We discover how technology is streamlining design, boosting collaboration, and enabling smarter spaces.
At the recent FIS Interiors Insight Live event held at the Business Design Centre, London (alongside Workspace Design Show), Iain McIlwee, Chief Executive at FIS, chaired a session discussing how technology only delivers value when paired with trusted, structured data. Accurate information reduces rework, cuts costs and carbon, and ensures projects are built as designed.
We hear the key take aways from the three guest speakers.
The NBS viewpoint
Dr Stephen Hamil, Innovation Director at NBS, part of Hubexo, explained that construction technology is evolving rapidly. New platforms, automation tools, and AI-driven workflows promise efficiency gains across design, specification, and delivery. But technology alone has limited value in construction. He said “Without well-structured, trusted technical content underpinning it, even the most sophisticated digital tools will struggle to deliver meaningful outcomes.
“For Construction Technology (ConTech) to genuinely transform the industry, it must combine capable technology with authoritative, structured data. Technology without content is constrained. Content without structure is unusable. And data without trust is risky. Dr Stephen Hamil, Innovation Director at NBS, part of Hubexo “At NBS, we have always placed the quality of technical content first. Our reputation has been built on rigour, standardisation and industry alignment. We see BIM for what it truly is: information modelling. It is not simply a 3D model created in Revit or Archicad. It is the structured, reliable exchange of product and project information throughout the building lifecycle.”
Stephen provided three examples of how they are trying to unlock this potential for construction professionals and manufacturers.
Unique identification through GS1
We have partnered with GS1 to introduce globally recognised unique identifiers into construction product information. In an industry where product naming can vary, descriptions can change, and versions evolve over time, unique IDs create clarity. They enable precise referencing across specifications, schedules, procurement systems and digital twins. The result is reduced ambiguity, improved traceability and greater confidence that the product specified is the product delivered and maintained.
Structured data aligned to standards
Working with leading gypsum board partition manufacturers, we have developed consistently structured product datasets aligned to relevant standards and classification systems. This enables transparent filtering and like-for-like comparison based on performance criteria rather than marketing language. Designers can interrogate acoustic ratings, fire performance, durability and sustainability metrics in a consistent format. Manufacturers benefit from fair comparison. Specifiers benefit from clarity. Projects benefit from informed decision-making.
Sustainability information through Eco Platform
We are now members of Eco Platform, the leading European organisation for Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). Sustainability is increasingly data-driven. But unless environmental information is structured, verified and integrated into specification workflows, it remains difficult to use effectively. By embedding structured EPD data within manufacturer product information, we enable sustainability considerations to be assessed at the point of specification – not retrospectively. Better data supports better carbon decisions across the project lifecycle.
“Rubbish in, rubbish out” has long been a criticism of BIM. Poor quality or inconsistent data inevitably leads to unreliable outputs. Our focus is to change that. By prioritising trusted, standardised and structured technical content alongside robust digital tools, we enable technology to fulfil its potential.
He concluded by saying: “In construction, transformation will not come from software alone. It will come from the combination of technology and high-quality information, working together. That is the foundation we continue to build at NBS.”
From design to build: Unlocking value with data
Design, construction, and operation are three phases currently separated. However, they should not be and do not need to be. In a time where costs have never been higher and margins thinner, it is more imperative than ever to mitigate unnecessary material waste and risk, explained Jade Cohen, Co-founder and CPO at Qflow. Jade said: “However, there is a big disconnect that still exists between the various phases of planning, through to design, and construction. This disconnect results in an average risk of over £2 million per project in the UK, due to avoidable mistakes that are happening in the materials supply chain. These mistakes could largely be prevented with access to the right information at the right time.
“As one example of technology being applied in this space, Qflow is helping to bridge the gap between “what I designed” with “what did I actually build?”. It uses AI to extract data on materials delivered and to identify risks against design requirements. The result is faster and more effective quality control during the construction phase, along with reduced material waste.
“However, the even greater value that technology such as this can provide is legal assurance. Robust data exists to prove what was delivered, when it was delivered and by whom, creating a complete audit trail of a building’s materials.”
She commented that the only way to utilise the power of AI in this way is to ensure that the data feeding it is of the highest possible quality. We are no longer talking about the quality of physical materials, but about the quality of digital information. If our digital representation of physical reality is inaccurate, then AI will produce suboptimal outputs at best, or misleading guidance at worst.
“At Qflow, we focus heavily on ensuring that the data feeding AI is as robust and accurately represented as possible. By digesting both design documentation and on-site delivery tickets, a substantial amount of data processing and enrichment is required to ensure the data is usable for further analysis.
“All of this is to say, that if access to good quality data were more readily accessible on-site, and this was housed in the right places, then there is a lot that can be unlocked when it comes to ensuring we build what we intended, rather than a slight variation of it,” said Jade. She concluded by saying: “The technology exists to support this by removing the painful data experiences away from project teams, and equipping them with the insights needed to ensure construction delivery remains on time and on budget, bringing back the potential for healthier margins and more data rich buildings.”
The invisible carbon cost of bad data
Brett King, Director of Industry Transformation EMEA at Procore Technologies, explained that in the interiors and fit-out sector, we have become very good at counting the carbon in a carpet tile. We scrutinise Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and debate circularity. That matters. But on most projects, the biggest source of environmental and financial waste is not the wrong material choice. It is rework. Brett said: “In the finishing trades, waste is rarely a failure of intent. It is a failure of information. When a ceiling is ripped out because an MEP clash was not caught, or a partition is relocated because an approval sat in a Sent folder for three weeks, we burn profit and bin carbon. Every loop of rework carries a triple penalty: financial, programme and carbon.
“FIS research highlights fragmentation in design responsibility across the finishes sector. When interiors teams sit at the end of a broken information chain, the consequences are physical. Materials are manufactured, transported and installed, only to be removed. Skilled labour is spent undoing rather than doing. Programme certainty disappears.
“Yet we rarely talk about the root cause: data friction. Construction is now a data heavy industry. Thousands of request for information, variations and inspection records are generated on every project. But for many contractors, that data is trapped in silos, spreadsheets or email chains.”
He continued by saying: “When cost control does not connect to site updates, and design revisions do not flow cleanly into procurement, teams reconcile versions instead of preventing issues. Decisions are made on partial visibility. Projects are managed reactively, not predictively. In that environment, data becomes overhead rather than insight.
“The invisible carbon cost of bad data shows up in skips, not dashboards.” Brett went onto explain that there is a lot of noise around AI driven decision making. He said: “Some see it as the answer to everything. Others roll their eyes the moment it is mentioned. The reality sits somewhere in between. The real challenge is not adopting AI. It is fixing the gap between collecting data and actually using it to make better decisions.
“The journey to being truly data driven is not about jumping to automation. It is about moving from answering “What happened?” to acting on “What should we do next?” “When firms remain stuck reporting on the past, they react after waste has already occurred. Rework is the physical symptom of that maturity gap. AI will not rescue a broken system. It is a force multiplier, not a magic wand.
“It does not fix bad data. It accelerates whatever process you already have. Feed it fragmented, inconsistent information and it will help you make expensive mistakes faster. You cannot automate a mess. “If intelligence is to play a meaningful role in interiors, the fundamentals must come first. Structured data. Clear ownership. Connected workflows.”
Commenting on the difference between a predictable project and a reactive one Brett explained that this is rarely the skill of the installers. It is the flow of information.
“When commercial control, design coordination and site execution are connected, revisions are caught earlier, approvals are tracked rather than chased, and site progress informs the commercial position in real time. The Golden Thread becomes operational control. And that is where the Green Thread of sustainability becomes measurable. “Sustainability in interiors is not a separate green initiative. It is the outcome of getting it right first time,” he said.
In conclusion, Brett said: “When data flows cleanly, rework reduces. When process is connected, productivity stabilises. When decisions happen earlier, carbon reduces by default. “Until we fix the way information flows through interiors projects, we will keep paying for sustainability twice.”
