AEC Trends & Future Tech

If you’ve ever sat in a conference room while two civil engineers argue about their preferred design platform, you already know: the OpenRoads™ vs Civil 3D® debate has roughly the same energy as a Marvel vs DC conversation, except the stakes involve billions of dollars in infrastructure.

There’s a nagging question sometimes whispered in the hallowed halls of the architecture and engineering world. “What if the next iconic building is designed by AI instead of an actual architect?”

Now, once again, the desert sands are shifting. What started as one of the most audacious urban ideas of the 21st century, a 170-kilometer mirrored metropolis slicing through the Saudi desert, is quietly being rewritten as a hub for somewhat humbler inhabitants: servers and GPUs.

Let’s be honest: Building in Florida has always been a high-stakes game of “The Floor is Lava,” except the lava is sand and corrosive salt water and, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Geological Survey, it’s rising.

Adapt or die? That may sound overly dramatic or Darwinian, but the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has triggered this question for many industries.

The AEC universe seems to be experiencing some kind of technological dichotomy (with Departments of Transportation being a notable example).