Tech helps connect a fragmented industry

Fragmented.

Gavin Allen
Executive Editor-in-Chief, Huawei

It’s the word that keeps cropping up throughout this #SmartBuildings edition of Transform magazine.

Despite many positive future visions of the building industry, frustrations regarding splits and fiefdoms are never far away.

Everyone agrees the industry has failed to make use of ICT to unify a fragmented field; everyone agrees we need to fix that problem. But how?

Magda Pyszkowski says the fragmentation is partly caused by construction not being a linear, scalable production process like car manufacturing, with its repeatable designs and systems.

Each building is still seen as unique – a mindset that has to change, she told me. “Stakeholders are not aligned and we need to stop double-handling data. Instead, we should take a standardized approach, making it structured, accessible, and tied to clear use cases.”

Professor Cornelius Preidel agreed that progress in the construction sector is hindered by a lack of investment in R&D. Compare that situation to the fundamental technological disruption in retail, finance, manufacturing, and other industries.

“Each stakeholder along the building lifecycle uses different systems, formats, and terminology, which disrupts the flow of data,” he explained. “That’s toxic to the golden thread of digitalization.”

Alan Esguerra and Burak Boyaci at Bentley Systems pinpointed the “people problem” underpinning the fragmentation, suggesting that engineers often worried about data security and remained unconvinced of the potential for productivity gains.

“It’s like self-driving cars,” they said. “The technology exists today, but people don't feel comfortable using it. It’s the same with digital twins: the tech is there, but people have to start trusting it more.”

This lack of trust has prevented builders from adopting the latest tools. The a16z newsletter published by Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s most influential venture capital firms, recently described architecture, engineering, and construction as “a $13 trillion industry that technology has largely bypassed,” noting that buildings are “all still running on software from 1997.”

Echoing our interviewees, the Andreessen Horowitz newsletter lamented the “many fragmented stakeholders,” and blamed systemic disunity for causing delays, inefficiency, and wasted energy.

It identified three routes to future success: embracing AI-native platforms; building tools around existing systems to improve workflows; and directly automating labor-intensive services such as Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing design (MEP).

In an era of technological change and upheaval, it’s clear that few industries would benefit more from an innovation makeover than the construction sector.

And there are plenty of beacons of success to illuminate the way ahead.

Professor Wang Dengjia, from the Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, is harnessing integrated solar storage, sensor data, and digital twins to support zero-carbon buildings on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

MytePro combines real estate expertise with Huawei’s cloud infrastructure and AI to shift from fragmented tools to a more integrated, data-driven operating model – as shown by improved user experience and operational efficiency at Shenzhen Bay Technology Ecological Park.

In Thailand, a partnership between the DTGO Group and Huawei on the mixed-use Forestias development deploys an all-optical network to reduce equipment room requirements by 80%, cut network power consumption by 60%, and improve fault location efficiency by 90%.

An optical network delivers seamless Wi-Fi to a 15th-century French castle, improving coverage by 50% without drilling into a single wall.

Across enterprise campuses, hotels, commercial complexes, healthcare facilities, cultural venues, and other public spaces, digital technologies are helping move the building sector toward more sustainable and efficient development models.

ICT is already improving how buildings are designed, operated, and experienced – and in an increasingly urbanized world, that matters.