Construction's CIOs Sound the Alarm on Data Ownership and AI Readiness

­New research from Revizto, the leading collaboration platform for the Architecture, Engineering, Construction & Operations (AECO) sector, reveals that 96% of CIOs report concern about data ownership and control across their tech stacks. 

The debate is no longer primarily about cost or which tools to buy, but who owns the data those tools generate, and what happens to it when vendor relationships change.

The Bridging the Gap Report, one of the first studies to examine technology integration challenges across AEC, draws on insights from 600 CIOs across the US, UK, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. 

Despite the industry's appetite for AI, the research exposes a significant readiness gap. The biggest barrier preventing firms from gaining value from AI is regulatory uncertainty, cited by 24% of respondents – followed closely by limited digital skills (23%), a lack of integrations (17%), and poor data foundations (15%). Only 10% said they were already seeing value with no barriers remaining.

As complexity across multimillion dollar builds intensifies, CIOs are on the frontline and under increasing pressure to do more with less. Yet many are split on how to manage this with 41% planning to expand their tech stack over the next 12-18 months, while nearly four in ten (39%) plan to consolidate.

Even with advances in technology, the industry’s track record on project delivery underscores just how high the stakes are: 92% surveyed experience cost overruns of 6% or more. A figure that points not to isolated failure, but to a sector that has quietly normalized missing its targets and effectively built in a tolerance of around 10%, representing billions in lost value across project cycles. 

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. In the report findings, and via our own customer conversations, we are increasingly hearing that locking data into a single vendor is viewed as a serious risk. The path forward isn’t more technology. It’s better control over the technology already in play.”

The report highlights that the challenge facing many construction CIOs is not access to better tools, but whether governance and data infrastructures are robust to deploy them in a sector that operates on tight margins, long timelines, and shared accountability across dozens of teams, stakeholders and contractors.

David Felker, CIO from Trilon, one of North America's fastest-growing infrastructure consulting platforms, said: “The construction industry has more technology than ever, yet control has become more fragmented. This is not a tooling issue. It is a trust and data ownership issue. We must be intentional about retaining control of our data and using it to drive better outcomes.” 

Steven Capper, CIO and Chair of Revizto’s Advisory Board: “Now, there is real AI fatigue in our industry, and it’s getting harder for CIOs to articulate AI’s tangible benefits. The pressure to deploy AI is arriving before the coordination problems beneath it have been solved. Deploying powerful tools on top of broken workflows doesn't accelerate delivery; it accelerates failure. The smart CIOs will focus on getting the fundamentals right before expanding capability and automation.”