The Shifts Practice Leaders Are Starting to Notice
Hi there,
This week’s issue sits at the intersection of three conversations that are no longer separate: AI acceleration, evolving digital roles, and the day-to-day friction inside our core tools. From Digital Construction Week to discussions around Digital Design Leadership, the signal is consistent. Architecture is not just adopting new software. It is being reshaped by workflow pressure.
What stood out most in the conversations I had this week is that many firms are experimenting at the edges, AI pilots, new plugins, reporting tools, but the structural layer beneath them remains under-designed. Infrastructure decisions, project management maturity, and performance constraints are quietly determining how much value any new tool can actually deliver.
So in this issue, I want to connect the dots. What sparked the most discussion, why Revit performance is a strategic signal rather than a technical annoyance, and what all of this means for practice leaders trying to steer through BIM 2.0 without adding more noise.
Let’s get into it.👇
What Sparked the Most Discussion This Week
1. AI, BIM, data and workflows are reshaping Architecture practice. Our Digital Design Leader series shows who must lead the change.
Click here to read the full post: LinkedIn.
2. Digital Construction Week isn’t just an event. It’s a gathering of the people shaping AI and workflows in AEC.
Click here to see the full post: LinkedIn
3. If your Revit model feels slower remotely than it did in the office … It’s rarely just “one of those things.”
Click here to see the full post: LinkedIn
Theme of the Week: Revit Isn’t Slow. Your Infrastructure Is.
If your Revit model feels slower remotely than it did in the studio, it is rarely just “one of those things.” Over the past few years, many practices moved heavy workflows into cloud or virtual desktop environments to support hybrid working. It solved mobility but often at the cost of responsiveness. Orbiting feels heavier, syncing takes longer, regeneration lags. That friction is not random. It is systemic.
When you virtualise design software, you introduce additional abstraction layers between user and GPU, shared compute resources, and network round-trip delay. Parametric modelling tools like Revit are highly sensitive to latency. Even small delays compound into perceptible drag across a working day. This is not just an IT issue. It is a systems architecture decision affecting how quickly your teams can think, test and iterate.
Slower modelling impacts more than comfort. It affects iteration speed, morale, billable efficiency and readiness for AI-enabled workflows. If your base modelling environment is underperforming, adding more tools will not solve the problem. It will amplify it. This is where the Digital Design Leader must step in, because performance is not a technical detail. It is a workflow and business strategy choice.
See full Case Study here:
Featured Product: There.do
If you have ever spent three hours turning site notes, voice memos and photos into a Word report that barely gets read, you will understand the problem there.do is addressing. It replaces the fragmented workflow of WhatsApp photos, dictated notes, copy-paste formatting and email attachments with a single continuous flow: capture on site, structure in the office, send as a tracked, mobile-friendly document.
On site, you speak, take photos and create tasks. In the office, AI helps summarise voice notes, rephrase rough text, proofread and format directly inside the document. No jumping between chatbots and Word. Upon sending, the platform compresses the report, tracks who has read it, issues reminders and removes the attachment chaos that slows down coordination. The result is fewer wasted hours and clearer accountability.
For practices thinking seriously about workflow performance, this is not just a note-taking tool. It is a lightweight reporting system designed for meetings, inspections and construction follow-ups. The pricing model is document-based rather than per-user, which lowers friction for teams. If your reporting process still lives in Word and email threads, this is worth a look.
If you want to find out more then contact David Vauthrin here: [email protected]
Talks this week
Here are some talks coming up or you can rewatch:
I was invited to be on the Architecture Social webinar last week - catchup here:
To ensure you get this event link, please add your details here: https://streamyard.com/watch/kuABAvUjjCM4/
6 Revit Plugins worth exploring!
Here are some Revit Plugins that I see and think can augment Revit:
Design buildings faster with less stress with less stress. Design, test, and validate feasibility studies in one environment, with building codes checked as you work.
Best suited for: Architects / BIM Managers / Computational Designers / Digital Design Leads
Fits in workflow: Early - Later Stage Design
Contact: Will Rouse
A Digital Swiss Army Knife For Every BIM Professional. As a must have package of Revit add-ins, Bird Tools aims to boost your Autodesk® Revit® efficiency with:
o Automated CAD-to-BIM Conversion
o Smart Annotation Alignment/Arrangement
o Built-in Real Time Clash Detection/Visualisation
o Dynamo® and BIM 360® Batch Processing
o Integrated Revit®/BIM 360® Activity Logging/Monitoring and Instant Messaging
Best suited for: BIM Managers / Computational Designers
Fits in workflow: Mid - Late Stage Design
Contact: [email protected]
8,000+ Revit families with one click. The best parametric families for your BIM projects
Best suited for: Architects / BIM Managers / Computational Designers / Digital Design Leads
Fits in workflow: Early to mid stages
Contact here: Bárbara Pavanello
Master Revit Management. Clean Your Models, Train Your Teams, and Protect. Your Work with Guardian
Best suited for: BIM Managers / Computational Designers / Digital Design Leads
Fits in workflow: early - mid stage design
Contact: Megan Kennedy
Create, deploy & scale Dynamo and Grasshopper scripts like never before
Best suited for: Computational Designers / BIM Managers / Computational Designers
Fits in workflow: Early - Mid Stage Design
Contact: Mostafa El Ayoubi El Idrissi
Vyssuals gives you full control over BIM model data and ensures you deliver perfect projects every time. Because data quality is building quality.
Best suited for: Computational Designers / BIM Managers / Computational Designers
Fits in workflow: Mid - Late Stage Design
Contact: Yskert Schindel
Free Resource: Explore the ConTech Landscape
If you’re scanning this space, I maintain a free ConTech database covering hundreds of tools across architecture, engineering, and construction.
I use it as a starting point before advising practices, not as an answer in itself.
→ Browse the database here: https://contechdatabase.softr.app/
What This Issue Means for Practice Leaders
The signal across all of this is clear: the competitive advantage is no longer just design quality, it is workflow quality. AI, BIM plugins and new reporting tools are not isolated upgrades. They expose whether your underlying systems, infrastructure and role definitions are coherent or improvised. When Revit performance lags, when reports take hours to produce, when AI pilots stall, the issue is rarely the tool.
It is governance, architecture and ownership.
For practice leaders, this means shifting the conversation from “What software should we buy?” to “Who is responsible for designing how we work?” The firms that will move fastest are those elevating Digital Design Leadership, investing in infrastructure performance, and treating project and task management as strategic layers, not admin overhead. The question is no longer whether change is coming. It is whether your operating model is ready to absorb it.
One Role Worth Noticing This Week
Senior Product Marketer - Rayon
As a Senior Product Marketer, you will:
-/ Own Rayon’s product positioning and messaging, ensuring our value proposition is clear, differentiated, and compelling across all audiences (architects, interior designers, teams, academia, etc.).
-/ Work closely with Product, Design, and Growth to translate product capabilities into clear narratives, use cases, and benefits.
-/ Lead gotomarket strategies for new features and major product releases: launch plans, announcements, onboarding flows, and enablement assets.
-/ Develop customer insights by engaging directly with users (interviews, feedback, demos, sales calls) and turning those insights into sharper messaging and better adoption.
-/ Build and maintain core marketing assets: website copy, landing pages, product pages, pitch decks, onepagers, release notes, and inapp messaging.
-/ Contribute to the acquisition strategy by leading content marketing efforts across all channels.
-/ Actively contribute to Rayon’s longterm product and brand vision, at the intersection of design, technology, and architecture.
→ View role: Here
See all roles here: www.aectechjobs.com/search
One Next Step
If this issue resonated, let’s have a chat:
→ Book a short diagnostic call - Click here
No pressure, just a next step if useful.
This newsletter exists to help architects navigate technology with confidence, not hype by focusing on workflows, decisions, and real practice constraints.
Thanks for reading!
Allister
