The level of digital maturity in Poland’s architecture and construction sector is steadily increasing. One example is the growing implementation of BIM methodology, which is based on a digital model. Autodesk reports show that companies are aware of the advantages offered by the implementation of technology, although their development is still being held back by a number of barriers, including a lack of skills and concerns about cybersecurity.
“We conduct market research and, every four years, examine the level of digital maturity among our clients. Poland performs fairly well in this study, although perhaps not excellently. On average, 34 percent of companies operating in the infrastructure sector have already undergone digital transformation, at least according to their own declarations,” Marcin Stecki, an expert on the infrastructure market at Autodesk, told Newseria during the Polish Infrastructure Congress.
One example of the changing approach to digitalisation is the increasingly widespread implementation of BIM, a working methodology that uses a digital model to manage information about a given investment project. According to the third edition of Autodesk’s report “BIM, Collaboration and Information Management in Polish Construction”, in 2023, 34 percent of nearly 350 companies from the architecture and construction sector used this methodology — 14 percentage points more than in 2019. BIM was more commonly used by specialists from the architecture and design sector, at 41 percent. Among construction companies, the figure was 21 percent, while among companies investing in and managing real estate, it stood at 37 percent.
“The more advanced companies are in the digitalisation process, the better prepared they are for sudden and unexpected changes. The emergence of a black swan event such as COVID-19, for example, is not something frightening for them,” says Stecki.
Experts in the Autodesk report emphasise that the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to many changes in the digitalisation of the sector and significantly increased the level of digital maturity in the market.
“When it comes to the areas where digitalisation and digital transformation bring the greatest benefits, at the design stage it is a very accurate and precise model of the facility, rich in descriptive information and cost-related data. As a result, cost estimation and quantity take-offs can be carried out much more precisely and quickly,” the expert emphasises.
Surveyed representatives of the sector in Poland see clear savings from the use of BIM, reducing costs by at least 30 percent at many different stages of a construction project. Almost 50 percent of investors believe that BIM lowers construction execution costs by at least 30 percent, while nearly 40 percent believe it reduces specialist design costs by at least 30 percent. Respondents point to benefits such as creating higher-quality designs and reducing the number of errors during implementation. They also emphasise that the methodology lowers costs throughout the entire creation and life cycle of a building.
Autodesk’s global “State of Design and Make 2025” report shows that more than 30 percent of digitally mature companies assess their organisation’s performance as “above average” or “exceptional”. A similar share agree that they are prepared for the future, while 26 percent say they feel they are keeping up with changes in their industry “very well”.
“Digitalisation can definitely shorten the design and construction process and reduce its costs. Our research among leaders of construction and contracting companies in the AEC sector — architecture, engineering and construction — indicates that the return on investment in digitalisation reaches at least 50 percent, and often much more,” explains Stecki.
Leaders surveyed in the global report say that, in addition to improving customer satisfaction, productivity and innovation, digital transformation also has a positive impact on company reputation, cited by 72 percent of respondents, expansion of products and services, at 68 percent, and improved data exchange, at 67 percent.
“Our research shows that the areas holding back digitalisation include a lack of trust in technology, skills and decision-making at board level. Interviews and the panel discussion we held at our BIM DAYS conference show that the decision to undergo digital transformation must be made at least at management board level and must be strongly supported throughout the entire process,” the expert notes.
Among the biggest barriers to implementing BIM technology identified by respondents in the Autodesk report were a low level of knowledge about it, cited by 74 percent, a small number of specialists with the skills to design or execute projects using BIM, at 67.7 percent, reluctance to change design or construction methodology, at 68.1 percent, and the lack of appropriate legislation supporting BIM, at 60.8 percent.
The company’s global report also points to the role of artificial intelligence in the sector. As Stecki emphasises, although this technology appeared relatively recently, it is already present in both the design process and the implementation of investment projects.
“This requires a completely different approach to the process. Artificial intelligence is not a single additional tool. It must be included in the process as an equal, fully-fledged member of the team,” he says.
The “State of Design and Make 2025” study indicates that enthusiasm for AI among industry representatives has declined slightly. In 2025, 69 percent of leaders in the global architecture and construction sector believed that artificial intelligence would improve their industry. A year earlier, the figure was 78 percent. Among the most serious concerns related to AI was the risk of destabilising the industry, cited by 48 percent of respondents, compared with 41 percent a year earlier. The reasons for the decline in sentiment towards this technology include concerns about cybersecurity incidents, privacy issues, biased or harmful outputs, and limited control over how, where and when data is used.
“Cybersecurity is a huge topic that concerns everyone — designers, contractors and, above all, owners and operators of infrastructure,” the Autodesk representative emphasises. “Cybersecurity is not only about technology. It is also about people’s awareness of threats and processes that may be dangerous. The users of these systems themselves can be a source of risk. They should be trained and supported by cybersecurity teams at enterprise level.”
