Buildwise is the innovation centre for the Belgian construction sector. Founded in 1959 and funded by the 120,000+ companies that are its statutory members, most of them small firms, it runs the technical research, testing and guidance that contractors, roofers, glaziers and installers rely on every day. Around 320 people work there, including some 180 researchers across 17 research units.
From October 2026, Faktion works alongside Buildwise on a AI capability partnership.
With the main goal of carrying the AI methods that work in one research unit to the next, and from there into the guidance Buildwise publishes for the sector.
The AI foundation was already in place
Before the partnership started, Buildwise had its own AI strategy, an onboarding programme and a running foundation track. Researchers were already working with coding assistants such as Codex, Cursor, Windsurf and VS Code Copilot, alongside local and API-based models where the research called for it. The foundation was in place, the open question was what comes after it.
17 research units, each with its own AI question
Once people have the tools and the permission to use them, everyday use spreads by itself. The foundation track proved that. Nevertheless advanced use asks for a more custom approach, because the question inside one research unit rarely looks like the question inside the next.
With 17 units, the breadth of Buildwise's research calls for more than one flagship pilot. Each unit needs its own answer, and a method that works in one unit becomes more valuable once somebody close enough to both units takes it to the next.
An AI expert embedded in Buildwise's research units
One of Faktion's AI solutions consultants is Buildwise's embedded senior AI expert for this programme.
The foundation and advanced tracks run as one programme rather than two separate efforts. The programme runs on three recurring activities:
- Work-based coaching: researchers bring real work in progress, one to two sessions a month per unit, five to eight people at a time.
- Champion deep dives: a monthly session with Buildwise's champions and power users, on topics such as prompt chaining, building a Copilot Studio agent or connecting a SharePoint source to an agent.
- AI Use case sprints: two to three sessions across two weeks that turn one recurring question into a working, documented deliverable for a unit.
The champions then validate what works across units, so a method reaches the next research team through people who have used it, not through a message from a central team.
Built and owned inside Buildwise
A researcher raises something during coaching, the champions pick it up, a sprint builds it. Because all three activities run on one monthly rhythm inside one engagement, that path takes weeks rather than a new project and a new procurement round.
Everything produced stays in Buildwise's own environment from day one. Workflows, prompt packs, agents and documentation are built inside Buildwise's environment and its AI knowledge base, and the intellectual property developed during the engagement belongs to Buildwise.
When a sprint produces something worth running in production, Faktion's engineering, architecture and evaluation specialists join the same engagement rather than a separate delivery team picking it up.
This is what Faktion's AI Capabilities as a Service stands for: one embedded expert as the fixed point of contact, with the wider AI Product Studio behind her when a use case gets technical.
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