Australia second in construction tech adoption survey

Autodesk has released its State of Digital Adoption in the Construction Industry 2026 report, which found that 48 per cent of Australian construction employees use construction-specific technology each week.

That places Australia second among the markets surveyed, behind Vietnam at 52 per cent. The report covered 954 businesses across Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Singapore and Vietnam, including 287 in Australia.

Australian businesses now use an average of 7.6 construction technologies, up from 6.9 a year earlier. The most commonly used tools were construction management cloud software, cited by 60 per cent of respondents, followed by construction wearables at 53 per cent and AI and machine learning at 52 per cent.

The figures come as construction companies face higher input costs, labour shortages and geopolitical disruption driving fuel, transport and supply chain pressures. These factors are adding strain to an industry already marked by weak productivity growth and narrow margins.

Adoption barriers

Despite broader use of digital tools, Australian respondents identified several barriers to further uptake. The main obstacles were a lack of digital skills among employees, limited budgets and uncertainty about the technical skills required.

Autodesk linked those constraints to a broader gap between digital ambition and the practical ability to embed new systems across projects and teams. Surveyed businesses included companies in architecture, engineering, construction, real estate development and specialty trade contracting.

Sumit Oberoi, Senior Manager, Construction Strategy and Partnerships at Autodesk, said the issue is no longer simply whether companies have access to software.

"In a more volatile world, digital capability becomes construction's competitive edge - turning project data into decisions, and decisions into predictable delivery. The winners won't be the firms with the most tools, but the ones that connect workflows, trust their data, and scale what works across every project," he said.

Oberoi also pointed to the popularity of construction management cloud software as a response to project uncertainty.

"For industry leaders, these challenges have made it more difficult to predict delivery timelines. It's not surprising, therefore, that construction management cloud software is the most widely adopted technology in the sector, as the software can help ease project pressures by providing a single platform for data sharing, real-time cost updates and model coordination," he said.

Productivity pressure

The report places technology uptake against a backdrop of long-running productivity weakness in Australian construction. Multifactor productivity in the sector remained broadly in line with levels seen in the 1990s.

That record has heightened concern about how the industry will respond to rising costs and delivery demands, particularly in housing and infrastructure. Autodesk said recent growth in technology use could help companies improve coordination, reduce risk and manage asset performance more effectively.

Oberoi said the next step is for the industry to move beyond isolated digital tasks.

"Australia doesn't have a technology adoption problem; we have a value realisation problem. The opportunity now is to move from digitising tasks to digitising the delivery system: by having one connected data backbone, sharper collaboration, and a workforce that can use these tools confidently to lift productivity at scale," he said.

One company cited in the report was commercial building and construction services provider Icon, which uses a shared digital environment to manage project information.

"Our approach has been to push all project data into a single data environment, so teams always know they have the latest information," said Dominic Martens, Group Construction and Technology Manager at Icon.

"When site staff can access up-to-date drawings immediately, they can get up and running faster and reduce delays caused by outdated or fragmented data," he said.

Cost and labour strain

Across the Asia-Pacific markets in the study, raw material costs were the most commonly reported barrier to growth at 29 per cent, followed by high labour costs at 26 per cent. Inflation is expected to rise in five of the six markets covered, with Australia among those facing a sharper increase.

Those pressures are hitting a sector that remains one of the country's largest employers, supporting about 1.4 million jobs, or roughly 9 per cent of the workforce. At the same time, forecasts point to a shortfall of 300,000 workers by the middle of next year, reinforcing concerns about skills and capacity.

David Rumbens, Partner at Deloitte Access Economics, said the industry's cost base and delivery record are under mounting strain.

"Rising input and material costs are placing Australia's construction industry under intense pressure, squeezing margins and contributing to a growing wave of insolvencies," he said.

"Lifting productivity through technology is critical - not just for individual businesses, but for the industry's capacity to deliver Australia's housing and infrastructure needs. Without a step change in productivity, we are likely to fall further behind the Australian Government's national housing target and see further delays to major infrastructure projects," he said.

For Autodesk, the skills issue has become central to whether digital spending translates into measurable gains on site and across project delivery.

"This reflects a shift from access to capability; with relatively high uptake of digital tools, the challenge is now ensuring workers can use technology effectively to realise value," Oberoi said.