The cyber threat landscape is escalating at an unprecedented rate: according to the latest status report from the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), an average of 119 new vulnerabilities in IT systems were recently identified worldwide every day – a 24 % increase compared to the previous year. AI-supported attack methods further shorten the time between a vulnerability being discovered and its exploitation. For businesses, this means the question is not whether an incident will occur, but when – and, whether they will still be able to act.

German companies often consider themselves digitally sovereign, but in most cases they are not. This misperception is particularly evident among companies in the manufacturing and business services sectors. However, there is certainly a willingness to invest more in their own independence, and this varies greatly depending on the sector. Whilst construction firms would, on average, accept a premium of up to 26 per cent for such solutions, the figure for financial services providers is just 8 per cent. By contrast, sectors with the greatest need to catch up rank only mid-table.

The construction industry is at a turning point. Fragmented siloed solutions, manual handover processes and a lack of data consistency are holding projects back. This costs clients, contractors and design firms alike both time and money – and robs them of the necessary transparency. What is missing is a seamless digital construction process, embedded in a robust, secure and AI-enabled IT landscape. Construction software specialist levelbuild AG and IT service provider adesso SE aim to address precisely this issue through their strategic partnership.

According to the GenAI Impact Study by adesso, 41 % of companies surveyed are currently only exploring the basic applications of AI agents, and just under 31 % are already using them productively. This might sound like cause for optimism, but it primarily reflects a mood of hesitation.