Sign In7 BIM Trends Defining Modern Construction & Facility Management
Building Information Modeling (BIM) has evolved beyond 3D drawings to become the data foundation of modern construction and facility management.
Driven by efficiency demands, sustainability goals, and the need to reduce errors, it now connects every stage of a building's lifecycle.
BIM adoption is on the rise globally, and the teams embracing it are seeing significant operational improvements. For HHS Angus, partnering with Matterport on BIM creation has resulted in 70% cost savings and up to 40 person-hours of time savings per file.
But we’re only at the start of BIM innovation. The next wave — from AI-powered workflows to prefabrication and IoT — is extending its value even further. The following seven BIM trends highlight where this practice is headed in 2025 and what it means for AEC and facility management professionals.
7 current and emerging BIM trends
The most important BIM trends today are driven by automation, AI, sustainability, and real-world data capture. These changes are reshaping how teams plan, build, and maintain projects by raising the bar for what BIM can deliver.
Each of the following BIM trends highlights a practical shift in how AEC and facility management teams apply the technique, with examples of where it’s working and how it’s changing the way buildings are designed, constructed, and managed.
1. BIM integration with digital twins improves visibility and collaboration
Connecting BIM models to digital twins gives project teams a real-world baseline to work from. Instead of relying on design intent alone, teams can compare models against actual site conditions to track progress, verify work, and resolve issues earlier.
This is especially useful for construction progress monitoring and compliance, where staying current across teams and locations is critical. Digital twins make it easier to catch discrepancies, reduce rework, and keep stakeholders aligned without constant site visits.
Teams often waste weeks manually converting point clouds into usable BIM files, frequently introducing errors during the translation process. Matterport eliminates this bottleneck by automatically generating BIM-ready files (.ifc, .rvt) directly from 3D scans. With outputs meeting LOD 200 standards and seamless Revit integration, teams can skip the manual conversion work entirely and move straight to coordination.
2. AI-supported BIM workflows enable automation and boost efficiency
AI is taking on routine BIM tasks that once required hours of manual work — from detecting clashes to identifying construction deviations in near real time.
One way this works in practice is with timestamped 3D scans. When those scans integrate directly with AI clash detection systems, you can automatically flag discrepancies between design intent and as-built conditions. The real-time visibility helps you catch issues while they’re still inexpensive to fix.
AI-supported BIM workflows extend into operations as well. Granite Construction uses Matterport digital twins to create immersive training and safety programs across more than 40 locations. AI-assisted spatial data helps standardize environments and identify maintenance needs, creating scalable onboarding content that improves efficiency while reducing physical site disruptions.
3. AR/VR for quality assurance and control
AR and VR make it easier to visualize designs early and verify construction accuracy in the field.
In design review phases, virtual reality tools simulate real-world space and layout. Stakeholders can virtually walk through a model, spot potential issues, and suggest changes before ground is broken.
Augmented reality adds value during construction, overlaying BIM models onto physical spaces so field teams can verify installation accuracy, catch deviations, and reduce the risk of rework.
These applications rely on high-fidelity digital twins to provide the visual and spatial context that makes AR/VR effective. A static model isn’t enough. QA/QC teams need a realistic, up-to-date view of actual site conditions.
Matterport supports this by generating accurate 3D scans that feed directly into AR/VR environments. Built-in features like annotations and tags help teams track issues, document fixes, and conduct remote walkthroughs without losing critical context.
4. Generative design and BIM unlock innovation possibilities
Generative design tools use data to automatically create and optimize building layouts. BIM provides the structure needed to feed those systems with real-world inputs.
Traditionally, design iterations relied on fixed templates or one-off stakeholder feedback. Now, with access to behavioral data like occupant flow, space usage, and post-occupancy efficiency, teams can model how people interact with a space over time and use that insight to drive automated, AI-assisted design decisions.
This is already being applied in areas like:
Workplace design, where occupancy data informs layouts that adapt to hybrid work patterns
Healthcare and education, where space utilization models help optimize traffic flow and safety
Sustainable building design, where simulations evaluate energy efficiency and environmental impact early in the process
5. BIM for prefabrication and modular construction
BIM is critical to making prefabrication and modular building scalable. It allows teams to coordinate off-site fabrication with real-world site conditions — reducing rework, improving quality, and speeding up delivery.
In traditional builds, misalignment between design models and actual site conditions often leads to delays and costly adjustments. With prefabrication, those errors get more expensive. Accurate BIM data ensures that manufactured components fit as intended once they arrive on site.
Teams using modular methods rely on BIM to:
Coordinate across design, manufacturing, and installation
Validate measurements and tolerances before fabrication
Plan efficient delivery and assembly sequences
Reduce on-site labor and shorten project timelines
Prefabricated components often don't fit properly on-site because design models don't reflect actual conditions, leading to costly delays and rework. Matterport digital twins capture millimeter-accurate site conditions that feed directly into prefab planning.
Manufacturing teams work from verified spatial data, ensuring components fit perfectly on arrival and eliminating the expensive field adjustments that plague traditional prefab projects.
6. IoT integrations for sustainability and environmentally responsible design
IoT data is making sustainable building design more actionable. By combining real-time sensor data with spatially accurate BIM models, teams can monitor energy use, optimize systems, and plan smarter resource strategies across the building lifecycle.
But raw data isn’t enough on its own — it needs spatial context to be useful. That’s where digital twins come in. By linking IoT inputs to a 3D model of the physical environment, teams can understand what’s happening, where, and why — whether it’s a ventilation system running inefficiently or a lighting schedule misaligned with occupancy patterns.
Building operators receive IoT sensor alerts but can't quickly locate problem areas or understand spatial context, slowing response times and increasing downtime. Matterport's AWS IoT TwinMaker integration overlays real-time sensor data directly onto 3D building models.
According to Danone Digital Innovation Manager Stuart Grace: “By using digital twins in virtual meetings…we’ve reduced the number of in-person site visits by company personnel up to 50 percent, helping us achieve time savings and reduce travel expenses.”
Instead of wasting resources on on-site visits to diagnose issues, facility teams can instantly visualize problems and plan the fastest response routes (or avoid an on-site visit altogether).
7. 5D BIM (cost & schedule integration)
5D BIM is the practice of linking 3D models to both schedule (4D) and cost (5D) data. It builds on standard BIM by adding time and budget as integrated layers so teams can simulate project sequencing, forecast costs, and manage changes without relying on disconnected spreadsheets or Gantt charts.
This approach turns BIM into a real-time project controls tool, not just a design asset. Instead of asking what a change looks like, teams can immediately see what it costs and how it affects the schedule.
Common use cases include:
Visualizing budget impacts of design changes in real time
Simulating construction sequences to identify potential delays
Linking cost codes and estimates to specific model components
Tracking progress against both scope and spend
As more owners and contractors demand tighter controls on cost and delivery, 5D BIM is becoming a useful tool for driving transparency and accountability across the entire project lifecycle.
The future impact of BIM on construction and facility management
Deloitte’s Global Powers of Construction report found that smart construction technologies like BIM and digital twins are key drivers of the construction industry’s projected growth to $16.1 trillion by 2030. As more projects face pressure to hit cost, timeline, and sustainability targets, digital workflows are no longer optional.
BIM is becoming the connective tissue across the entire building lifecycle. It’s moving beyond design teams to support construction sequencing, cost controls, facility operations, and long-term performance. And as adoption grows, so does the need for shared tools, common data environments, and accurate real-world capture.
But adoption is playing out differently across various AEC and facility management stakeholders. Here’s how emerging BIM trends impact architects and designers, construction teams, and facility managers.
Architects and designers
BIM helps architects and designers move faster and make better decisions by connecting real-world conditions to digital models.
Combining reality capture with predictive modeling and generative design allows teams to test options earlier, align on feedback, and reduce the risk of costly rework. Stakeholders can review spatial layouts before construction begins, and every iteration is grounded in actual site conditions — not assumptions.
Architects spend excessive time on site visits and struggle to communicate spatial concepts to clients, slowing down approvals and increasing project costs. Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture (APMA) solved this by using Matterport to create immersive 3D models that stakeholders could explore remotely.
Instead of multiple site visits and static drawings, clients could virtually walk through designs and provide feedback immediately, leading to faster approvals, fewer design missteps, and better alignment between design intent and client expectations.
Engineers and construction managers
BIM gives engineers and construction managers a clearer, more reliable way to coordinate work in the field.
Matterport digital twins provide dimensionally accurate, real-world context that teams can use throughout the construction phase to reduce errors, improve coordination, and stay on schedule.
Clash detection. Import scans into coordination platforms like Revit or Navisworks to compare as-built conditions with design intent and catch system conflicts before they cause delays.
Progress tracking. Capture weekly or milestone-based scans to document completed work and compare progress against the schedule — especially useful on distributed or fast-moving job sites.
Quality assurance and control (QA/QC). Use detailed 3D scans to verify that installations meet design specifications, flag field issues, and streamline punch walks.
Labor scheduling and optimization. Share scans across trades to improve handoffs, reduce downtime between crews, and coordinate work based on current site readiness.
This level of visibility helps teams stay aligned, make faster decisions, and avoid costly rework as the project moves forward.
Facility managers and owners
BIM-backed digital twins are becoming essential tools for long-term asset management. They help facility teams link spatial context with asset data, reducing friction between operations and information systems.
At Northumbrian Water, facility teams use Matterport in BIM workflows to scan clean and wastewater assets and integrate the data with Sitedesk and IBM Maximo. Using Autodesk Revit, they can interact with asset data through either the 3D model or the associated text-based interface — improving access, usability, and decision-making. Now:
Remote teams can inspect asset conditions without visiting the site.
Legacy infrastructure can be brought into modern asset management workflows without complex remodeling.
Digital twins support more accurate maintenance planning and budgeting by providing quick access to basic measurements and visual context.
As BIM continues to move beyond construction and into daily operations, digital twins help facility teams manage complex systems with greater clarity, flexibility, and control.
