A recent BCG study, based on a survey of over 90 senior executives from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden spanning the entire construction value chain, reveals a striking gap: while digital and AI ambitions are high across the Nordic construction sector, meaningful impact remains elusive.
BCG’s framework assessed maturity across five dimensions—strategy and leadership alignment; IT and data foundations; people and operating models; adoption of digital and AI technologies; and realized business outcomes. The findings are telling: though more than 60% of firms have initiated at least one digital or AI use case, just 25% report generating any tangible business value from these efforts. Notably, none of the companies surveyed have reached the “future-built” maturity tier, the highest in BCG’s global standard.
BCG attributes the lag not to technological limitations, but to organizational barriers. Many firms possess basic IT foundations but lack the talent, operating models, governance structures, and leadership support required to scale pilots into impactful, workflow-integrated solutions.
Despite this, the opportunity is clear. Digital and AI applications—such as smarter procurement, supply chain resilience, automation, and productivity optimization—hold the potential to help the sector navigate challenges like rising material costs and administrative burdens. Turning ambition into execution is the key to unlocking this potential.
