The Future of AEC Marketing & BD: Trends Firms Can’t Ignore

In 2024, Stambaugh Ness collaborated with the SMPS Foundation to conduct research into how architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms approach business development. The resulting report, AEC.BD: Building Business Development Success in a Post-Pandemic World, explored how firms were evolving their seller-doers and dedicated business developers.

This year, we’re proud to once again partner with the SMPS Foundation to identify the AEC marketing trends and business development shifts that will shape the industry over the coming years. Through extensive secondary research, one-on-one interviews, and a nationwide survey, the 2027 Emerging Trends in AEC Marketing and Business Development Report provides a forward-looking view of what’s next and whether firms are prepared.

The research set out to understand both the most impactful trends facing marketing and business development teams at AEC firms in the coming years and firms’ readiness for these trends. Below is a high-level overview of the findings.

What are the Biggest AEC Marketing and Business Development Trends Shaping the Future?

The research identified three overarching themes that will significantly influence marketing and business development teams over the next several years:

• The changing talent stack
• Greater emphasis on existing clients and client experience
• A technology-first mindset

Each presents both opportunities and challenges for AEC firms, particularly as organizations work to close the gap between recognizing these trends and being prepared to act on them.

Emerging Trend 1: The Changing AEC Marketing & BD Talent Stack

The first trend, or theme, focuses on the changing skills required to succeed in AEC marketing and business development.

The research found a growing need to develop elevated strategic and critical thinking skills, as well as advanced communication skills. Coming in as the top-ranked trend in our quantitative research, 84% of respondents identified that this would be highly impactful to their firms. However, only 30% of participants felt their firms were highly prepared for this trend.

A second component of this trend is the increasing need to either hire new staff or upskill existing staff in artificial intelligence and data literacy. These capabilities are quickly becoming foundational rather than optional. While 58% of respondents identified this as a highly impactful trend, only 15% of participants feel their firms are highly prepared to address this skills gap.

Emerging Trend 2: The Future Lies with Existing Clients

The second major theme that emerged in the research centers on maximizing the value of existing client relationships.

Reinforcing findings from the SMPS Foundation’s research last year, client experience (CX) remains a competitive differentiator, with 74% of survey respondents identifying it as highly impactful. Yet, as prominent as this trend has been, only 22% of firms are highly ready to embrace CX programs.

A companion to this trend is a focus on growing revenue from current clients. Much of AEC marketing and business development is geared toward landing new clients, even though 80% of a firm’s revenue typically comes from existing clients. This trend sees companies placing greater emphasis on their current clients, with 65% of firms believing this will be highly impactful in the coming years. Once again, however, we see that firms are not well positioned to do this, with only 32% of survey participants identifying their companies as highly ready.

Emerging Trend 3: A Technology-First Mindset

Technology continues to reshape nearly every aspect of marketing and business development, making a technology-first mindset the third major trend identified in research.

Artificial intelligence-enabled workflows or automation were identified by 68% of participants as highly impactful to marketing and business development teams. Even though AI is expected to have a significant impact, only 13% of firms rate their readiness for it as high.

Improving data management and data infrastructure is another sub-trend and was selected by 71% of survey respondents as being highly impactful to marketing and BD in the coming years. Firm readiness, however, is even lower than with AI-enabled workflows, with only 10% of participants indicating that their firms are highly ready.

Additional sub-trends under this theme included elevated expertise-led visibility (56% of participants believe it will be highly impactful) and changing procurement processes (43% of respondents identify it as highly impactful). Although not exclusively technology-driven trends, they are highly influenced by technological changes, from employing generative engine optimization (GEO) to rank highly in AI conversations to online procurement tools increasingly used to pre-qualify AEC firms.

How Can AEC Firms Prepare for the Future of Marketing & Business Development?

The key is for firms to develop the people, processes, and technology needed to keep pace. Three areas where firms should begin investing include employee professional development, client-centric marketing and business development, and effective use of technology. Below we explore each one in greater detail.

Continuous Professional Development

For starters, companies need to reevaluate the professional development opportunities being provided to their marketing and business development professionals — including their seller-doers. Are they strategic thinkers? Do they have strong verbal and written communication skills—plus emotional intelligence (EQ), active listening, storytelling, and other related skills?

Additionally, are they AI- and data-fluent? These are the skills of the future, and professionals need to develop and improve them now or risk becoming irrelevant.

Client-Centric Marketing and Business Development

The cost of obtaining new clients is significantly higher than the cost of generating more work with existing clients. Companies need to become more strategic in how they approach their current clients. Firms should understand their ideal client profiles, identify the top revenue-generating clients (current or future), and develop key account strategies to be more intentional in cross-selling and upselling these clients.

Creating a robust client experience program is another necessity in today’s highly competitive environment, because if you aren’t taking care of your clients and adding value at every interaction, there are many competitors ready to do so better.

Embrace Technology Across All Areas

Marketing and business development have increasingly pivoted toward more technology integration, and the proliferation of automation and artificial intelligence tools is rapidly accelerating this transition.

From market research to client profiling, content creation to proposal development, there are myriad tools to drive technology deep into marketing and BD workflows. But as evidenced by the first theme, firms aren’t ready for the extent of technology-enablement training required to succeed in the future. Using technology is one thing; knowing how to use it effectively is another.

Bridging the Readiness Gap

The research is clear: AEC firms recognize the trends that are reshaping marketing and business development, but relatively few believe they are fully prepared to respond.

Organizations that begin investing now in their people, client relationships, and technology capabilities will be better positioned to compete, differentiate themselves, and drive sustainable growth over the coming years.

To explore the complete findings and benchmark your firm’s readiness, purchase the full 2027 Emerging Trends in AEC Marketing and Business Development report.

If you’re evaluating your firm’s strategic marketing direction, business development approach, or professional development initiatives, Stambaugh Ness can help. Our advisors work exclusively with AEC firms to develop strategies that position organizations for long-term success.

To learn more, contact us today.