McKinsey is Betting on Fast Forward

McKinsey dropped a new report titled “How AI is reshaping the future of the AEC industry” that lines up pretty nicely with our Fast Forward thesis. Included in their recommendations is a suggestion to focus on workflows or domains rather than tasks. This speaks to the capabilities of AI as much as it does the discoordination challenges natural to the AECO sector.

Here’s a battle coming for leaders of Fast Forward firms:

“Vendor data rights are another advantage that AEC leaders consistently underestimate. As AI capabilities improve, technology vendors are pushing harder to access project data and the rights to learn from it and reuse it to create new products, or to put guardrails around how their products or software can be used to train proprietary models. They are also increasingly competing to control workflows, learning loops, and business opportunities built on top of project data. Firms that overlook the details of vendor agreements risk giving away too much control and long-term advantage.” *BB-7/16/26