ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) DOMINATED digital topics at the AIA Conference on Architecture and Design in San Diego, which took place 10-13 June 2026 in sunny California’s most southern major city. The sheer number of digital technology providers at AIA26 was so high that even with two editors on the show floor, Architosh could not possibly get to all of them. As is typical, we tend to have scheduled meetings on expo day one with the big four (Autodesk, Trimble, Nemetschek, and Chaos) software firms, which, between them, offer more than three dozen software solutions for the AEC/O industry. Needless to say, AIA26 kept us incredibly busy as we spent two full days reviewing what was being seen by architects in North America and beyond.
Architosh BOS
This is our 12th year of judging what we saw at AIA as “BEST of SHOW.” These honors are aimed at directing our global readers’ attention to both interesting newcomer applications and critical trends that impact technology adoption. On this last note, the history of our selections for these honors is notable. Put another way, if our AIA BEST of SHOW were investment picks, Pete Evans and I would have done exceptionally well, financially.
Just a few representative examples include Gehry Technologies’ GTeam (winner in 2013), which was later acquired by Trimble and is now Trimble Connect. Then there was IrisVR (winner in 2015), which merged with The Wild and was later acquired by Autodesk. We can say similar things about some smaller companies, which, perhaps not acquired (or recently acquired), have grown into powerhouse brands in AEC.
Honors and Prizes
For this year’s announcements, we are going to jump directly into the winners and write about our award categories, criteria, and thematic issues at the end of this article. We also always publish a “Perspectives” companion feature, but last year we switched that to a recorded discussion (video). Look for a forthcoming piece.
So let’s focus on the honorees. Without further ado.
Congratulations to the 2026 Architosh AIA ‘BEST of SHOW’ honorees!
BEST of SHOW — EMERGENT TECHNOLOGY Category
Winner: SketchUp (w/ Claude integration)
Trimble SketchUp has long been the standard for easy conceptual modeling in the early stages of design. Contractors also gravitated to this platform as it offered rapid visualization, which could be used for 4D visualizations and project realization. “This year, SketchUp transforms its accessible capabilities into a built-in, real-time collaboration space for teams and clients, a cloud-connected, multi-user workflow focused on the middle of the project delivery,” says Pete Evans, AIA, senior associate editor, Architosh. “It builds on its legacy of ease-of-use with an in-app chatbot for workflow assistance that can also generate 3D objects from text prompts and images, and likewise generate photorealistic images from models and text prompts.”
More radically, it also introduced its first (Trimble-based) MCP connector, the “SketchUp Connector for Claude,” to open AI workflows more widely to vibe modeling. Pete Evans, AIA, Architosh, notes, “This multi-pronged AI approach includes a built-in intelligent core, but complements that with open, interoperable workflows and ease-of-use that SketchUp has forever been famous for by opening up and staying at the forefront of AI capabilities.” This is on top of other new features now built into the core of SketchUp, like the Analysis Hub and Lab tools, with specialized extensions such as Daylight analysis, which provides daylight metrics, illuminance data, heatmaps, and “right-of-light” submission capabilities. Live components also added more parametric-like capabilities for more powerful modeling alongside powerful cloud collaboration as part of its 2026 release. “At the heart of our decision to place this in the emergent technology winner category is the agentic AI interface with Anthropic’s Claude,” adds Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Architosh. “MCP and agentic AI workflows embedded into popular industry tools today are at the very heart of what is critically emergent in AEC tech in 2026.”
MCP and agentic AI workflows embedded into popular industry tools today are at the very heart of what is critically emergent in AEC tech in 2026.
Winner: Bluebeam Max
A mainstay in the AEC/O industry gained a new superpower thanks to agentic AI, coupled with both acquired and in-house-developed AI capabilities, in Bluebeam Max. “There are several different AI technologies in the Bluebeam Max product offering, but the Claude integration with the integral MCP server in Revu is the tech that has users exceptionally excited,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Architosh. “Bluebeam Revu workflows in AEC are naturally highly repetitive, so Claude’s ability to automate these functions is a force multiplier in efficiencies. Moreover, the Smart Review AI features are already being used by GCs to find discrepancies in drawings within a day, which typically reveal themselves slowly over many weeks or months during the construction phase. As a result, it behooves AE professionals to deploy Bluebeam Max as part of their workflow prior to releasing drawings for bid or construction, so they find these errors first.”
Criteria Notes: The novelty of MCP with AI orchestrators like Anthropic’s Claude showcases a dramatic shift in how architects can work with existing desktop-era tools like SketchUp and Bluebeam, enabling users to experience a tremendous speed-up in software workflows. AI can request specific tools or data “on-the-fly” based on evolving tasks rather than operating on a pre-defined set of constraints. Claude powers both tools, revealing just the beginning of agentic AI’s capabilities. This speaks to our emergent technology award category at multiple levels, representing both convergence and a thematic change for practice.
BEST of SHOW — INNOVATION Category
Winner: Kestrel Labs
“Kestrel Labs’ new compliance platform focused on building codes was one of AIA26 San Diego’s biggest highlights with respect to digital tools,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Architosh. “While other AI code tools exist, Kestrel’s solution puts their compliance engine directly inside the design and documentation environment, whilst also having an intelligent web-based code analysis space for its users.”
While other AI code tools exist, Kestrel’s solution puts their compliance engine directly inside the design and documentation environment, whilst also having an intelligent web-based code analysis space for its users.
An added unique feature of Kestrel’s strategy and implementation is the notion that your project’s “code work” moves with the project through different tools over different phases of the project’s lifecycle. While not all of this is available today, as Kestrel develops its solution for tools like SketchUp next and other BIMs, this unique feature will benefit its users. “Kestrel’s implementation is also particularly strong for a new application,” adds Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Architosh, “with a visually appealing GUI and brand identity that speaks to architects in a similar way that Monograph’s award-winning app does as well. “Every few years, maybe around every five, a brand new tool comes out that really has the ability to capture a critical beachhead—that Omaha Beach moment—where we just know a tool and its strategy is super strong and will have rapid success. We believe Kestrel is that,” adds Frausto-Robledo.
Criteria Notes: Innovation winners often herald “new directions” in digital technologies often solving age-old pain points. Kestrel’s AI-powered compliance platform is a rather textbook example. The quality of attack on addressing code review in practice is particularly impressive, as is its implementation at version 1.0
BEST of SHOW — BIM Category
Winner: Arcol
Arcol short-circuited development by deeply connecting to Rhino3D instead of developing its own complex geometry engine. Today, this is a live feature in Arcol’s second year at the AIA conference. (Arcol won this award last year.) Arcol embeds live Rhino3D geometry in its modeling environment, where, if changed (remotely), it is continuously updated as native Arcol geometry within the data-rich collaborative web environment. Pete Evans, AIA, Architosh says, “Adding Rhino as a live, two-way directional bridge allows a new, very strong accelerator to data-rich modeling form that is unlimited.” Another distinct area of acceleration is in its tables and boards for team members beyond presentation. Specific data tables can be “soft time-stamped” to hold a state for a specific view, but they can be updated while still connected to the underlying project data.
Adding Rhino as a live, two-way directional bridge allows a new, very strong accelerator to data-rich modeling form that is unlimited.
This provides a contractor, for instance, with a more static view of a table that doesn’t dynamically change with model updates. This table can then be updated, but this clear communication shifts from static versioning and archiving, as in today’s practice, to an Arcol project that contains a live, data-rich core and narrative from start to end for continuous updates and shared decision-making. “We also like how Arcol, as both a company and a BIM 2.0 application, is gaining traction in the market with large general contractors and real estate developers,” adds Frausto-Robledo, AIA, “as this indexes Arcol’s stated goal of creating a BIM 2.0 application for the entirety of the industry and not just architects.” Finally, the company’s goal for agentic AI “agents” operating with IP knowledge from various industry leaders working alongside human designers is a compelling future vision. “This future aspect of the app isn’t factored into our award decision,” adds Pete Evans, AIA, “but it sharpens our watch on what we believe is the market forerunner on BIM 2.0 outside of Autodesk’s own similar tools.”
Criteria Notes: While the BIM category winner can be new or old, Arcol (as a 2nd-year “Best of Show” winner) continues to rapidly expand its BIM capabilities and attack multiple pain points with its novel approach, and underpins that power with a full embrace of future agentic BIM (see notes below). Critically, this release includes Arcol’s ability to solve a critical pain point in advanced modeling integration with Rhino 3D, plus its worksheet functionality (bi-directional linking to Excel files like xRefs) to address the needs of large GCs (and we know of several as early customers), addressing longstanding cost-control issues in the AEC industry, by bringing these cost management functions up to the front of the process.
The ability to corral multiple AI agents for its early-phase design includes costing, zoning, and structural agents, with a perspective that builds on the core real-time collaborative nature of Arcol. “Intelligent by default” positions Agentic BIM as a massive shift in the Macleamy curve itself, enabling a collaborative jumpstart with buildable information in a radically shorter timeframe.
BEST of SHOW — CLOUD Category
Winner: Morpholio Trace
“Morpholio Trace has always been a special tool in the AEC universe,” says Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Architosh. “But a tight integration with this particular BIM authoring tool (Vectorworks) seems like the perfect match-up that will yield special advantages for both Vectorworks users and established Morpholio users.” While the sister brand Vectorworks acquired Morpholio, we don’t see Morpholio staying connected only to Vectorworks in the long term. “In addition to bringing the sketching-thinking process closer to an advanced BIM tool—where there are so many layers of interaction opportunities—Morpholio can serve as the ultimate first step to sketch-to AI-rendering and animation,” adds Frausto-Robledo, AIA.
In addition to bringing the sketching-thinking process closer to an advanced BIM tool—where there are so many layers of interaction opportunities—Morpholio can serve as the ultimate first step to sketch-to AI-rendering and animation.
Strategically, Morpholio Trace is a significant net benefit to the entire Nemetschek Group because sketch-to-AI visualization workflows are currently the highest accelerators in the industry. “Nothing in AEC is currently moving faster than AI-based rendering, and nothing is better to steer and control this kind of AI rendering than using a pen and digital paper,” says Frausto-Robledo, AIA. “Given that Nemetschek also owns Maxon with its rekindled interest in archviz, the next steps for where to take Morpholio Trace seem super obvious to me.”
Criteria Notes: Cloud-first and mobile-first solutions are those that drive at full utilization and maturing cloud-to-mobile or cloud-to-web tech stacks. Morpholio, with its new integrations with Vectorworks’s hybrid CAD/BIM environment, seems like it has found its ultimate dance partner. Morpholio Trace is strategically positioned to converge with AI visualization, and its underlying sketching environment is poised to drive such workflows. In the meantime, Morpholio Trace has so much to offer to the sketch-to-BIM concept at Vectorworks.
BEST of SHOW — VISUALIZATION Category
Winner: Chaos Veras
Chaos Veras 4.0 introduced a new AI rendering engine powered by Google’s Nano Banana Pro, which improved geometry fidelity, material realism, and lighting accuracy. Accuracy improvements were alongside reduced image artifacting and “AI hallucinations.” This creates better control and precision for both image generation from reference sketches or prompts, but also using a model as the underlying design to create more valid visual results. New capabilities also introduced 2D to 3D visualization with floor plans to generate spatial renderings and the ability to construct multiple perspectives from an initial view, without rebuilding geometry. Animation is also a new capability from a static image while controlling camera motion, animated entourage such as cars and people, time of day, and different weather conditions. Pete Evans, AIA, noted, “Veras is a whole new level of storytelling that invites more technically-based architects as well as non-technical designers, such as an office principal, to a new, rapid visual idea layer for interactive project visualization.
Veras is a whole new level of storytelling that invites more technically-based architects as well as non-technical designers, such as an office principal, to a new, rapid visual idea layer for interactive project visualization.
Veras radically reduces the need for a technically accurate, time-consuming 3D model during early-stage ideation. This frees up valuable resources for creative visual iteration and communication.” “The time-savings and yield advantages of AI rendering tools like Veras are major force multipliers in practice,” adds Frausto-Robledo, AIA. “While there are numerous options in the market, we see future advantages of Veras being a part of Chaos beyond just its integration with all of Chaos’ tools.”
Criteria Notes: Chaos continues to challenge and transform the way architects approach the visual landscape of architectural visualization. The release of Veras 4.0 this year presented significant and compelling materials for seeing architecture in unprecedented ways. This tool’s advancement easily meets the criteria for this category (see below), especially in implementation quality and the acceleration of solution quality.
BEST of SHOW — The Economics Prize
Winner: Chaos Veras
The Economics Prize is awarded to solutions that reflect substantial process improvements even through “creative destruction.” Chaos Veras is a leading mature AI visualization tool in the industry, Uber-izing a known process: photo-realistic 3D renderings and animations. “While Veras is a worthy winner of the Economics prize for the sheer speed-up of its abilities to produce useful visuals deployable to different purposes in the design communication process, it is also disruptive to established archviz professionals who have painstakingly developed advanced visualization and animation skillsets,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Architosh. Architects today are finding Veras a force multiplier for securing client buy-in and for design exploration prior to it. “It’s not hard to see why Veras, and tools like it, are so incredibly popular,” adds Frausto-Robledo, AIA. “They accelerate both sides of the visualization coin: the part that helps us design as architects and the part that helps us sell our ideas to our clients.”
Criteria Notes: Veras delivers sizable process improvements to a common industry deliverable: photorealistic renderings. The “Uber-ization” part of our comments relates to the accessibility of what Veras produces and the three-point superiority factors: cost, speed, and quality. The cost of final images is multiple times lower; the output speed (via the process) is multiple times faster than traditional rendering; and the quality is solid and fit for purpose.
Award Categories and Criteria
Our award categories are designed to be broad and flexible, enabling us to honorably note a product across multiple categories if warranted.
- Emergent Technology (emTech) Category Award — acknowledges industry potential for novel or bleeding-edge technology implementations that will offer “thematic” change for practice or create convergent technology paths and drive synergistic directions for the industry.
- Innovation Category Award — acknowledges the “most promising” companies and products that are heralding innovative “new directions” in AEC software or hardware technologies, as measured by: (a) implementation quality, (b) acceleration of quality of solution, (c) quality of attack on addressing “pain points” in practice, and (d) fitting convergent technology paths and driving at synergistic directions for the industry.
- BIM Category Award — acknowledges both new or mature companies and products serving the “BIM workflow” industry transformation, touching down at any segment of the MacLeamy Curve where value gets added, as measured by: (a) implementation quality, (b) acceleration of quality of solution, (c) quality of attack on addressing “pain points” in BIM workflows, (d) adoption, extension and commitment to Open BIM philosophies so that data and toolchains are social and democratized to their fullest extent, and (e) fitting convergent technology paths and driving at synergistic directions for the industry.
- Cloud Category Award — acknowledges technology solutions (software or hardware) driving at full utilization of synergistic and maturing “cloud-to-mobile,” “mobile-to-cloud,” and “cloud-to-web” technology stacks, exhibited or seen at the AIA convention, as measured by: (a) implementation quality and novelty, (b) acceleration of quality of solution, (c) quality of attack on addressing pain-points in AEC, and (d) fitting convergent technology paths and driving at synergistic directions for the industry.
- Visualization Category Award — acknowledges the “most compelling visualization solutions” and technologies that are “transforming the architect’s workflow,” heralding new ways of seeing architecture for all stakeholders and not just clients, accelerating design optioneering, material, and light discovery, design problem solving, and design collaboration, as measured by: (a) implementation quality, (b) acceleration of quality of solution, including rendering speeds and image qualities, (c) quality of attack at addressing “pain points” in practice, and (d) fitting convergent technology paths and addressing synergist directions in the industry.
- The Economics Prize — reflecting an important shift within the architectural industry to acknowledge the extent of poor economics for architects and a newfound demand for better working conditions and pay, the Economics Prize is awarded to digital technology that shines in the direction of better economics for architects, as measured by: (a) sizeable process improvements to common industry deliverables via creative disruption (ie, Uber-ize a known process), (b) notable value disruption by a vendor via license cost comparison without “bundling,” (c) notable outsized release update delivering exceptional value increase for users, and finally (d) performance capture due to innovative, leading-edge software or hardware solutions.
Congratulations to the 2026 Architosh AIA ‘BEST of SHOW’ honorees listed below.
