THE AI INTERVIEW
“ For an engineer, it’ s very useful to be able to use a team of AI agents”
Julien Moutte CTO Bentley Systems
Bentley’ s Synchro software, used for construction scheduling and planning, has been deployed on expansion and refurbishment projects there. The tool allows engineers to attach detailed schedules to a 3D model of the construction work, so that every task is planned in sequence.
The latest version, Synchro Plus, brings AI into that process. The software can automatically assign tasks to a logical order and recalculate the entire programme in real time when circumstances change.
Julian adds:“ When something changes, AI is able to recompute the schedule taking into account parameters like the weather forecast, which has a big impact on pouring concrete.”
Giving AI an engineering licence The phrase Julien uses for Bentley’ s approach to AI-generated design is striking:“ giving an engineering licence to AI”.
What he means here is that AI outputs should be validated by the same proven engineering tools that human professionals rely on.
“ When an engineer needs to validate their work, they run a structural analysis with tools that have been proven in the market as reliable,” he explains.“ Our approach is to team up those tools with AI agents, which allows us to give an engineering licence to AI so that it can help engineers by running alternatives and validations of a design.”
This matters because engineers are professionally accountable for the designs they sign off.
“ Nobody wants to sign their name on a design if they’ ve not been able to verify what was generated is not going to put people in danger,” Julien says.
In other words, while the AI is a capable assistant, the engineer remains the responsible professional.
AI becomes the orchestrator Bentley’ s portfolio spans structural analysis, geotechnical modelling and evacuation simulations. An AI agent can draw on all of these simultaneously, running checks across multiple engineering domains in parallel.
Julian expands:“ For an engineer, it’ s very useful to be able to use a team of AI agents that can access the context about the project and turn design intent into AI recommendations – but with all of this validated so that the engineer can feel confident they were in control.” aimagazine. com 25