--- title: Why construction is still the second-least-digitized industry, and what it costs — QuoteToMe description: Almost every other sector reinvented its back office a decade ago. Construction is still running on spreadsheets, paper, and phone calls. The gap is an opportunity. url: https://quotetome.com/blog/digitization-gap markdown_url: https://quotetome.com/blog/digitization-gap.md image: https://quotetome.com/qtm/assets/site-cta.png author: QuoteToMe published: June 2026 tag: Industry read_time: 5 min --- # Why construction is still the second-least-digitized industry, and what it costs — QuoteToMe Almost every other sector reinvented its back office a decade ago. Construction is still running on spreadsheets, paper, and phone calls. The gap is an opportunity. [Blog](/blog) / Industry # Why construction is still the second-least-digitized industry, and what it costs Almost every other sector reinvented its back office a decade ago. Construction is still running on spreadsheets, paper, and phone calls. The gap is an opportunity. John Chabluk | June 2026 | 5 min read Construction builds the physical world, but it runs on some of the least digital back-office processes of any major industry. Study after study ranks it near the very bottom for technology adoption, second only to agriculture, while finance, retail, manufacturing, and logistics digitized their core operations years ago. The result is a daily reality most contractors know well: procurement by text message, approvals by paper, receiving reconstructed at month-end, and committed cost that nobody can see until the invoices land. > Construction builds our communities, but the people doing the building haven’t always had tools that match the pace of the work.John Chabluk, Founder & CEO, QuoteToMe ## Why the gap exists The reasons are real. Every project is different. Margins are thin, so big software bets feel risky. Crews are mobile and often offline. And the tools that did exist were built for accountants, not for the people in the field actually spending the money. Most material spend still starts with a call, a text, or a paper book. ## What the gap actually costs Low digitization isn’t just inconvenient, it’s expensive. When procurement lives in people’s heads and inboxes, orders go out without competitive quotes, rates aren’t enforced, and there’s no clean record to learn from. The cumulative impact of that inefficiency is significant. 2nd least-digitized major industry 40–50% of project cost flowing through manual procurement 10–30% savings left on the table without competitive quoting ## The opportunity hiding in the gap Being behind has an upside: the gains from getting it right are enormous and immediate. Contractors who put a real system around procurement don’t just save admin time, they recover margin on every order, gain real-time visibility into committed cost, and build an audit trail that makes financing, bonding, and growth easier. - Competitive quoting on every order, not just the big ones - Approvals and audit trail in one place instead of scattered inboxes - Committed cost visible in real time, before the invoice - Field-to-finance data that flows automatically into your books ## Closing the gap doesn’t mean a six-month project The myth that construction tech means a painful, year-long implementation is exactly why so many teams stayed on paper. Modern, AI-native tools connect to the systems you already run and get a team live in under an hour. The industry’s digital catch-up is finally something you can start this week. Sources & further reading Industry research informing this article. Figures are paraphrased from each publisher's findings. - 01[McKinsey Global Institute — _Reinventing Construction: A Route to Higher Productivity_](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/reinventing-construction-through-a-productivity-revolution) (2017). Construction labor productivity grew ~1%/yr over two decades versus 2.8% for the world economy and 3.6% in manufacturing; underinvestment in digitization is a named root cause. - 02[McKinsey & Company — _The Next Normal in Construction_](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/the-next-normal-in-construction-how-disruption-is-reshaping-the-worlds-largest-ecosystem) (2020). How digital disruption is reshaping the world's largest ecosystem. - 03[Autodesk & FMI — _Harnessing the Data Advantage in Construction_](https://construction.autodesk.com/resources/fmi-construction-data-report/) (2021). Estimates "bad data" may have cost the global construction industry roughly $1.85 trillion in 2020. - 04[JBKnowledge — _Construction Technology Report_](https://jbknowledge.com/) (annual). Industry benchmark of software adoption and where firms still rely on spreadsheets and paper. ### Gain control, visibility & confidence over your spend. See QuoteToMe on your own orders. Live in under an hour, no credit card to start. [Book a demo](/book-a-demo) Keep reading [WorkforceThe aging construction workforce, and the knowledge walking out the door](/blog/aging-workforce)[The FutureThe next generation of contractors expects construction to work like an app](/blog/next-generation-tech)