Reality capture is a superpower for those who wield it.

Across the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations (AEC/O) sector, key players are already embracing reality capture and the innovations that can add even richer context to data sets.

Depth, segmentation, and additional layers of information can make captured reality much more meaningful, introducing opportunities to advance construction projects.

Tomislav Žigo is the CTO of Clayco, year after year ranked by Engineering News Record as one of the top Building Design and Construction companies. Tomislav values 3D reality capture because, among other things, it provides insights and details about the space that would otherwise be difficult, if not impossible, to access.

Mani Golparvar, the CSO and Co-Founder of Reconstruct (a leader in remote quality control, progress monitoring, and facilities assessment) and a Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, echoes this sentiment. And although the last decade has been successful for the U.S. construction industry, Mani suggests that reality capture still offers companies untapped potential to accelerate productivity.

Reality capture is at the heart of any successful digitization process. It significantly simplifies construction verification; it aids in site inspection and quality assurance and control; it also facilitates the identification and reporting of issues, the accurate documentation of current conditions for renovations and retrofitting, and the assessment of residential and commercial properties; additionally, it supports remote site access and collaboration, bidding, tendering, preservation, monitoring, and claim management.

We’re quickly reaching a point where reality capture is a must-have for effective, profitable projects. But where does it deliver the most value? And what does the future look like?

Let’s review some of the key takeaways from our conversation with Tomislav and Mani, industry experts with decades of experience at the intersection of AEC and AI technology.

Where the AEC industry stands on reality capture today

Of the large budgets spent each year on the built environment, a large portion goes to people: the workers on construction sites and all the professionals, managers and executors, involved in making projects happen. However, according to Mani, as much as 35% of these costs are not invested in the workforce but wasted in coordination issues.

This equates to over $250 billion in value. To put this into perspective, Mani draws on the Super Bowl example. In 2024, the world-famous sporting event was hosted at Las Vegas’ impressive Allegiant Stadium – a 65,000-capacity venue that finished at a construction cost of around $2 billion.

Solving the construction coordination problem holds value equivalent to around 120 more Allegiant Stadiums delivered each year – a staggering amount of value that could be added to our built environment.

The cash leak, Mani argues, comes down to how the industry coordinates its army of people. This represents a significant missed opportunity to optimize productivity and claw back on costs.

But transforming the AEC’s approach to coordination is a complex issue. There are four key areas for improvement:

• How we plan jobs
• How we execute these plans
• How we monitor execution against our plans
• How we use this data to improve our next cycle of work

To address these problem areas, we can tap into a medium that everyone understands – visual data. Reality capture brings innovation that helps accelerate the efficiency of the construction process.

Tomislav is well aware of this potential, suggesting that the industry is only beginning to glimpse the possibilities brought about by the fourth industrial revolution. Reality capture, he argues, will be a driving force that will help push construction to the next level.

The future of reality capture in AEC

Construction projects will only continue to increase in complexity in the future. So, how will reality capture help the industry evolve and deliver more with fewer resources? Our ability to meet the new sustainability challenges and alleviate some of the problems related to the scarcity of skilled professionals – or their better employment – will depend on the answer.

Tomislav highlights one promising opportunity in research and development. Despite the trillions of dollars spent on construction each year, very little is routed toward innovations to boost efficiency. Improving fundamental processes to be less time and resource-consuming could transform the AEC sector from the ground up.

Innovation through reality capture offers one way to support this goal – especially through AI. IoT, machine learning, and computer vision are converging into a concept of situational awareness that is being adopted across construction sites.

But what does that mean?

For the industry, this is about achieving something that closely resembles a fully controlled manufacturing environment. Using reality capture, planning and design can be enhanced, sites monitored in real time, and predictive maintenance carried out as needed.

However, use cases like these require data interoperability in an environment where people are at different levels of tech adoption. Mani believes that no hardware vendor or solution can live in a silo, and that with any new tools coming to market, there must be a seamless integration.

This makes a dedicated reality capture team a must-have for AEC/O businesses, helping them understand the requirements on different job sites and provide industry-leading services.

New opportunities are building tomorrow

Looking forward, reality capture technology is opening up enormous possibilities. From stationary and mobile scanning to drones and panoramic cameras, all forms of reality can be combined to create one holistic view before being transformed into actionable insights.

At the same time, applications of the metaverse in industrial settings are rising – including its increasingly important relative, the digital twin.

To realize this potential as well, construction organizations require data integration and interoperability of systems, not to mention a high-quality initial reality capture. It is critical to lay the groundwork today to be ready for the next stage of this technology.

The opportunity for the AEC/O industry is huge – and it’s reality capture that will drive many of the emerging innovations.