Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation are reshaping the built environment from design to operation. While technology is advancing fast, the real challenge is still human: how to connect people, processes, and data into an ecosystem that delivers measurable performance, sustainability, and wellbeing.
To explore this question, PTS, in collaboration with Moto Shakoori, Founder and CEO at Ideal, hosted an industry roundtable at GSK’s Hydroponic Farm in their award-winning headquarters on New Oxford Street.
The location could not have been more fitting. GSK’s building uses smart technology and data to enhance employee wellbeing and collaboration. It represents exactly what our industry is striving for: intelligent design that connects people, place, and purpose.
PTS was engaged to deliver the smart building design, integrating more than 750 IoT sensors, dynamic workplace technologies, biophilic soundscaping, and real-time data insights to create a truly people-centred environment. Against that backdrop, senior leaders from across the built environment came together to share their experiences, challenges, and strategies for adopting automation and AI responsibly and effectively.
Here is what we learned…
A Sector Ready for Change
The built environment is entering a new stage of digital maturity. We are moving beyond digitised drawings and workflows into intelligent systems that learn, predict, and optimise in real time.
The opportunity is clear, but progress is uneven. Many organisations are trialling AI tools, yet few have embedded them across their data, governance, and delivery structures. To move from proof of concept to day-to-day operation, the focus must be on three connected areas:
People:Skills, culture, and trust.
Process:Integration, governance, and measurement.
Technology: Platforms, data ecosystems, and cybersecurity.
What We Heard
The Convergence of Design, Build, and Operate
Boundaries between disciplines are beginning to dissolve. Technology is enabling continuous feedback between design intent, construction execution, and operational performance. Shared data models and digital twins are becoming a common language for collaboration.
Data as the Foundation
Data quality and interoperability determine success. Fragmented datasets stop automation from scaling. The next step is open, reliable, and connected data that supports true collaboration.
Productivity, Risk, and the Workforce
Automation is delivering results where it reduces rework, improves predictability, and enhances the quality of work. AI is proving to be a partner to human capability, not a replacement.
Governance and Trust
AI creates new questions about accountability. Ownership, liability, and assurance models must evolve alongside the technology. Effective governance should be transparent, fair, and easy to understand.
Sustainability and ESG
AI is helping organisations meet their sustainability goals by optimising design, reducing waste, and managing energy use across the asset lifecycle.
A Construction Reality Check
Construction presents clear opportunities for automation in areas such as predictive planning, quality control, site monitoring, autonomous plant, and intelligent procurement. Yet the complexity of supply chains, inconsistent data, limited site bandwidth, and uncertainty around data ownership remain challenges.
The concept of a fully smart site is emerging, but progress is concentrated in specific, high-value, or high-risk projects.
Leadership and Culture
Technology alone does not create transformation. The most successful programmes are driven by curiosity, experimentation, and open communication. Cultural maturity is the foundation of any sustainable digital change.
The built environment has always been about connection between people, places, and purpose. AI and automation represent the next step in that connection. The challenge now is to harness these technologies responsibly, collaboratively, and creatively.