January 5, 2026 Here’s Where the AEC Industry is Headed in 2026

The 2026 AEC landscape will witness major shifts that challenge industry leaders to remain competitive and sustain continued growth.

By Steve Smith, Director of Partnerships – Bluebeam

A central theme that remained true over the course of 2025 was the ability to navigate and adapt to change. For the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry in particular, these changes were both new and old – from managing the ongoing workforce challenges that have long been impacting the sector to new challenges brought on by global tariff policies and changings in infrastructure regulation imposed in 2025.

These changes and challenges have undoubtedly impacted the current state of the AEC sector, as well as where it is headed into 2026. How AEC leaders respond to these will be critical to defining how their 2026 will go, and its lasting impact in years to come. Below are five emerging trends that I expect to gain traction over the course of 2026 within the AEC industry.

A surge in public infrastructure projects across the U.S.

With nearly five years since the signing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL)) into legislation by the Biden Administration, 2026 will see BIL-funded projects enter peak delivery phase. This process will involve widespread collaboration between federal and state Departments of Transportation (DOT), water authorities, as well as energy agencies moving major infrastructure initiatives off the drawing board and into the construction phase. These projects are often large and require multiple years to complete. As a result, we will see continued strength for infrastructure-related projects as they move through the design process, enter into construction, and are ultimately put in place.  

This anticipated surge in nationwide infrastructure projects will demand direct involvement from AEC leaders on everything from engineering design, environmental permitting, construction management, and digital project delivery. Incorporating technology and strong collaboration between all groups involved from field workers to office teams, will be critical to ensuring that the next generation of critical infrastructure projects are delivered sustainably, efficiently, and on schedule amid growing costs and rising labor pressures.

The high-growth phase of digital, renewable, and energy-transition infrastructure

In addition to the anticipated surge in public infrastructure projects across the U.S., 2026 will also see changes to large-scale private and hybrid infrastructure projects as next-generation builds enter a high-growth phase. We are already witnessing drivers of this growth, including mega-developments such as Meta’s Hyperion data center in Kansas City, and the SunZia Wind and Transmission Project spanning New Mexico and Arizona. These projects underscore the continued  expansion of renewable, energy-transition, and AI and data centre infrastructure across the country.

Similar activity is emerging in semiconductor manufacturing sectors as seen through Intel’s Ohio chip factories and TSMC’s Arizona plants, as well as in clean energy storage through projects like Form Energy’s iron-air battery facilities. For AEC firms, this wave of technology-driven builds will be defined as much by speed, scale, and resilience as by design excellence, driving increased demand for complex systems integration alongside data-driven, sustainability-conscious, and modular delivery models.

Skilled trades will become the new power careers

Economists and tech experts agree that AI is having a major impact on white-collar jobs – one that is only set to accelerate in 2026. In fact, according to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and cause unemployment to rise to 10-20% in the next one to five years. From finance and law to software development and corporate administration, no industry is exempt from the impacts of AI’s growing adoption. While AI is being increasingly leveraged to automate tasks traditionally handled by white-collar professionals, the inevitable result will be ongoing restructuring and a shrinking of traditional white-collar roles.

Not only will AI’s growing adoption impact white-collar jobs, but in 2026, its impact will translate to a change in trade careers. The next year will see a resurgence in prestige and earning potential for trade careers. As positions in Big Tech, finance, and other white-collar sectors become less secure, talented individuals will increasingly pivot towards careers in trades that offer more stability, high pay, and long-term career prospects. At the same time, demand for skilled, field-based expertise is only rising, and electricians, plumbers, welders, and other skilled tradespeople are emerging as the new power players in a labor market that prioritizes skills AI cannot replicate.

For AEC firms, securing and retaining these skilled workers will become a top strategic priority, requiring many to adapt quickly over the next year through investments in workforce development, training programs, and technologies to stay competitive and capitalize on this shift.

Knowledge transfer will be critical to future-proofing the AEC workforce

Workforce challenges within the AEC industry – and construction in particular – remain an ongoing threat to the sector’s future. According to the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER), an estimated 41% of the current construction workforce is projected to retire by 2031. Heading into 2026, this reiterates the critical need for AEC firms to capture and transfer industry expertise before it’s lost, as the next generation steps into positions of greater responsibility. 

The aging workforce holds decades of hands-on, “tribal” knowledge that is essential to complex project delivery, safety, and maintenance of quality standards. Effectively managing this knowledge transfer will be a defining factor in maintaining competitive advantage and sustaining productivity in the AEC sector. Firms that fail to act risk a workforce unprepared to meet the demands of increasingly complex infrastructure and construction projects.

As a result, we’ll see firms prioritizing this knowledge transfer over the next year through structured apprenticeships, mentorship programs, and digital platforms that capture, preserve and share critical know-how with younger employees.

Rising project complexity in 2026 will demand interoperability

Amid rising project complexity, the ability to connect people, systems, and data is becoming increasingly critical to success, making interoperability a top priority for AEC firms. In what can be described as one of the most complex global projects requiring years of planning and execution, the FIFA World Cup is set to take place in the summer of 2026. Hosted by three countries across 16 cities, the World Cup will see millions of people gather in stadiums across the globe. The event has already resulted in a significant uptick in construction activity across stadiums, transit systems, and hospitality projects across host countries.

Coordinating work across 16 host cities and hundreds of contractors, engineers, and platforms requires seamless alignment across multiple teams and technologies, which will only accelerate as the tournament approaches. Increasingly, for large-scale infrastructure projects, there will be a line drawn between companies operating in fragmented workflows and those that have mastered the ability to share, integrate, and act on information in real-time across systems and teams. Over the next year, as projects continue to become more complex, contractors will prioritize interoperable systems to ensure data flows smoothly across teams throughout all phases of construction.

From the forecasted surge in infrastructure projects to the acceleration of digital, renewable, and energy-transition infrastructure and more, these changes in 2026 will demand that AEC leaders invest in their workforces. From prioritizing knowledge transfer to attracting and retaining skilled workers, strengthening and protecting this critical workforce will be the difference between success and stagnation for AEC leaders.

About the Author:
Steve Smith is director of partnerships at Bluebeam and is a long-time construction technology enthusiast. He began his career in construction directly after high school as a laborer for a general contractor in New Hampshire, and has also held manager and executive roles at Leica Geosystems and Hilti. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from BYU and an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He resides in the greater Atlanta, Georgia area.

Read more from the author:

Tech’s Response: Top 6 Construction Challenges in 2025, 1/6/2025

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