13:41, 04 January 2026

AI and Digital Twins Emerge as New Tools for Russia’s Construction Industry

Domestic advances in artificial intelligence and digital modeling are reshaping how buildings are designed and managed.

Russian construction companies are increasingly adopting advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence and digital twins. These tools are no longer limited to automating routine tasks and are becoming intelligent assistants for engineers and designers, fundamentally changing the industry. Rustam Saidov, director for digital transformation at Archplay Development, told IT-Russia.

A Living, Continuously Updated Copy

AI is already being used in Russia to automatically monitor construction sites, identifying issues such as unremoved debris or structural deviations. At the design stage, neural networks assist in building modeling through algorithms that optimize layouts, track construction regulations, calculate structural loads, heat loss, and other parameters, and detect conflicts between engineering systems at early phases of project development.

“This is high-precision assistance that dramatically shortens design timelines,” Saidov noted.

Another promising area is the development of the digital twin concept.

“Unlike a static 3D model, a twin is a living, continuously updated online copy of an asset. Every change is recorded, from facade repairs to meter replacements and capital renovation data. This makes it possible to plan a building’s life cycle with maximum efficiency and avoid situations where newly laid asphalt has to be torn up to repair utilities,” said the digital transformation director at Archplay Development.

Russian Software Gains Momentum

“After a number of foreign vendors exited the market, domestic IT companies, including those linked to universities and innovation hubs such as Skolkovo and Innopolis, have offered a wide range of competitive solutions for design, customer relationship management systems, digital twins, and smart documentation. Experts track the emergence of new products on a daily basis, pointing to the sector’s dynamic growth,” Saidov said.

The development of these technologies in Russia is contributing to global practices in smart design, which focus on data exchange between platforms, reducing dependence on monopolistic vendors, and lowering the cost of creating high-quality architecture.

Industry and import substitution