010s): During this period, only the biggest firms had the scale to invest in technology. Most software for scheduling, planning and project tracking was fully custom-built, expensive, slow to deploy, and required a ton of training.

Most of the workload relied on general-purpose tools like Excel, Word, and email, plus good ‘ol pen and paper. These tools worked, but put a hard ceiling on how efficiently work could get done.

Phase 2 – SaaS era (2010s to early 2020s): Over the past 15 years, cloud-based software platforms—like Procore, PlanGrid, Fieldwire, and ServiceTitan—have gained serious ground.

Because they were deployed on the cloud, these tools were much cheaper and faster to deploy than older generation software. Rather than needing a technical team onsite to install custom software for you, cloud-based SaaS could start adding value from the moment you signed up online. Plus, software in the cloud could easily integrate with other business-critical tools.

The downside to SaaS, however, is that the products are one-size-fits-most out of the box. Teams often have to compromise their fine-tuned processes (or hire expensive consultants) to maximize ROI from the software.

Phase 3 – AI-native software (2023+): Here’s where things get really fun. AI is impacting software in two massive ways:

1. AI agents are fantastic at completing a wide variety of tasks, which means that software products are becoming more generalized. If you’re accustomed to running workflows across 5-8 tools today, you might only need 2 or 3 in a year or two.

2. AI is really good at building software, which is making the process of developing products much cheaper and faster. An app that might have taken a team of ten 1 year to build in 2020 might take a team of three 1 month today.

You probably see where this is going - back to the future!

We’re entering a new paradigm where once-expensive custom applications are cheap and easy to deploy. AEC firms get the best of both worlds: software that’s purpose-built for your systems, still with the cost and flexibility of SaaS.

Leung breaks down exactly where AI-driven applications have traditional AEC SaaS on the ropes:

The coolest thing about all of this is that nowadays you don’t even have to know how to code in order to build custom software applications. If you spend any time around tech people you’ve probably heard someone mention vibe coding, which basically means using an AI coding tool like Cursor to write code for entire applications for you. Basically, as long as you can translate your ideas into a product spec, with a little patience you too can create software.

So, no, software isn’t going to disappear — quite the opposite. But your old school software vendors are probably a bit scared about what the future holds for them. Luckily for you, this also means there’s never been a better time to be an ambitious, tech-savvy AEC pro.

You now have access to Silicon Valley level productivity tools that are actually capable of fitting in seamlessly with AEC’s notoriously complex workflows. Even better, there is a much lower barrier to bring modern technology into your firm than there was even 2 or 3 years ago.

Those who embrace this paradigm shift will find the freedom to focus on higher leverage work. Instead of spending hours updating meeting minutes and processing change orders, you could be optimizing project delivery, walking the site, or building relationships with stakeholders.

I’ll make the bet that the most successful AEC professionals of the next 5+ years will be those who look forwards, rather than those who are great at doing things they way they’ve always been done.

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Until next time,

Emma & Sawyer