Two-Thirds of Construction Firms Now Use AI - But Only 19% Have Got Past the Pilot Stage
RICS's biggest-ever AI survey finds the industry has crossed the adoption threshold, then largely stopped. A global quantity surveying congress this week showed exactly where the technology is actually being put to work.
The numbers look good from a distance. Zoom in and the picture gets uncomfortable.
The RICS AI in Commercial Property and Construction Report 2026, based on more than 3,100 responses, shows that two thirds of construction professional respondents are using AI in some form, up from just over half in 2025. By any measure, that is real progress. A year ago the industry was still debating whether to start.
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But look at what those firms are actually doing with it. Both sectors have the same proportion of organisations running early-stage AI pilots, at 39%, but commercial property has been more successful in converting this into regular use, with regular AI use standing at 29%, compared with 19% in construction. So for every ten construction businesses running an AI pilot today, fewer than two have turned it into something they use routinely. The rest are still demoing.
RICS says the findings show the industry's challenge has shifted from getting organisations to experiment with AI to successfully embedding it into professional practice. That is a polite way of saying the sector has a conversion problem. Getting the tool in the door is the easy bit.
The UK's Surprising Turnaround
There is one genuinely encouraging wrinkle in the data for the domestic market. In 2025, the UK was the most cautious region, but in 2026 there was a 17% reduction in no AI use - the largest of any region. Meanwhile, regular use in the UK almost doubled. Although the UK remains the most cautious region in absolute terms, the gap is closing.
Why the lurch forward? The UK, under the Building Safety Act gateway regime, has seen extra compliance work created, a clear early use case for AI systems. The movement has been from no AI use into piloting and limited regular use, rather than into embedded operation, suggesting firms are trialling rather than committing to full use straight away. The Building Safety Act has accidentally done more to drive AI adoption in UK construction than most dedicated tech programmes. Compliance pressure, not ambition, is the engine.
Privacy Fears Are Growing With Usage
As adoption rises, so do nerves about what firms are actually feeding into these systems. Construction sector concerns about the privacy and security implications of AI tools rose from 22% to 30% between 2025 and 2026. "The rise in privacy and security concerns may be linked to increasing use," the report said. That is a logical progression: you do not worry much about data leakage when you have no data in the system.
The RICS professional standard on responsible use of AI in surveying practice, which came into effect in March 2026, remains unknown to 26% of construction respondents, with non-alignment standing at 43%. Nearly half the sector is not aligned with its own professional body's AI standard. That is a governance gap worth flagging.
RICS is urging organisations to plan from the outset how successful pilots will transition into routine use, including the data infrastructure, system integration, professional oversight and governance frameworks required to support them. Sound advice. Harder to execute on a tight programme with a labour shortage.
Where AI Is Actually Landing: The QS Coalface
While RICS publishes its audit, the global quantity surveying community held its biggest annual congress this week. The timing is pointed.
Colombo, Sri Lanka, August 25: as AI moves from experimentation toward practical application in quantity surveying, Glodon showcased how AI can support real-world quantity takeoff and cost management workflows at the Pacific Association of Quantity Surveyors (PAQS) Congress 2026. Held from August 21 to 25 under the theme "Constructing the Evolution: Unleashing the Human Intelligence," the congress brought together quantity surveying professionals, researchers and industry leaders to explore the future of the profession and the evolving role of digital technologies.
Glodon's pitch at PAQS was built around its QuantifAI platform, first launched in Malaysia earlier this month. As construction projects become increasingly complex, quantity surveyors, estimators, consultants and contractors are expected to process greater volumes of information within tighter timelines and increasing demands for accuracy and cost certainty. QuantifAI is a 2-in-1 quantity takeoff solution integrating structural and architectural workflows.
The efficiency claims are specific. Supported by multimodal large models, graph neural networks and a GDE rule-AI dual engine, the system realises automatic CAD drawing modelling, multi-dimensional model inspection and intelligent bill matching. Practical project tests show the system lifts overall work efficiency by 60%–80% and stabilises calculation accuracy above 80%. Those figures need independent verification before any procurement decision, but they set a clear commercial benchmark.
Glodon's broader message at PAQS was that effective AI adoption in quantity surveying requires the integration of AI with industry knowledge, business workflows, data and professional software, rather than relying on general-purpose AI models alone. That is the same message RICS is sending from the other end of the pipeline. Sector-specific, integrated, governed - or it does not stick.
The Trademark Signal
One forward-looking indicator worth watching: AI Business Dispatch analysis of IPO (TMD) data, as of August 2026, shows UK Class 11 trademark filings at 878 in Q3 2026, down 40.6% on the prior period. Class 11 covers apparatus for lighting, heating, and building services - kit that increasingly carries embedded AI and smart-building functionality. A sharp drop in filings in that class suggests either a pullback in product launches or a consolidation among vendors who were earlier crowding the smart-building space. Either way, it fits the broader pattern: early enthusiasm, then a harder reckoning about what actually works on site.
What Contractors Should Take From This
The RICS data, combined with the live product push at PAQS, tells a fairly coherent story. Adoption is real. The gap between "we have a pilot" and "we use this every day" remains the defining problem for the sector. The 2026 data shows that investment intent in both sectors outpaces adoption. Firms are spending more than they are embedding.
For quantity surveyors specifically, the message from Colombo is that purpose-built AI tools for takeoff and cost management are now commercially available and being tested at scale across Asia-Pacific. The UK market will face these products within months. RICS is urging organisations to plan from the outset how successful pilots will transition into routine use, including the data infrastructure, system integration, professional oversight and governance frameworks required.
Sorting that governance framework out before the vendor arrives is not optional.