Q: When I think about the large impact AI has had on these companies I can't help but think some contrarian thoughts:
> Even if AI can replicate some of the activities of the engineering firms, there is a lot of liability on these projects they work on which require human intervention / approval / oversight
> Companies would not have the requisite engineering resources in house to verify if what the AI is doing would be safe/reliable for large construction projects
> Infrastructure as a whole will continue to be needed especially if AI growth continues which reinforces the project pipeline
> AI can be used by WSP, STN in-house to lower costs and become more efficient so they could turn around projects faster or cheaper and reduce labour on projects
> Wouldn't AI also allow them to develop more insights/data which in turn could be used to better manage projects / highlight risks or use data to better quote (which in turn reduces losses) etc
I see AI as an enabler of these companies but not necessarily replacing them - maybe on the low-end side of their business where liability/risk isn't high but on big projects you would think working with an outsource 'expert' will still be required
Am I way off in my thinking?
> Even if AI can replicate some of the activities of the engineering firms, there is a lot of liability on these projects they work on which require human intervention / approval / oversight
> Companies would not have the requisite engineering resources in house to verify if what the AI is doing would be safe/reliable for large construction projects
> Infrastructure as a whole will continue to be needed especially if AI growth continues which reinforces the project pipeline
> AI can be used by WSP, STN in-house to lower costs and become more efficient so they could turn around projects faster or cheaper and reduce labour on projects
> Wouldn't AI also allow them to develop more insights/data which in turn could be used to better manage projects / highlight risks or use data to better quote (which in turn reduces losses) etc
I see AI as an enabler of these companies but not necessarily replacing them - maybe on the low-end side of their business where liability/risk isn't high but on big projects you would think working with an outsource 'expert' will still be required
Am I way off in my thinking?
5i Research Answer:
Yes, we would agree with your thoughts. No one is going to in-house the building of a high rise through AI any time soon. You could make the argument that it gives smaller companies a bit more leverage to compete on contracts but as noted, the larger companies can also utilize it to become more cost competitive as well.