If you’re feeling like construction projects are getting more complicated, it’s not just your imagination.
“It seems there’s changes every month, globally, that influence projects as they go forward. From tariffs going back and forth that provide uncertainty in delivery, to other global events that impact supply chains,” said Mike Delowery, Senior VP of Generation Construction at Nisource, a major US natural gas and electric utility provider.
On top of added complexity, the size and number of projects that teams manage are also increasing.
According to the new 2026 Capital Program Maturity Report from Kahua and independent research firm Verdantix, 94% of organizations are managing six or more projects at once, and 62% oversee more than $500 million in annual construction value.
Which means you aren’t just managing individual projects anymore.
You’re managing a new dimension of complex programs. The problem is that standard project management processes don’t work at scale.
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You’re not managing projects anymore.
Rising costs and schedule issues are the biggest problems that leaders face today—42% say it’s the highest priority. Almost one-third of respondents manage over $1 billion in construction value annually, so there’s a lot of pressure to keep up.
The research found:
- 94% of respondents oversee six or more projects at once.
- 10% oversee more than 100 active projects.
- 62% manage more than $500 million in annual construction value.
“94% of respondents oversee 6+ projects at once. 10% oversee 100+ active projects. ”
Capital programs have grown into entire portfolios of assets with large financial scales and stakes.
“We are not managing projects anymore. We are managing interconnected systems that affect operations for decades,” said an Assistant VP of Facilities Services at a U.S. university.
In addition to cost and schedule pressures, other top concerns in the report include:
- regulatory, sustainability, and reporting requirements (26%)
- workforce shortages and skills gaps (20%)
- and fragmented systems and disconnected data (6%)
- security and supply-chain disruption
Systems haven’t kept pace with the scale of portfolios.
System fragmentation is the root cause of most of the challenges faced by capital program leaders, even as most projects these days are managed digitally.
Just because project processes and data are in the cloud doesn’t mean that data can be used to full advantage. As Kahua’s Chief Evangelist Nicholas Johnson puts it: “It’s not paper anymore, but it might as well be. It’s 100,000 PDFs and 1,000 spreadsheets on a thumb drive.”
In the 2026 Capital Program Maturity Report, almost 90% of organizations reported significant difficulty integrating their existing systems and data environments, while only 4% said their systems were fully connected.
Fragmentation causes the traditional problems of duplicate data entry, manual reporting, version control, and making portfolio decisions slower and less dependable.
“It’s not just paper anymore, but it might as well be. It’s 100,000 PDFs and 1,000 spreadsheets on a thumb drive.” ”
Delowery agrees. “It’s a need for speed from our large customers,” he said, especially in the data center sector. “That’s a pretty significant change from what we’ve seen develop over the past year. And that’s compounding. We’re not the only ones seeing it. It’s industry wide.”
“People making decisions on capital planning don’t understand how infrastructure integrates into the business or how vital it is,” said a director of facilities. “That has really slowed down capital allocation.”
In the new reality of large-scale portfolio complexity, disconnected systems also block capital program leaders from making strategic, portfolio-wide decisions—and it prevents them from using AI to do it.
Introducing a new maturity model for capital organizations
Every part of construction project management has been influenced by digital transformation. But digitization isn’t enough to see and understand growing portfolio scope.
“30% of organizations still use spreadsheets and email for key processes, including risk management, procurement, and scheduling. ”
The Intelligent Capital Program Maturity Model is a clear way to identify where your organization is currently:
- Manual: Processes rely on disconnected manual tools, like spreadsheets and email, creating fragmented information flows and limiting visibility.
- Digitized: Individual processes are digitized, but data remains siloed across disconnected tools.
- Connected: Systems, data, and workflows are integrated, creating a shared operational view across functions.
- Intelligent: Trusted, connected data enables AI-powered insights, predictions and recommendations that support proactive decision-making, automation and continuous performance improvement.
Is your program mature enough to take advantage of AI?
If you’re like a lot of capital program leaders, you’re under pressure to demonstrate progress using AI.
But the research shows that AI adoption is increasing while measurable value is not.
The report found that 84% of organizations are using general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude. However, public LLMs don’t have the organizational context or access to data to be useful: only 8% of organizations report seeing significant value from AI.
“AI in construction is moving towards unified enterprise platforms, where automation and agent-based capabilities are directly embedded into core workflows,” said Sophie Planken-Bichler, Industry Analyst at Verdantix. “Without robust data governance and strong data foundations, AI risks amplifying fragmentation rather than reducing it.
Organizations who want the full benefit of AI have connected systems. Several leaders said their goal was to use AI to strengthen core processes, such as going from maintenance analytics to reporting and version control, instead of using AI as a standalone capability.
AI will increasingly support scenario-based planning, early risk detection, and portfolio-level optimization, but its impact will depend on the quality of the underlying system of record.
Your data is digital. Now what?
A digital format or workflow can still leave information disconnected from the rest of the program. How are you guaranteeing that an update shared over email is documented in the right place? Is everyone working from the same shared spreadsheet?
It was a top concern in the research.
If your organization is in the Digitized but not fully Connected phase of maturity, like many other capital programs, what would it take to reach full maturity? How can technology like artificial intelligence (AI) get you there?
The next step is to connect the systems and data behind those digital processes. Many organizations are doing just that: 98% have prioritized reducing disconnected systems and improving integration, while 58% were consolidating the number of systems they use. That connected, trusted data gives AI the context it needs.
“The next phase of innovation will be defined less by individual AI features and more by how effectively intelligence is embedded into day-to-day capital program execution,” says Planken-Bichler.
How will your organization get to the next step?
FAQ
Q: What are the levels of digital maturity in capital programs?
A: Kahua’s 2026 Capital Program Maturity Report outlines four levels of digital maturity for organizations who manage capital programs, describing how well an organization’s systems and data work together.
- Manual: Teams rely on disconnected tools such as spreadsheets and email. Information is scattered, so it’s difficult to get a clear view of what’s happening.
- Digitized: Teams use digital tools for individual processes, but those tools don’t share information. Work has moved online, but data is still siloed.
- Connected: Systems, data, and workflows are integrated. Cross-functional teams can work from a shared view of the program.
- Intelligent: Trusted, connected data can support AI-powered insights and recommendations, helping teams spot issues earlier, automate work, and improve performance over time.
Q: What’s the difference between construction project management and capital program management?
A: Project management focuses on delivering individual projects. That means coordinating its scope, schedule, budget, teams, and day-to-day decisions.
Capital program management takes a wider view. It looks at how multiple projects fit together, compete for resources, and support the organization’s goals. Leaders need to see more than the status of each job. They also need to understand dependencies, compare risks and costs across projects, and decide where to focus next.
Q: Do AI tools actually add value when managing capital programs?
A: AI tools can add value, but using AI doesn’t guarantee measurable value. Research shows that 84% of organizations are using general-purpose AI tools, but only 8% reported significant measurable value from them.
Why? AI inherits the environment around it. Using separate AI tools only adds to the disconnected systems and data accuracy issues that organizations are facing. Only 16% of capital program leaders are very confident in the timeliness and accuracy of their project and portfolio data. Without that, AI can’t close the gap.
Additionally, generic, public-use tools like ChatGPT or Claude don’t have nuanced industry context or historical data from past projects, which creates distrust in AI answers. In fact, 40% of capital program leaders have difficulty trusting or validating AI outputs.
When organizations invest in a system of record for their capital program management, it creates a trustworthy data foundation. Then, AI embedded inside that system shares the same context and adds measurable value that teams can trust.