The rise and rise in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in every part of our lives has led to questions about what it could mean for the way construction projects are planned, designed and delivered.

In this episode of The Engineers Collective NCE editor Claire Smith is joined by NCE reporter Rob Hakimian as co-host as they speak to Dev Amratia, who is co-founder and CEO of nPlan, which is a machine learning company that uses AI to learn how completed construction projects performed to forecast the outcomes on future projects. Dev also worked with the government to launch and deliver the national review on AI, which was published as part of the Industrial Strategy in 2017.

To set the scene for the conversation, Claire asked AI chatbot ChatGPT what Isambard Kingdom Brunel would have made of the use of AI in civil engineering and it responded in the form of a letter from Brunel.

While Dev said ChatGPT’s assessment of AI’s potential to advance construction was “spot on” there was still much to discuss on the topic. During the conversation Dev told Rob and Claire that AI is unlikely to replace engineers on projects, instead it will “supercharge” them and allow them to get on with the interesting bits of their work and leave the boring analysis to AI.

Dev also said that firms not engaging with AI will be left behind and gave advice for both individual engineers and firms on how to take their first steps with AI and prepare themselves for a future where AI is business as usual for the construction sector.