London Build Expo celebrated its 10th anniversary with 35,000+ professionals, 450+ exhibitors, and an atmosphere that felt like the construction industry laying the foundations of its next decade. Between the AI & Digital Construction Stage, the Government Hub, and dozens of vendor showcases, one distinct message was:Â construction is digitising where the data, workflows, and people are ready.
Here are the insights that mattered most, straight from the sessions and conversations our team joined.
1. AI Is Finally Delivering Measurable, On-Site Impact
The most compelling AI discussions showcased what’s already happening on real projects.
One standout session demonstrated how companies now use robots for overnight safety risk assessments, capturing and analysing site data immediately. This gives teams next-morning insights without putting anyone at risk. That’s a shift from traditional reporting cycles where issues show up after work has already progressed.
Another theme: AI is finally breaking the silo problem. Teams can now spot live fails from site, addressing issues before they cascade. It’s a huge productivity leap for anyone who has waited days for a report to arrive in their inbox.
Speakers kept their advice simple and blunt:
- Get into AI now – the speed of development is brutal.
- Sort your data, because messy legacy systems slow you down more than a lack of AI skills.
It’s the same challenge we hear daily from operations teams: technology isn’t the blocker. Data readiness is.
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See how Fluix captures and routes field data in real time
2. Olympia’s Digital Construction Story Shows What “Connected Tools” Really Means
The fireside chat with Laing O’Rourke about the London Olympia redevelopment was a masterclass in practical digital transformation.
Key lessons:
- Systems talking to each other delivered massive efficiency gains. H&S files, ASITE, Edocs – once these were connected via APIs, teams stopped copying information manually and started acting on real-time updates.
- Custom attribute tagging and information filtering paid off but only after staff were trained on how to use the tools. Transformation didn’t happen overnight; it happened gradually.
- The payoff was huge: Projects saved 3–4 months of reporting time due to tighter information management.
- The biggest challenge was handover training. With multiple data sources and variable data quality, teams needed clarity on how information should flow across the project lifecycle.
Naomi Wren’s advice captured it perfectly: “Start with the end in mind. And bring your people into the process early.”
3. 2026 Tech Trends: Build What Solves a Real Problem
The “Tech Trends to Watch” panel cut through hype quickly.
A few truths stood out:
- No single SaaS platform will solve everything integration is the new competitive advantage, even between competitors.
- Many teams are realising they built tools without defining the problem first. One speaker challenged vendors directly:
“Why are you building the answer without the question?” - Companies are training chatbots on legacy data and treating in-house GPTs as new digital employees.
- But there’s a clear risk: businesses must understand where their data goes and avoid offloading sensitive knowledge to external systems.
AI isn’t replacing people; it’s replacing repetitive admin so professionals can focus on tasks requiring judgment and emotional intelligence. Asset management teams already report that “copy-paste work” has almost disappeared.
4. Data-Driven Decision Making Is Becoming a Core Skill
The Information Management Initiative reinforced something we see daily in field operations: if you can’t access your data, you can’t act on it.
Insights worth calling out:
- Progress monitoring sits at the center of project control, procurement, handover, and asset management—it’s no longer a separate workflow.
- Standardisation will hit ~90%, but that last 10% must flex to client needs.
- Quick AI wins exist now, but scaling requires solid foundations: secure data, clear objectives, and realistic expectations.
- GPT and RAG systems are already embedded in several platforms—although onboarding can take months.
The long-term shift? Prompt engineering, data literacy, and AI-assisted workflows will become normal parts of job descriptions.
5. The Tech We Saw (and Why It Matters for Field Teams)
A few standout solutions from the floor:
- Centrus360Â for AI-driven contract risk intelligence
- Benetics AI, the first voice assistant purpose-built for contractors
- Sparkel, an AI tool to interpret BIM and PDF drawings
- Motive, offering AI-enhanced fleet management
- Robotics and drone inspection providers, including NexGenRi, showing the future of remote data capture
For Fluix, these vendors highlight the growing ecosystem our customers will increasingly expect to plug into.
Final Thought: The Industry Isn’t Waiting Anymore
London Build 2025 made one thing obvious: construction is no longer “slow to digitise”- it just needed tools, data, and people aligned around the right problems.
Whether it’s AI agents, connected workflows, or robotics, the next phase of productivity will come from reducing friction on site and letting teams focus on the work that truly matters.
