Mott MacDonald, cost consultant WT Partnership and tech firm Endeavour Programme have set up a global technology alliance to apply artificial intelligence (AI) technology to prevent time and cost overruns on major projects.
Dan Phillips, global practice lead for project, programme and commercial management at Mott MacDonald, said: “There is a huge amount of money and time invested in the delivery of major projects, and despite this, they continue to underperform, deliver less than budgeted benefits and inevitably become the focus of political and media scrutiny.
“The construction industry lags behind other industries in the use of data and adoption of AI technology will play a big part in helping us achieve better outcomes for project teams, clients and ultimately the end users who feel the effect of project delays and cost overruns the most.”
Endeavour Programme, a technology firm based in Brisbane, has developed Octant AI, a scaleable cloud-hosted system which gathers data and analyses performance to allow earlier and more effective decision-making.
The new alliance will use this technology in the design and delivery of large-scale infrastructure around the world.
David Porter, Endeavour Programme founder, said: “Large projects have become so complex with so many interdependencies and stakeholders, that managing them with traditional methods is ever more challenging. Through our alliance we’re to lead the way in adapting this new technology, and we are seeking to make a measurable change to the performance of some of our biggest projects.”
Nick Deeks, managing director of international cost management consultancy WT Partnership, said: “We know that the future of professional services for projects has to be integrated with emerging technologies such as Octant AI. Our clients want more certainty, better adaptability and the better value for money that technology can deliver. We want to be leading this field, and this is the most advanced AI technology available in the market.”
Early applications of Octant AI have been used on civil projects and for large government portfolios and the alliance plans to roll out new modules for other sectors as soon as possible.
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