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Greg Bishop, Director of Digital Transformation at Creative ITC

Embracing new technologies in architecture is becoming increasingly critical to gaining a competitive edge. From virtual walkthroughs to AI-assisted design tools, today’s architecture firms are expected to deliver not only new levels of creativity, but also to demonstrate digital capabilities to boost productivity during bids.

Early adopters are gaining traction using digital twinning and generative design to visualise projects and optimise performance pre-build – factors which are increasingly valued in procurement processes. While only 2% architects always incorporate AI into bid creation, this is set to expand to 41% firms in the next two years.

Although clients are beginning to expect increased digital fluency, most architecture firms still operate with an outdated IT foundation formed by a patchwork of on-premise servers, legacy systems and cloud services that have evolved over decades. While this fragmented infrastructure has worked in the past, it has now become a barrier to keeping pace with today’s architecture landscape. The complexity of these IT environments is draining IT resources, limiting agility and hindering firms from quickly adopting new tools that could deliver value to clients and set them apart from competitors.

It’s time to shift the common perception of IT as a support function towards recognising it as a core enabler of business growth and competitive differentiation.

Building a strong IT foundation 

At the heart of this digital transformation is simplifying IT management. Business and IT leaders must take a proactive role in streamlining their estate by identifying legacy systems that can be retired, consolidating systems, managing cloud sprawl and reducing the number of tools and vendors currently being used. This will make the IT environment easier to manage, freeing up teams to focus on leveraging new technologies to win projects and deliver improved outcomes for clients.

For architecture practices to confidently demonstrate their capabilities in emerging technologies requires more than just access to new tools. It requires a well-orchestrated IT environment that supports the scale and speed of these processes. For example, huge AI processing requirements can easily overload data centre and network capacity, causing latency issues or outages. Attempts to share actionable insights with stakeholders can further expose weak points in legacy infrastructures, which haven’t been designed to share such valuable assets and huge datasets securely at speed and scale.

Unfortunately, many architecture firms struggle to meet this challenge. Many don’t have the luxury of extensive multi-skilled IT teams with the specialist skillsets needed to optimise new technologies and enable their company to realise the full business benefits. Without a strong IT backbone, creating a VR walkthrough, for example, becomes a time-consuming and challenging task. It requires specialised software integration and data coordination between both design tools and VR platforms – something that is not easily achieved without dedicated technical infrastructure and support.

Leadership at architecture firms must recognise that the friction caused by an outdated and complicated IT infrastructure affects their entire business. Reducing this complexity doesn’t just improve technical capabilities, but is also a strategic move to improve innovation, client engagement and satisfaction.

Modernise IT to stay ahead

As the architecture sector drives ahead with digital transformation, firms can no longer treat IT as an afterthought. The ability to respond to growing client demands and demonstrate innovation in competitive bids rests on a firm’s digital foundations. By simplifying IT estate management and shifting the perception of IT from a support function to a strategic enabler, architecture firms can create new opportunities for business growth.