Proving Ground has been facilitating the development of digital strategies for architects, engineers, and owners for over 10 years. In this time, we have provided numerous takeaways on this blog on how companies can implement meaningful tactics to support their company’s ability to be more innovative while overcoming important cultural roadblocks that stifle change.
In the last year, Proving Ground has been fortunate enough to work on two of our largest and most extensive roadmapping efforts for architects. These efforts were unique in that they came about in the wake of Artificial Intelligence and the growing interest in new digital design platforms. It is also important to note that these strategies were developed at a time when architects are experiencing softer and uncertain economic conditions – in February of 2025, American architecture firms reported another decline in billings showing a continued trend in decreasing business conditions.
In this context, there is definitely a growing sense of uncertainty among our clientele and it is prompting creative companies to ask some important questions: How will implementing AI change our work? Where should we be investing in new tools and skills? How can we become more efficient in our operations? What can we do to stand out in the marketplace?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to these questions, because the world of design and building is diverse with numerous players, market sectors, specializations, and cultures. Even so, our recent strategy work has revealed essential considerations that all businesses should make in their digital strategies to navigate the rapidly evolving digital world.
The Fundamentals Are More Important Than Ever.
When it comes to developing a strategy focused on new technologies and innovation, it is easy to overlook the importance of having well-established technology implementation fundamentals in place. The unfortunate reality is that while many design and construction companies maintain substantial technology investments, they have also long neglected fundamentals of implementation. For example, we have found that digital assets and deliverables produced by architects are sorely lacking an appropriate level of data quality. This includes decades worth of building information models with inconsistently applied standards, poorly labeled objects, and incomplete 3D model data (read our article on Data Classification). This is often the result of cutting corners and taking shortcuts with information-rich deliverables in order to expedite conventional 2D drawing production. When we imagine the opportunity to position AI to learn from architecture and construction, most firms do not have the baseline assets that could enable training and prediction: it is still a ‘garbage in, garbage out’ world.
When we imagine the opportunity to position AI to learn from architecture and construction, most firms do not have the baseline assets that could enable training and prediction.
The best time to develop a business strategy around these fundamentals was 20 years ago when offices began taking their first steps into the world of 3D, information-driven assets. The next best time is right now.
Along with the technology implementation fundamentals comes strategies for managing change within organizations. Change management refers to approaches for equipping people with structured processes for navigating transitions and transformations. Tactics for regular stakeholder accountability, communication, feedback, training, incentives, and consequences are hallmarks of a robust change management strategy. More than any other tactic, change management is often among the most neglected. The aforementioned poor quality of BIM deliverables we often observe in design and construction practices can often be attributed to low investments in regular education and a lack of accountability for the importance of developing assets to a certain level.
Professionals Need to Confront their Biases… and fears.
One of our most popular blog articles in recent years was a piece I wrote up on the challenge of professional bias. This article references the “The Future of the Professions” by Richard and Daniel Susskind and applies their observations to the design professions. In summary, my article asserts that the depth of experiences possessed by professionals can lead to ‘change resistant’ bias towards the adoption of new digital processes in design and construction.
Bias can also be a symptom of a deeper primal feeling that humans experience when confronted with change: fear. We have seen this time and time again throughout human history – even the protection of a harmful status quo out of fear of something new and unfamiliar.
The rapid evolution of AI-powered technology is pushing many of these biases and fears to the surface. The most pronounced fear, of course, is the question of if the proliferation of AI capabilities will lead to the loss of livelihood and creativity. Our professional biases may give us a sense of security: “AI will never be able to do [x]”. Indeed, today AI is far more limited and error prone than the evangelists would claim. However, those goal posts are shifting faster than anyone could have predicted.
AI replacing an experienced creative professional is not an inevitability. However, a creative professional regularly using AI-powered tools in a variety of productive capacities is a present-day reality.
The reality is that there are numerous business functions becoming completely overhauled and replaced by AI – content creation, note taking, data entry, analysis, and visualization to name just a few. While these tasks individually don’t signal ‘the end of the creative professional’, they are things that a designer regularly performs in the course of their services. AI replacing an experienced creative professional is not inevitable. However, a creative professional regularly using AI-powered tools in a variety of productive capacities is a present-day reality.
Authenticity is a Differentiator.
AI is going to continue to influence and shape the daily work and lives of creative professionals working in design and construction. Many of the observable results of this are being presented in terms of measurable quantities: more content, more design options, more data, faster turnaround, higher efficiency. It would be correct for digital strategies to carefully monitor these metrics as one component in determining the success or failure of a technology implementation plan. However, these measures of quantity also need to be balanced against a sensibility for quality. Producing more content does not automatically correlate to better content. Greater efficiency does not automatically translate to better services. Russell Ackoff once referred to an idea that continuous improvement through innovation can lead to “doing the wrong thing right.” We can use powerful algorithms to automate parking lots – but does the world really need more of the same mediocre car-oriented solutions?
The authenticity of a technology implementation to support the values, ethical positions, and design sensibilities of the organization will be the differentiating factor.
Digital roadmaps become worthwhile when they pair a technology implementation with a clear emphasis on quality. If we accept that AI is on an inevitable adoption trajectory in creative businesses, the authenticity of the implementation to support the values, ethical positions, and design sensibilities of the organization will be the differentiating factor.
As an example, perhaps we can look no further than the authorship on this blog. If you made it this far into the article, there are probably readers today that assume outright that the writing is AI-generated. Indeed, it has become commonplace to read an industry article, blog, or press release and identify the hallmarks of generative AI influence. I can say to you, the reader, that the content produced throughout this blog is 100% written by me, Nathan Miller, and the team at Proving Ground. We have made our careers being our own authentic selves as design and technology professionals. AI will not change that – even as we find uses for AI-tools within our workflows. We believe that authenticity is a differentiator to creative services and products. It is how professions establish trust with clients and provide unique insight.
Technology is always transforming how we work but it is not changing what we value in our work.