A new survey from Revizto, covering 600 CIOs across the US, UK, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East, reveals that 96% of construction technology leaders are concerned about who controls their data. The debate has shifted from cost or tool selection to data ownership and what happens to that data when vendor relationships change.
The survey findings
The Bridging the Gap Report draws on responses from 2,006 AEC professionals across eight markets, with a leadership-heavy respondent base: 79% are Directors, C-Suite, or Business Owners. Company size is concentrated in mid-to-large enterprises, with 84% reporting annual turnover above $100M USD.
Key findings:
- 96% of CIOs report concern about data ownership and control across their tech stacks.
- 41% plan to expand their tech stack over the next 12-18 months, while 39% plan to consolidate.
- 92% of respondents experience cost overruns of 6% or more.
- The biggest barrier to gaining value from AI is regulatory uncertainty (24%), followed by limited digital skills (23%), lack of integrations (17%), and poor data foundations (15%). Only 10% reported seeing value with no barriers remaining.
The readiness gap
Despite the industry's appetite for AI, the research exposes a significant readiness gap. Marc Schütz, Chief Product Officer at Revizto, said: "CIOs are no longer just asking if a technology works. They're asking if it delivers multifunctional value without adding bloat, and whether it keeps control of critical project data in their hands." The report notes that locking data into a single vendor is increasingly viewed as a serious risk.
David Felker, CIO from Trilon, described the situation as "not a tooling issue. It is a trust and data ownership issue." Steven Capper, CIO and Chair of Revizto's Advisory Board, added that "there is real AI fatigue in our industry" and that "deploying powerful tools on top of broken workflows doesn't accelerate delivery; it accelerates failure."
What it means for CIOs
The report highlights that the challenge is not access to better tools, but whether governance and data infrastructures are robust enough to deploy them in a sector that operates on tight margins, long timelines, and shared accountability across dozens of teams, stakeholders, and contractors. The path forward, according to Revizto's Schütz, is "better control over the technology already in play."
Bottom line
Construction CIOs face a dual challenge: managing data ownership across fragmented tech stacks while preparing for AI deployment. The survey suggests that getting the fundamentals right—data governance, integration, and skills—must precede any expansion of AI capabilities.