The Most Honest Conversation About AEC Leadership I’ve Ever Hosted
📰 Tech leaders are no longer just fixing workflows. They are shaping firm strategy. This edition digs into a recent panel discussion from AECtech 2025 and reveals why the next generation of AEC leadership is emerging from digital practice and what it means for the future of design.
How long can AEC firms keep calling technology “support” when the people who understand it are increasingly the ones shaping the direction of the entire business?
Summary
At AECtech 2025 in New York City, I had the rare opportunity to moderate a live panel featuring four leaders who all came up through design technology and now occupy significant leadership roles at Populous, HKS, CBT, and SOM. What unfolded on stage was far more candid, energizing, and revealing than any scripted Q&A session could have delivered.
This newsletter distills the ideas, tensions, and aspirations that surfaced during that conversation: the shift from design technology to strategic leadership, the role of communication in scaling transformation, and why technologists are increasingly positioned to shape the business of architecture and engineering.
My goal for the live discussion was to show design technology practitioners a clear path forward. My goal for this breakdown is to give AEC leaders a snapshot of where our discipline is heading and why this moment matters.
Key Takeaways
Here are my top takeaways from the podcast episode. Then we'll get into the deeper analysis.
- The industry is redefining career paths: Technologists are stepping into business leadership roles once assumed to be exclusive to traditional practice tracks.
- Communication has become the differentiator: “My job is mostly communication.”
- Technologists must manage outward, not just upward: Being a leader means shaping culture, not just solving problems.
