Bentley Systems, an infrastructure engineering software company, has set out a comprehensive roadmap for infrastructure-focused artificial intelligence (AI), having announced a wave of new AI-powered applications and a collaborative industry initiative during its Year in Infrastructure 2025 conference late last year.

“AI is poised to transform infrastructure,” says Nicholas Cumins, Bentley CEO. “At Bentley, our vision is for AI to empower infrastructure engineers – not replace them. Trustworthy AI, built on infrastructure context, can improve engineering productivity and transform workflows across project and asset lifecycles.”

At the Year in Infrastructure conference held in October last year, Bentley unveiled next-generation applications for substation design and construction management that accelerate the adoption of AI across project delivery. This follows OpenSite+ for civil site design, the first in a series of new AI-powered applications, which was introduced in 2024.

“We have been creating a new generation of infrastructure applications built on digital twins, powered by AI, and fully connected to Bentley Infrastructure Cloud,” says Francois Valois, Senior Vice-President, Bentley Open Applications. “They show what’s possible when AI is built for real infrastructure workflows and tailored to the needs of engineers.”

OpenUtilities Substation+ software for the design and engineering of substations.

OpenUtilities Substation+ is a new application that brings digital twin and AI-powered capabilities to substation design. In rethinking how substations can be designed collaboratively, it helps solve one of the biggest sources of frustration for designers, by allowing multiple users to work at the same time in the same model, reducing errors and rework during construction, says Bentley Systems.

OpenUtilities Substation+ is now available through an early access program.

OpenSite+, the first engineering application leveraging generative AI for civil site design, is now in limited availability. It delivers projects up to 10 times faster without sacrificing accuracy, according to the software provider.

“OpenSite+ is going to open a lot of doors for us to move faster, get better answers, and really be better engineers,” says Brianne Belschner, Model-Based Design Lead, VHB, which contributed to the development of OpenSite+ through an early access program.

As part of Bentley Infrastructure Cloud, Bentley also offers SYNCHRO+ , a next-generation, AI-powered construction application that redefines traditional 4D modelling. By shifting to a data-centric workflow, SYNCHRO+ streamlines construction planning and coordination. It integrates Cesium for rich geospatial context, and leverages AI to explore construction sequences with greater depth, speed, and actionable insights. SYNCHRO+ was slated to be available for early access from last month (December).

The new generation of data-centric applications feature Bentley Copilot, a context-aware AI assistant that guides users through workflows, surfaces relevant documents, and can make changes to models.

AI enhancements are coming to Bentley’s existing engineering applications as well, starting with OpenRoads Designer and OpenRail Designer for model-based road and rail design. A new AI agent that automates one of the most time-consuming aspects of design – annotating drawings – is now available and Bentley Copilot will be integrated into both products in early 2026.

Bentley also announced new AI-powered search capabilities in ProjectWise, part of Bentley Infrastructure Cloud, designed to significantly reduce the time users spend searching for information. With a streamlined, intuitive interface, and contextualised AI search capabilities, users receive instant, concise summaries generated by AI, without needing to open files or switch between applications. These enhancements deliver a productivity boost across the entire project workflow. ProjectWise AI capabilities is available for early access from last month, with general availability planned in 2026.

SYNCHRO+, part of Bentley Infrastructure Cloud, is a next-generation, AI-powered construction application that redefines traditional 4D modelling.

COMMITMENT TO DATA STEWARDSHIP

While ProjectWise’s new AI-powered search capabilities promise significant productivity gains, Bentley recognises that innovation must be grounded on a foundation of trust. As users rely on Bentley Infrastructure Cloud to manage their engineering files and data, Bentley remains firmly committed to data stewardship.

Cumins emphasises that respect for intellectual property is foundational to Bentley’s approach to Infrastructure AI. “Our users are in control of their data. They decide if it is used for AI training, and to what extent,” he says. “Our users’ data is their data, always.”

To uphold this principle, Bentley has implemented strict governance around AI model training. Only data that has been explicitly licensed or purchased for this purpose is used – this includes contributions from accounts that have agreed to supply data for the benefit of the broader Bentley user community. Users also have the option to fine-tune Bentley AI models with their own data, for exclusive use within their organisations.

To further support transparency, Bentley has introduced the Data Agreement Registry, an auditing system that provides visibility into how data was used to train Bentley AI models.

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF INFRASTRUCTURE WITH AI

With engineering firms increasingly looking to adopt reliable infrastructure AI applications – and to train and deploy their own AI models alongside Bentley software – Bentley provides the necessary context for trustworthy AI.

“Infrastructure engineers work in a creative profession, but one where precision is non-negotiable and consequences are real,” Cumins explains. “That’s why AI in infrastructure must be grounded in real-world context.”

Infrastructure organisations are leveraging Bentley software to ensure their AI models are informed by the right context – drawing on their past project design data in Bentley Infrastructure Cloud, subsurface insights from Seequent, and the engineering logic and physical principles embedded in Bentley Open Applications.

INFRASTRUCTURE AI CO-INNOVATION INITIATIVE

“For more than 40 years, we’ve helped infrastructure professionals and organisations become more productive through our software,” Cumins says. “We welcome the creative ways our users are already combining our applications with AI – and we believe this is just the beginning.”

To navigate this change together with users, Bentley announced the Infrastructure AI Co-Innovation Initiative to collaborate with engineering firms and asset owners on the next generation of AI-enhanced workflows. The co-innovation initiative, open to Bentley users, will examine how Bentley APIs can evolve to better support AI use cases and explore new commercial models that reflect the evolving balance between AI-driven and human-driven work. 

“This is a pivotal moment,” Cumins says. “The opportunity to shape the future of infrastructure is in front of us – and we’re incredibly excited to collaborate with our users in this new way.”