The article from Geo Week News outlines how Bentley Systems used its annual event to underscore the accelerating role of artificial intelligence in infrastructure sectors. Major themes included the convergence of AI, open data, and geospatial modelling as drivers in planning, constructing, and operating infrastructure. For example, one keynote showcased how AI-enabled open data streams and spatial insights are reshaping project workflows.
Industry survey findings presented at the event revealed widespread adoption of AI: engineering firms and owner-operators are deploying AI to boost productivity, reduce costs, and minimize environmental impact. Session leaders from Bentley commented that the barrier to entry for technologies such as reality capture, photogrammetry, and geospatial modelling has dropped significantly, making them normative tools rather than competitive edge extras.
Key figures from Bentley, such as Alan Esguerra, Dustin Parkman, and Patrick Cozzi, emphasized that engineers are now more willing to embrace new technologies than they were just five years ago. Esguerra noted increasing trust in methods once viewed skeptically, such as reality capture and digital twins. Parkman added that technologies such as lidar and reality-modelling are “table stakes,” now in engineering workflows. Meanwhile, Cozzi pointed out that AI is bringing down the barrier to entry and enabling a broader set of practitioners to experiment and build on infrastructure software stacks.
Bentley also used the event to launch or highlight offerings such as Infrastructure AI co-innovation, iTwin Engage, and Infrastructure Cloud Connect, platforms aimed at aligning AI, open data, and geospatial infrastructure design.
For engineering audiences, this signals a shift: technology adoption and data-centric workflows are moving from novelty to expectation. Firms must think not only about design and build but about digital tools, data-sharing, and AI-augmented operations if they want to stay current.
The Year in Infrastructure event made clear that AI is not just an add-on in infrastructure engineering; it’s rapidly becoming central to how projects are conceived, executed, and managed.