Page 26 - BENTLEY SYSTEMS PR REPORT - MAY 2023

to combine and use data from disparate sources and multiple disciplines into a holistic,
dynamic representation of infrastructure projects and assets.

In addition to offering a structured way that brings siloed data together, digital twins
can unlock data from existing design files, essentially lighting up dark data.

When digital twin capabilities persist across the infrastructure project life cycle, they
create workflows that enable engineers to seamlessly conduct design reviews, structural
analysis, and calculate carbon footprints.

Digital twin workflows can help construction companies improve the accuracy of
quantity take-offs, project scheduling, and more. Just like their value in bringing data
together, infrastructure digital twins can connect processes between the different life
cycle stages of a project and asset.

As data layers are combined and processes are connected, their collective value is
compounded exponentially. It is this value that provides the foundation for quickly and
easily applying AI techniques and technologies to drive actionable insights and
infrastructure better outcomes.

Generative AI for infrastructure

Certain AI techniques and technologies are not new to the infrastructure sector. For
example, owner-operators have already started using computer vision AI techniques to
quickly find, analyse, and detect spalling, corrosion, and other defects that compromise
the integrity of bridges, dams, rail networks, and more.

However, what is new and what presents significant value to infrastructure organisations
across the project lifecycle is generative AI.

In a sector challenged by resource constraints, delays, cost overruns, and evolving
sustainability requirements, engineering and construction applications with generative
AI capabilities have the potential to automate tasks, streamline workflows, improve
project delivery, and ensure asset performance.

Generative AI technologies could give engineers the ability to collaborate with AI agents
to generate and optimise infrastructure design. It could compare designs to earlier ones
and learn from an engineer’s choices. Generative AI could help engineers and
construction managers use more sustainable building materials to reduce an asset’s
carbon footprint or calculate an infrastructure project’s embodied carbon from start to
finish.

https://www.intelligentcio.com/me/2024/05/08/can-genai-enhance-the-middle-easts-
construction-industry/