The State of Digital Adoption in Construction Report 2023

Deloitte Access Economics was commissioned by Autodesk to analyse trends impacting the construction and engineering industry and the level of digital adoption across Australia, Japan and Singapore.

Over the past three years, the construction and engineering industry has faced significant challenges due to widespread COVID lockdowns and rising global inflation. One crucial enabling factor for businesses to navigate those challenges will be adopting and successfully implementing technology in business operations.

When asked about their use of 16 different construction technologies, the most common technologies is Business Information Modelling (BIM), with 40% of businesses using this technology while cloud management software is being used by 39% of business.

There are clear benefits for businesses that are using more technology in their day-to-day operations. This report reveals that the most commonly cited benefits were increased productivity, improved customer experience and increased staff safety. Businesses that adopted an additional technology were found to have 0.58 percentage points of increased revenue for the next five years.

The most common barrier to adopting digital technology was found to be a lack of digital skills in the workforce, followed by uncertainty within about skills and capabilities and a lack of budget allocated. In order to address these barriers and many others, this report recommends businesses to focus on progressing certain key priority areas, including developing organisational wide strategy and building motivation for change.