Greatest risk facing U.S. engineering firms is failure to harness value created by AI

The greatest risk facing engineering firms in the Age of AI will be failure to harness value created by the technology, according to an ACEC Research Institute report.

“Firms who thrive in the future won't be those that replace their people with technology, but those that unleash the full potential of their engineers through it,” the report contends. 

“We are entering an era of abundant intelligence, where digital labor expands what engineering firms can design, deliver, and manage,” said Mike Walsh, CEO of Tomorrow and author of the study. “The next generation of firms will be built around this reality—reimagining work, orchestrating human and machine intelligence, and creating value across the systems that shape the built environment.”

The report identifies six structural ideas organized around three themes that define the engineering firm of the future. The themes are:

Reconfiguring the Work. Engineers are evolving from producers of individual solutions into designers of intelligent systems. They are defining the objectives and constraints that guide AI tools to explore thousands of design possibilities at once.

Reinventing the Firm. Firms that put their project data to work, rather than letting it sit in archives, will build a competitive advantage that grows stronger over time. Those that don't tap into their data risk becoming dependent on outside platforms that capture that value instead. 

Redefining the Industry. Sensors, digital twins, and connected platforms are transforming physical assets into continuous sources of performance data, pulling engineering firms beyond project delivery into long-term lifecycle partnerships. And on the horizon, a new class of AI-native engineering firms is beginning to emerge, built from the ground up around digital systems rather than being retrofitted with them.