45% of engineering firms have no AI strategy at all
ACEC just surveyed 628 executives. The split inside the industry is worse than anyone expected. Plus: Revit learned to talk, $1.4 trillion in utility spending, and three firms became one.
The PwC U.S. CEO told the Financial Times this month: “Employees who think they can opt out of AI are not gonna be here that long.”
That’s not a tech CEO. That’s the head of one of the Big Four firms that audits the largest engineering companies in the world.
Meanwhile, ACEC’s latest sentiment survey shows 45% of engineering firms have zero AI implementation. Not early-stage. Not piloting. Zero.
And on the other side, nearly half now have a formal AI strategy and more than half are hiring dedicated AI talent.
The industry isn’t adopting AI as a whole, it’s split in half over it. This issue is about that splitand what it means for the firms caught in the middle.
Here’s Issue #2.
01 · AI + TECHNOLOGY
Revit just learned to answer questions. In English. Inside your model.
On April 7, Autodesk released Revit 2027 with an embedded AI Assistant. Not a plugin. Not a chatbot you alt-tab into. It sits inside the modeling environment and answers natural language questions about your project.
Ask how many exterior walls use a specific assembly. Ask it to generate a Dynamo graph. Ask what changed between versions. It answers in context, using your project data.
The release also connects Revit to Autodesk Forma for real-time carbon analysis during design. And underneath: Autodesk completed its acquisition of Rhumbix—a field data platform capturing labor and production data in real time. Turner, Suffolk, and DPR are customers.
For your next shortlist or interview: “We use a design tool that answers questions about the project in plain English” is a capability a selection committee understands.
02 · MARKET + MONEY
U.S. utilities just committed $1.4 trillion. That number is real.
Fortune reported April 14 that U.S. investor-owned utilities have increased five-year capital plans by 27%+ to at least $1.4 trillion through 2030. Duke Energy leads at $103 billion. NextEra at $94 billion. The South accounts for $572 billion.
The primary driver is AI and data center electricity demand. But aging infrastructure, grid hardening, and electrification are all compounding. ConstructConnect projects power infrastructure starts will hit $27.8 billion in 2026 - nearly double last year.
For context, WSP’s $3.3 billion acquisition of TRC Companies in February created the largest power engineering platform in the U.S. That deal happened because power engineering talent is the scarcest commodity in the industry.
03 · FIRMS + MOVES
Three Utah engineering firms quietly merged last week.
On April 10, Spectrum Engineers, Colvin Engineering, and Envision Engineering merged to form Lynk Engineers; a ~245-person MEPT firm in Salt Lake City. No private equity. No press tour.
Three firms that collaborated for decades on the Salt Lake City International Airport, deciding quietly that independence is a liability. MEPT firms are in extreme demand for data center and mission-critical work. PwC says U.S.-targeted AEC M&A surged 66% in H2 2025.
Scenario: Your leadership team needs a 10-minute market briefing. You have ACEC’s Q1 2026 data.
I’m briefing my firm’s leadership on market positioning for 2026–2027. Here are findings from ACEC’s Q1 2026 Engineering Business Sentiment Survey (628 executive responses):
— Economy confidence: +45 (up 11 pts). Forward: +3.
— Data centers at net +89. Energy +78. Gov buildings, education, transit softened.
— 91% cite political uncertainty. 45% have no AI implementation.
— 9/10 firms have open positions. Half turned down projects due to staffing.
Build a 10-min briefing: (1) Where to concentrate pursuits for 18 months? (2) What changes in hiring? (3) Biggest backlog risk + mitigation? Be specific. Use the data. Don’t hedge.
This works because it gives AI structured data and asks for strategic interpretation — not a summary.
The 45% Problem
Nearly half of engineering firms have no AI strategy. The other half is pulling away.
A principal at a 90-person structural firm told me his leadership team spent four months debating ChatGPT licenses. Four months. By the time they approved it, two of his best PMs had been using it on personal accounts for a year—drafting RFIs, summarizing notes, prepping for client calls. The firm’s official AI strategy launched six months after the actual adoption had already started without permission.
That story is so common it’s almost not a story. But the data behind it is.
ACEC’s Q1 2026 sentiment survey — 628 executive responses — found nearly half of firms now have a formal AI strategy. That sounds like progress until you read the other number: 45% report no AI implementation at all. Not early-stage. Zero.
“Employees who think they can opt out of AI are not gonna be here that long.”
— PwC U.S. CEO, Financial Times
The Artificial Intelligence Show podcast published its Q1 trends briefing April 7. Their polling: 55% of workers use AI “a few times a month, rarely, or never.” 65% cited fear and resistance as the single biggest AI challenge. Not cost. Not technology. Fear.
Host Paul Roetzer: “The organizations that are really struggling here often lack CEOs who have presented a clear vision for the future of work.” That’s not a technology failure. It’s a leadership failure.
ACEC’s workforce research: the U.S. faces an annual shortfall of roughly 18,000 engineers — 184,000 leave, 166,000 enter. The college-age population shrank 3.3% in a decade. More than half of ACEC member firms reported turning down projects because they can’t staff them.
“We talk about the AI revolution as if it’s inevitable — it isn’t. It will only go as far as the engineering beneath it.”— ACEC Research Institute
AI can’t work without engineers. Engineers can’t keep up without AI. The firms that understand this as a single problem — not two line items, one for IT and one for HR — are building something durable. The ones treating AI and talent as separate projects are watching both problems get worse.
The question isn’t whether to adopt AI. That debate is over. The question is whether your leadership is willing to say it out loud. Because 45% of firms haven’t answered that yet. And the distance between them and the firms that have is growing every quarter.
Procore Agent Builder
Most construction AI answers questions. Procore shipped one that takes actions. Their Agent Builder (open beta) lets teams build custom AI agents inside Procore — no code. Three pre-built agents: Draft RFI, Daily Log, Submittal Review. These draft documents, pull from drawings and specs, and route for review — inside the system.
Shines: firms on Procore losing hours to RFIs and dailies.
Limited: agents only work within Procore’s ecosystem.
Verdict: Try it.
+89 — ACEC net sentiment for data centers — highest of any sector (ACEC Q1 2026 Sentiment)
45% — Engineering firms with zero AI implementation (ACEC Q1 2026)
91% — Firm leaders citing political uncertainty as top risk (ACEC Q1 2026)
$1.4T — Utility capital spending through 2030, up 27% (Fortune)
18,000 — Annual gap — engineers leaving vs. entering (ACEC Research Institute)
3.1% — U.S. hiring rate Feb 2026 — lowest since COVID (AI Show Ep. 208)
The Artificial Intelligence Show — Ep. 208: Q1 Trends Briefing
Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput distilled 150+ Q1 topics into a top-10. Three that map to AEC:
The “People Problem” — 65% of orgs say fear is #1 AI barrier. Mirrors ACEC’s 45%-with-nothing finding.
AI-Driven Layoffs — Atlassian cut 1,600. Block cut ~4,000. The PwC quote that opens this issue came from this episode.
The Vibe Shift — Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) entered mainstream discourse. Anthropic’s CEO predicted 2026–2027. That’s why $630B in hyperscaler CapEx exists.
ACEC Annual Convention & Legislative Summit
May 3–6, 2026 · Washington, DC
Two weeks out. Where CEOs sit with the people writing infrastructure policy.
Go for: The Sentiment briefing. Data centers at +89 vs. softening government work reshapes your pursuit calendar.
Get dressed up for: The ACEC Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) Gala is the anchor.
Real work: Capitol Hill visits. At 91% political uncertainty, face time with staffers is intelligence gathering.
Marketing Specialist/Coordinator ADC Engineering · Charleston, SC (On-site)
Zweig Hot Firm List. Best Places to Work in SC. 35+ years of civil, structural, and landscape architecture. You own the full pursuit — start to finish.
Proposal Manager · $80K–$100K
Schnabel Engineering · DC / Houston / Nashville (Hybrid)
Employee-owned (ESOP). Dams, tunnels, earth retention. 76+ open positions. Marketing sits at the strategy table.
Want to list a role? Hit reply.
That’s Issue #2.
If this was useful, forward it to the person at your firm still debating AI licenses.
- AEC Wire