Building the AI Future with Excel: Construction’s Digital Lag Risks Derailing Global Data Center Boom

• Global investment in AI infrastructure is soaring, with governments and tech giants committing hundreds of billions.
• Yet over a quarter of construction teams worldwide still rely on outdated tools like Excel and PDFs.
• New technologies and collaborative approaches must be embraced to meet explosive demand.

JULY 8, 2025 – As AI accelerates a once-in-a-generation surge in digital infrastructure investment, the world’s construction sector is under intense pressure to keep up with data center demand. A new global whitepaper from leading integrated collaboration platform Revizto warns that delivery could fall short unless building methods evolve to match the scale, speed, and complexity required to power the AI era.

This risk is underscored by the rapid growth of the global data center market, which is projected to reach US $4 trillion by 2030. But to realize this economic potential, the construction sector must accelerate the delivery of modern digital infrastructure to meet sustained demand for AI. Currently, the construction sector is struggling to keep pace — putting both infrastructure delivery and broader economic ambitions at risk. 

Revizto’s 2025 Digital Design & Construction Report reveals that, despite significant interest in AI across the Architecture, Engineering, Construction & Operations (AECO) industry, technology adoption remains a critical barrier, with many project teams still relying on static, non-integrated tools to manage complex and fast-moving projects. This new research from Revizto found over a quarter of global AECO professionals (27%) still rely on email, spreadsheets, and PDFs as their primary digital tools. Usage of non-integrated tools is highest in France (30%), followed by Saudi Arabia (28%), the US (29%), then the UK and Germany (27%).

Revizto’s survey of over 2000 global industry leaders also found that:

• 63% of AECO professionals are closely following developments in AI and automation, with interest peaking in the US at 73%.
• For 26% of leaders, tech adoption is their top business challenge – ranking above rising costs, talent shortages, and regulatory requirements. Again, this is most acute in the US, where 33% name tech adoption as their primary concern.

The race to lead in AI is fueling a historic surge in infrastructure investment. Tech giants – including Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta – are expected to spend over $300 billion this year alone on data centers and compute power. Governments are following suit and committing billions to increasing sovereign compute capacity. Globally, annual capital expenditure on data centers is expected to surpass $1 trillion annually by 2029. 

To meet explosive demand, the digital infrastructure behind AI must be delivered faster and more efficiently. But as Revizto’s whitepaper, The Infrastructure Behind Innovation, shows, delivering at scale and pace brings intense challenges. Data center construction demands complex coordination, massive datasets, strict regulatory compliance, high-stakes communication, and tight timeframes – with some projects now moving from concept to full design in as little as ten weeks.

Without rapid change, the construction sector risks becoming the bottleneck in the global AI race. Modern methods and integrated digital tools are no longer optional – they are essential to delivering the infrastructure the world’s digital future depends on.

The global data center boom brings enormous promise, but also new levels of complexity, urgency, and risk. The construction industry can’t keep pace with demand using static tools like Excel and PDFs. If we’re serious about meeting the demands of modern data center builds, we need a fundamental shift in how we deliver the physical infrastructure that supports them.

Arman Gukasyan

Founder and CEO

Revizto