RS&H AEC Perspectives: Humans and AI Collaboration
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Jessica: Jess, I think I broke a sweat listening to you that, all of that. That's pretty that's
Jess: I feel like a lot of those things are in research today. and just moving it forward it, you know, it takes a lot of adoption and a lot of processes there. Of course, the human is still there, but yeah
Rachel: I just wanna say if there was aaspiring sci-fi writer out there, they should be listening to the last, like, five minutes of this episode 'cause there are all your ideas, and you should credit Jess with all of them.
Rachel: Welcome back to a new episode of AEC Perspectives, brought to you by RS&H. Hi, everyone, I'm your host Rachel Moore, and I'm excited to tell you about today's episode, where we have not one but two experts to tell us where judgment meets machine. It's not a riff off a very well-known film franchise.
Rachel: We're actually talking about the industry here. RS&H's playbook for digital transformation, okay? So [00:01:00] here's what we're gonna do in today's episode. We're gonna bring two of RS&H's digital innovation leaders to the microphone for an honest, forward-looking conversation about how technology advances are reshaping the architecture, engineering, and construction industry.
Rachel: Our two guests are going to share how RS&H is putting technology like AI, yes, we said it, to work across the full project life cycle and build into business ecosystems, not as a trend to chase, but as a deliberate capability tied directly to the firm's strategic plan that's focused on continuing to strengthen the firm for its employee owners.
Rachel: Again, wonderful aspect of RS&H we always love to shout about. The through line of today's discussion is gonna be pretty simple and candid, which is why we have our two guests on. Technology serves people, not the other way around, and our two guests are gonna make that case that the firms pulling ahead are the ones who are building capacity thoughtfully, governing responsibly, and investing in the human judgment that makes technology [00:02:00] advances genuinely useful for clients and associates.
Rachel: So that was a mouthful, but just wait, there's more. We're gonna have way more words coming your way about all this. A quick note, though. If you're thinking right now, "Who should I share this episode with?" I'm about to tell you. AEC professionals that's engineers, architects, designers. If any of you are curious about AI adoption, this is the episode for you.
Rachel: Also, owners and clients state departments of transportation municipalities, airport authorities. If you're all weighing what digital transformation means for your projects, you wanna listen to this, and industry leaders and decision-makers that are shaping technology strategy or trying your best to.
Rachel: And of course, prospective talent exploring where the profession is headed.
Rachel: Amazingly, applicants into the AEC industry kind of care that you know what's next, and so they'll see that as an additive. So what are we gonna accomplish today? We're translating all of this for you into tangible client and project benefits, okay? We're gonna position RS&H as a trusted, credible voice on [00:03:00] responsible digital delivery and AI in AEC.
Rachel: I'm excited to welcome Jessica Chambers to the podcast. Jessica is the vice president of digital technologies and solutions at RS&H, and she brings 20 years of experience leading digital transformation across the AEC industry.
Rachel: Along the way, she's built innovative digital service lines and pioneered digital twin solutions that have opened new capabilities and delivered real value for clients. She's thoughtful, as you're about to experience, forward-looking, and never shies about tackling the hard questions. We'll see if we have any hard questions for her for this episode.
Rachel: Jessica, welcome to the podcast.
Jessica: Thanks for having me, Rachel, and you're absolutely right. I love a hard question
Rachel: Ooh, we're gonna try today. All right, and then next up I have Jess Banker. Jess is director of digital solutions at RS&H, where she leads digital innovation for our clients with a focus on AI and machine learning strategy and business development, as well as internal capability building across market sectors.
Rachel: She brings 25 years of technical [00:04:00] experience in systems engineering work spanning working with private and public industry. Jess, thanks for joining us as well on the podcast.
Jess: Thank you. It's good to be here.
Rachel: Yes, ma'am. I'm excited to have both of you here. I'm gonna bring this first question first to you, Jessica, and then Jess, you can round up too with your answer, but let's go. The AEC industry has traditionally competed on relationships and expertise. Your positions are that technological advances now allow firms to compete on speed and margins as well.
Rachel: I would love you each, Jessica first walk us through where that plays out across a project's life from generative design to risk monitoring to computer vision in the field. What does it mean for the clients relying on us? Jessica, to you first
Jessica: Yeah, I think first of all, like, you know, the the relationships and expertise are always going to be our central to our value that we bring to our clients. And where we can offer value is through these emerging technologies across the project life cycle. So [00:05:00] whether we are doing our transportation planning or we are delivering you know, the final construction and commissioning handover to a client, each and every step of that way we will find ways to deliver more value to our clients.
Jessica: But without relationships, without trust, that isn't going to really occur. So, our understanding of our clients, our understanding of our expertise in our specific domains is really gonna be where we can begin to harness the value proposition for this automation across the project life cycle here.
Jessica: You know, even pre-contract, so understanding our client, understanding the industry using these tools to automate and collect research and understanding our past projects creating the best proposal possible for a particular value proposition for a client.
Jessica: So even before the client even sees what we're producing, we're already leveraging a lot of automation to gain better insights and to put our best foot forward. Additional value that we present there is through automation tasks in the planning phase. [00:06:00] This could be digital data collection with respect to you know, facilitating drone imagery or creating digital models that we use as foundations for different scenarios to offer our clients.
Jessica: So, all the way through to like a computer vision if we're doing a bridge inspection or if we are doing a facilities conditions assessment, you know, what defects can we integrate and automate into our workflows to provide great insights faster to our clients? Every step of the way across that, that project we're thinking of different ways to implement these technologies to deliver better outcomes, not only for ourselves, because it scratches an itch for me for sure, but also across our you know, the value proposition for what our clients need.
Rachel: Absolutely. Well start to finish makes a lot of sense, especially if you're trying to incorporate all of these things throughout the life cycle of a project.
Rachel: Jess, I wanna bring this next the same question rather over to you. And just a quick quick footnote everybody as is what happens with anybody who lives anywhere on the planet, weather happens. So if you happen to [00:07:00] hear any like rain and thunder that's probably happening in Jess'.
Rachel: It could happen in all of us. So we're just gonna keep trucking and that's why we are resilient in recording these podcasts anyway, because the, the expertise stands forth above all the weather. But Jess, with that, over to you. What else about you know, incorporating AI and technology through the life cycle, and how does that kinda, you know, support that relationship and expertise capital that we have with clients, and what are your thoughts there?
Jess: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I, I think Jessica said it well. I think expanding on that perspective is mainly what I've been seeing is that technology is fundamentally shifting the composition of what our day-to-day looks like in terms of engineering work. I mean, technology really, all work t- depends on technology, and we've been using technology for a while, but what's happening, the shift is it's different.
Jess: It's more than that. Like take a transportation planner, for example. They might run, like, hundreds of travel demand simulations or [00:08:00] traffic simulations and then have to sit there and comb through thousands of pages of reports and you know, environmental studies and things like that. We can now train a large language model to parse through that data within a few minutes.
Jess: And so, that now changes the dynamics because we're taking what used to take several days to hours to now down to several minutes. And so, similarly with the roadway engineer, you know, who they're comparing y- you know, survey data, they're researching utility conflicts, they're mining geospatial information and looking for, like, constraints on roadways.
Jess: This is also all about collecting, harvesting, parsing through information, searching, finding and things like that. The construction manager, they're always looking at they're reviewing schedules, they're looking at inspection reports and they're really just trying to understand, "Is my project on schedule?
Jess: Is there any identified issues that present risks to my cost, to my [00:09:00] schedule?" And so, most of this work, it's manual, it's lengthy, it's tough. And so these newer technologies, mainly the large language models for the examples that I just gave, they're alongside embedded AI in some of the native tools that we're using that we're now starting to see you know, allows the engineers to shift that work from managing information, searching and finding, to now you know, validating the outputs you know, evaluating the alternatives and coordinating across the different disciplines at those handoff points.
Jess: And so, applying engineering judgment. So fundamentally we see that shift as a result of that, we're seeing engineers produce a lot more work in a short period of time, and I think a lot of that is due to the democratization of specific roles and activities that once required these specialized skills.
Jess: You know, now we-- they're enabled through technology. So, you know, software development can be done through you know, [00:10:00] these, these tools. Even developing, even kinda like marketing can be done design, data administration. We can engage with data in a natural conversation now, whereas before, it took specialized data management skills to do.
Jess: And I think information and systems are now being connected in different ways that enables a reduction in the technical cost of what it takes to run an organization. And from a business perspective, that's really where speed and margin come through.
Rachel: Yeah. Oh I'm sure anyone listening, I- we mentioned up front, like, who this is for, and, you know, maybe they're, like we said, they're kind of on the cusp of understanding how this technology can help them. Both of you just really painted a very clear picture about not just how it helps specific roles, but also the client project overall which is amazing.
Rachel: And you did what I'm about to do. You segued perfectly because I was about to say several times in a row, it's almost like we're summoning it. AI, AI, AI. Oh my gosh, everywhere we're turning, y'all, everyone is talking about AI. But it's [00:11:00] not the only technology advancement in the field these days.
Rachel: I know it's hard to believe 'cause it's literally all anything anyone's talking about, but it's not the only one. And that's why I'm glad you all are here on the episode here because I wanna hear from you. And Jess, I'll take this question to you first and then to Jessica. What are those other new advancements that are out there, and how are those impacting the AEC industry?
Rachel: 'Cause yes, we could focus all day on AI, but what else is there?
Jess: Yeah. I think maybe to address the AI piece first, I just kind of, felt it necessary to comment that it's not just about an AI tool. AI is truly becoming more like a non-negotiable part of our infrastructure, of our digital infrastructure, for many reasons. And because of that, just making sure that you have the right ontology of instruments that will enable the business to deliver that digital capability.
Jess: That's- Yeah ... I mean, understanding what the right tools are to enable citizen development and how we govern that and invest in it and and how we [00:12:00] use those, those tools. You know, for example, what mix of tools is gonna enable us to operate at the speed of mission need. But what we're seeing in industry really is that the craft of architecting and engineering and then managing that construction projects, they're becoming more computational. So through the use of the tools you know, we can evaluate more alternatives, and we had already mentioned generative design, and we can understand what the trade-offs are earlier so that we can make better decisions.
Jess: Of course we already mentioned connectedness, like system connectedness, but information itself is being digitized. BIM is a good example of that, you know. So instead of you know, information living inside the drawings or on paper and managing information on those piece of paper, we are you know, that information is now being structured in ways that software can understand it, and then we can build these processes around it to identify where does you know, the occlusions occu- occur or [00:13:00] objects clash and automate some of that work.
Jess: And I would say deliverables also are moving from document deliverables to model deliverables. So these are 2D, 3D, 4D models that continue creating value beyond just the design phase or the construction or the commissioning phase. It moves us- moves into operations and maintenance as well. And that's when our digital twins become so powerful because of that engineering information,
Rachel: Yeah, you just highlighted several things too. I mean, as you mentioned, it's not just AI. Technology s- supports us in so many ways. You know, and even to the point where we're able to have this conversation across, you know, different geographies and stuff.
Rachel: but this is all such great... I really appreciate you sharing this expertise too, because it is just really painting the picture of what's possible, particularly for any firms out there who may not have tapped into all this.
Rachel: Jess, I wanna take this also the same question to you. What are your perspectives on like the other technologies? Yes, AI, but also what else is available out there that RS&H is taking advantage of, but also your clients [00:14:00] and other people in these projects need to be using?
Jessica: Yeah, certainly. And in the field is an area I wanna focus on too. So, you know, our firm typically lives in the space of design and engineering, and all pre-construction, and all of this stuff that needs to happen before we get out into the field. But all of the technology advancements that are happening in the field as well, right?
Jessica: Robotics and supply chain, and all of these elements that are influencing how we actually do the building of our infrastructure and our buildings itself is also changing and shifting. What's foundational to all of it is data, and how to get data extracted from one place to another into the hands of somebody who needs to make a decision.
Jessica: That is the thread that ties all of this together. So, you know, even if we have robots building bridges, or we have 3D printing happening with our buildings the information needs to get from you know, planning to office and engineering, to a [00:15:00] machine, guide that machine, and then bring back any potential issues or obstructions that has on, in the field.
Jessica: Some of the really exciting things that I've seen in the field that, that make me think differently is what happens, you know, when a construction site is shut down through the ability of, you know, visualization and data capture on the backs of robots, and really instructing the agents how to move things around a construction site.
Jessica: Where that information is sourced from how it gets reported back for progress and reporting is really essential for us to start thinking about. I think some other underlying technologies that enable all of that too are computing power, and edge technology, and things like Starlink that have made maybe some more remote areas a bit more accessible to leverage these technologies.
Jessica: So I think we'll see a lot of scalability on the construction site and in the field itself. we have done some really extensive emergency management you know, data collection following storms and really you know, [00:16:00] some detrimental natural disasters where we leverage some tools like drones and digital terrain modeling and rapid assessment from field to office where, you know, some of our infrastructure wasn't enabling that.
Jessica: So this edge computing functionality, I think is really empowering us to apply these tools in places where they haven't been able to be applied before. You know, those they bring a lot of value to our clients, they bring a lot of value to ourselves, but I think most importantly, they bring a lot of value to the communities that they're servicing and why we build our infrastructure.
Jessica: So, really excited about the entire landscape of all of that. As Jess mentioned we need an AI ontology to apply across the board here. And we need clean data data schemas and data integrations and platform integrations in order to ensure all of this is done seamlessly
Rachel: Well, it's, it's pretty evident why RS&H has both of you. You obviously have very crucial perspectives and expertise to bring to the fore of what is, you know, [00:17:00] happening with everybody incorporating technology. And I wanna give a quick call-out, too. If anyone missed, we have another episode on drone inspections and using drone inspections drones in inspecting bridges.
Rachel: Yet another example of technology really upping the game out in the field and making jobs easier a little bit and, you know, accomplishing stuff and has that impact. And so, so wonderful. I love that you brought up the field. I love... Yes, and thank you so much bringing up, like, how we're looking at AI and all these things and the democratization and everything like that.
Rachel: Say that three times fast. It's not easy, but it's important. Well, and I wanna, get into, you talked about scale. let's double-click into that a little bit. I wanna help our audience understand that, particularly the phrase "test then scale," that approach to technology within RS&H.
Rachel: I don't know, how do you decide which use cases are worth solving, and how does governance keep that work responsible when you're talking about testing then scaling?
Jess: That's right. I like to think of it that the objective is not just about implementing and then testing and scaling. It's really about [00:18:00] building enterprise capabilities. So with that, we have to think about, you know, where do we ground our decisions in? And I think it all starts with anchoring that into real problems.
Jess: And then of course frameworks, prototypes, processes for assurance, transition, and execution. These all are a really vital pieces to that life cycle there. So, you know, grounding everything first into an engineering problem and understand who exactly has that problem, how they're affected with that problem.
Jess: You know, a day in the life of the person who has that problem before we even talk about any technology. We spend some time understanding that workflow, what that looks like where they're spending their time- Yeah ... where you know, what's creating friction for them at the end of the day, what's the ideal outcome that they're trying to improve on.
Jess: You know, so understanding that bridge engineer or the project manager or the construction inspector, and what keeps them up at night. And then we determine that the right technical approach, sometimes it's AI, [00:19:00] sometimes it's automation, sometimes it's just better data integration or connected systems or just a little bit of analytics.
Jess: I, I think technology really needs to follow the workflow. And so, pr- I will mention one of the things that we've seen is that prototyping has now moved to the kind of the front of that life cycle because once upon a time, it took a lot of resources, and it, sometimes it could take several years, a couple of months to several years to do a feasibility you know, analysis or assessment.
Jess: But now we can-- Some of these tools are enabling quick prototyping for some of those studies. So we can test much earlier with ideas, with our users, with our clients, and determine pretty quickly whether we're solving that right problem. It allows us to move out much quicker and brings information to the front on investment decisions that we would need to make.
Jess: I, I think as the solution matures from innovation to operations, this is where a lot of our frameworks and governance come into play. I, I do think there's something about, you know, [00:20:00] creating an innovation life cycle you know, a-and really understanding where those risks are and assuring the quality of decisions as we transition.
Jess: I think a lot of what we're seeing you know, on the execution side, it needs ownership, it needs resources, it needs business development to scale. We need, you know, of course, our learning management systems need new training materials and how we're, you know, different support models and things like that.
Jess: We're really almost operating a little bit like a startup, And so, so that's the, the reality is that technology kind of evolves really, really fast. And then building that capability to keep up with that speed, I think is what's going to create that long-term value
Rachel: I love that you bring that up. I mean, I gotta say, I mean, I feel like anyone out there listening, doesn't really matter how old your company might be, and we'll get into the longevity of RS&H before we close today. But facing all this stuff can feel like, okay, we're brand new. You know, we're taking this all again.
Rachel: And Jessica, I know I wanna get over to you as well to help answer this, because testing and [00:21:00] scaling, you know, just to Jess's point, can feel like you're a little bit of a brand new company. What are your thoughts on that, about that approach and how we're incorporating technology and governance?
Jessica: Yeah. I wanna pull on the thread with operating as a mini startup. I feel like, you know, across our 2,000 associates here at RS&H, they are all consider themselves little mini startups in a way. We have such a strong entrepreneurial spirit here at RS&H, and it should be embraced, and it's very much welcomed.
Jessica: As we look at testing and scaling, like in putting these frameworks in place that, that Jess just described it enables our entrepreneurial spirit to continue with governance, with some guardrails, right? With understanding that we do have the ability to leverage these prototypes to improve our day-to-day lives, to improve our workflows, and test them out in a very safe space before we, we start to scale.
Jessica: So some of the things that we're working on here [00:22:00] are the the criterion, right? That how we're going to assess what needs to stay in this citizen development space and we look at that from an impact perspective, an investment perspective. We're looking at that from a scale and an internal and external, as well as risk.
Jessica: And all of those things overlaid in one another, whether or not they need a a SME like, like Jess guiding and shaping what that tool looks like and how it grows, or if we have our domain expertise just checking in and making sure they're on the right path with our technology experts. I think when it gets really exciting and into that startup space is when we begin to incubate these ideas that can really make a difference drawing value out to our clients packaging and coupling them with other digital managed services as well as some of our core service offerings.
Jessica: That's when I think things get really exciting and Jess is such a tremendous advocate and a wealth of knowledge around how to incubate these tools and technologies [00:23:00] to fruition making sure that they're delivering value to ourselves and our clients, but also that they are really making a difference in the AEC space themselves.
Jessica: Any of that without governance, oof, boy, like we're in for it, you know? and that's, that's a delicate balance, right? Is to make sure that we are harnessing everything out of that entrepreneurial spirit and innovative culture but also not having these governance frameworks operate as a throttle down.
Jessica: They can throttle down, but they can also throttle up and I think as long as our organization continues to leverage that throttle as a risk mitigator but also an accelerator for bringing ideas to market we're in a really great spot
Rachel: Nice. Yeah. I love mentioning that, yeah just the pacing of it, the ways that it can adjust to whatever the need is right there. And even like, you know, again, kinda pulling on, like you said, on the thread of the startup with every great startup comes great need for hiring and possibly some new roles, which brings us into another aspect of RS&H which is [00:24:00] opportunity in the workforce.
Rachel: And that's what technology advances bring us most. and that, this really kinda doubles down, too, on the this is about humans. Technology is to support human first, though. And the fact that, I mean, you both are excellent examples of this. A human was needed with this expertise in order to activate this technology and make this possible.
Rachel: So with that, and Jessica, I'll take this question to you first and then to Jess would love to ask you all about the new job families that are emerging with all this technology, like, computational engineers we talked about, and data-enabled designers and how pairing digital talent with licensed professionals will produce outputs that clients can truly trust.
Rachel: So Jessica, yeah, tell us more about what kinda job opportunities is this opening up?
Jessica: Oh my gosh, so, so many. And I see this as like, it's such a great convergence of skills. So not only coupling, you know, two different backgrounds together, a technology without an engineering background and engineering without a technology background, there's power in coupling those together, domain expertise and [00:25:00] technology, you know, excellence.
Jessica: There's also a lot of power in enabling and seeing the evolution of the role of an architect or the role of an engineer and the digital skills and capabilities that are molding and shaping and becoming part of those job descriptions themselves, right? So it's not only about creating new roles, it's also augmenting the core roles that we have today.
Jessica: So 50 years ago, you would never see AutoCAD or computer skills, you know, as part of an engineer's job. I challenge anybody to give me an engineering job that doesn't mention like, you know, OpenRoads or Revit or like any of the other tools that we're using today.
Jessica: They're essential components, and I feel like our roles and responsibilities as technical professionals are also emerging in the automation and data space too, how we use these tools to be better engineers and and deliver our work differently. So it's a really great [00:26:00] reshaping and we have had to create some new job families.
Jessica: So we rolled out a digital operating model last year that we are still operationalizing and setting up digital teams that are embedded within our project delivery. So we're starting to see the role of a data engineer not just sit in a incubator or under Jess's team where we hoard and capture all of the digital technology talent in one core team.
Jessica: Mm, mm, mm. That gets federated out, and that is absolutely essential for us to make sure that we are embedding these emerging technologies in the right way with the right professions. I also feel that starts to mold and shape some of the difficult conversations we have to have, right?
Jessica: Like, well, 50 years ago, an engineer was an engineer, right? There's a stamp, there's a seal, there's a, you know, that, that goes along with being an engineer. Well, you know, we have data engineers. Can we call them engineers? Can we call them data architects? They're sitting right next to a licensed architect.
Jessica: What does that mean? So these [00:27:00] conversations have been absolutely fabulous as we upskill and begin to talk more and more about digital roles in, in molding and shaping what we create here at RS&H. I'll touch on one more piece that I've really noticed and really excites me about the future of our profession, too, is that it's not just companies like RS&H that are putting these things together.
Jessica: It's beginning much earlier in the process at our colleges and universities and our high schools, right? Is you know, providing these skill sets, coding and coupling computer science courses in with civil engineering courses, making sure that they are set up for success as they enter into the workforce as emerging professionals and project engineers and before licensure that they have these skills embedded along with their curriculum.
Jessica: So that's been a really great evolution to see at our leading universities.
Rachel: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And hopefully anyone listening to this, if they're thinking about going into the AEC [00:28:00] industry, you know, and maybe are... You haven't even gone to college yet they're like eyeballing like, "Oh, that gave me some good clues, like what I need to be trying to couple with." And Jess, I wanna take this over to you and give you an opportunity to answer too.
Rachel: Like, I know Jessica mentioned like some of these kinda marrying up of different terms of job titles that maybe we hadn't seen in the past. You know, do you have some other examples of that too? Like what are you kinda seeing as far as like the job families being created?
Jess: Yeah, definitely. I agree. Uh, You know, solution architect systems engineer, you know, tho-those are traditionally words you know, that just like Jessica said, the convergence of some of these roles across domains namely are just evolving into these kind of hybrid practitioners who combine their engineering exper-expertise with now data automation you know, different software capabilities being empowered through these tools.
Jess: An example I like to give is you know, my sister, this was probably about a decade ago, so it's been ongoing. She had called me when she was working at NASA. She got her biological [00:29:00] degree. You know, a, a scientist she is you know, studying biology and understanding stromatolites in, in different biological communities.
Jess: so she called me one day and said, "You know, Jessica, I have these really long, massive, big data files of DNA strands that I need to analyze and my work is asking me to you know... I can't open these files in Excel. My work is asking me to analyze these and produce a conclusion. Can you write me a program?
Jess: if I wanted to go to school for computer science, I would have gone to school for computer science, but this is not me. I'm a scientist, you know. I analyze organic material." And so that's an example of something it's just affecting or just it's a global effect that's happening due to these technologies.
Jess: We're also seeing an increase of existing digital roles moving into domains that were previously not seen before. Of course, more data science moving into the AEC industry and such, AI, ML, [00:30:00] machine learning engineers you know, talent that we just hadn't seen before.
Jess: Yeah.
Rachel: Wild. Yeah tons of opportunity out there, and yeah, it just makes people perk up and be like, "Let me just imagine up my favorite profession that marries these two things together, and I'm gonna go do that thing, and now it's possible."
Rachel: So obviously tons of opportunity. But There's a flip side to that coin. The industry is facing a real workforce shortage while clients are growing more technically sophisticated.
Rachel: So I wanna hear from both of you. Jessica, go to you first. How do technology advances expand what each associate can accomplish? We've already kind of, you know, touched on that a little bit in earlier answers, but how does technology expand that? And then why does that raise the bar for the kind of independent judgment and advisory relationships that clients need from a partner like RS&H?
Jessica: I'm thrown by the flip side of the coin, 'cause I actually see them as the same side of the coin, right? we see these emerging capabilities embedded in our talent what they're able to do. I think Jess mentioned it earlier too, is the productivity. And what [00:31:00] we're able to do with fewer labor hours is quite astonishing.
Jessica: When we layer in judgment, I think that is where we begin to rely on our 85 years of domain expertise and knowledge transfer between more senior professionals into junior professionals and really ensure that we have the right judgment happening at the right time across these tools.
Jessica: I've started talking a little bit about the, the AI junkie, right? And the AI junkie which is a very negative term, and I kinda mean that in a negative way, is the dependency on AI and over-dependency on AI that demonstrates an absence of judgment.
Jessica: And we can use AI every day, all day, but it does not excuse us from using our critical thinking and exercising judgment. So, I went to a a conference where we talked about human in the loop. You know, that's a very [00:32:00] common term as we talk about AI and these emerging roles and making sure we embed judgment.
Jessica: But one of my colleagues not here at RS&H, but in my ecosystem, has also said, "Human in the lead," right? It's not enough to just be in the loop. It's having a human in the lead and understanding what this process entails and where to look to insert your critical thinking and judgment.
Jessica: That's very important. I think another layer, too, to think about this, stepping outside of my you know, AEC consulting you know, role, is also looking at this from the perspective of our clients and what they're empowered and enabled to do with these tools and technologies. And what I like about that is, you know, we saw this really huge pendulum shift out to AEC consultants and less being done.
Jessica: You know, DOTs used to design their own bridges. Like, they used to have rooms full of engineers doing all of their things you know, independently. And We saw a very large pendulum shift out into the consulting world, and I don't think that [00:33:00] pendulum shift is going to come back, but I think there is going to be another added layer of judgment coming from our clients and another assurance of quality before we bring our infrastructure and building projects out to the communities and the people that they serve.
Jessica: The productivity gains are phenomenal in this area. We can accomplish a lot more with fewer labor hours, and that, that's going to be very important.
Jessica: it reminds me of a story at my previous firm. I remember getting a call and you know, just AI was all over the news, and we had just had a big corporate, you know, leadership session and you know, just got a call and it was like, "Can AI design a bridge?"
Jessica: And I'm like yeah, of course AI can design a bridge. Would you drive on that bridge?" Like- and that trust, right? So the trust and judgment and inserting that into the right areas. you know, I think AI can design a bridge, a robot can build it um, using synthetic concrete that was grown in a lab.
Jessica: I think all of [00:34:00] that is possible. But I wouldn't be driving over that bridge unless I knew there were engineers and construction professionals along the way in the lead, in the loop, exercising their judgment
Rachel: Absolutely, 100%. And Jess, I know you probably have some thoughts on this too, 'cause you've, you have also brought up governance already in this episode. What are your thoughts about, on that independent judgment and advisory relationships that we need with all this technology?
Jess: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I think Jessica said it very well, you know, i- in terms of you know, keeping the human in the lead and the human in the loop. I think to address some of those shortages, we're really gonna have to understand how do we scale the existing talent that we have. And one of the things that RS&H is focusing on is enabling you know, knowledge, sharing of knowledge across the different disciplines and you know, building out communities where we can focus on maturing the practice and sharing lessons learned and sharing playbooks and, and things like that.
Jess: You know, just something that's going to fill the gap and [00:35:00] get information shared very quickly. This also becomes a really great resources for our clients to tap into a much deeper bench strength across the firm
Rachel: Yeah, absolutely. it just really is evident that y'all are poised, you know, and really positioning RS&H for what is happening right now with technology and all the aspects we need to consider about it. I love the stories too. These are great because it really does... it brings it right into reality where it's like, well, yes, we're all getting asked these questions, like, you know, and these experiences by people we know in our lives.
Rachel: As we've been looking at the present, let us shift into a future look, shall we? Let's peek together. We have been asking each of our guests on all these episodes kinda to take a look forward also while we're simultaneously looking back.
Rachel: You know, I wanna ask both of you, what does technology look like in our field in just maybe three to five years as digital twins and AI-assisted design become baseline expectations? But then that's in the context of like, well, what about, like, on a 10-year horizon or [00:36:00] even 85 years? Because, as we already mentioned, RS&H has been around for a while, not just 30 years, not just 50 years, 85 years.
Rachel: 85-year anniversary is this year. I wanna find out from you contextually then, like, where does agentic AI, life cycle optimization, a- and that honest conversation about energy and carbon, where does all that take us? So I know that was a mouthful. I'm asking you to look, like, three to five years, then 10 to 85 years future.
Rachel: Future. But Jess, over to you first. Where are we going?
Jess: Yeah. I mean, I think over the next three to five years it's all, you know, practical use, getting better at you know, using the tools or getting more utility out of the tools that we already have in place and improving those processes. Like, an example of that is the, you know, CCTV cameras that are out there that are, they're static, they're not mobile.
Jess: They are just capturing a moment in time. They're not recording. And so if we can apply you know, AI algorithms to that infrastructures and give [00:37:00] it the ability to perceive and to reason and to understand things like, what am I looking at? Is this a roadway or am I looking at vegetation?
Jess: Am I pointed in the wrong way? You know, is this construction site, is the MOU on it? I- is this you know, the correct SOPs? Am I seeing a pedestrian on a highway? I need to alert an operator. So, you know, understanding and bringing intelligence to the existing, some of the more static tools I think is what we're gonna see.
Jess: I think in over the next 10 years or so, you know, I don't know, I- I would tend to think that we would probably reach a super intelligence, you know? In working across we're gonna see teams of artificial intelligence working on some of the more harder problems and coordinating across different engineering activities.
Jess: You know, we're gonna continue seeing the advancement of some of the technologies that we've been struggling with today, like the driverless vehicles you know, and things like that. I think if we look [00:38:00] over several decades ahead out almost a century I think our imagination becomes the limit there with what could happen.
Jess: So some things that are fun that I was ideating earlier was, you know, w-you may be driving by a construction site and seeing robots you know, doing all of the, some of the more risky things, you know, like way on on, on some of those cranes and you know, I was thinking what if transportation corridors were alive to understand context of the traffic that's on it?
Jess: You know, so being able to understand you know, what m-materials it's made out of, when it needs maintenance and understand the conditions that are happening so that it can communicate along the corridor. Maybe there's in-ground pavement charging, and maybe we'll see you know, the, the gas stations change over time to a completely different experience because now we're accommodating for in-ground loop detection.
Jess: different alternative energies require different requirements. [00:39:00] Maybe you know, the gas station of today is more like accommodating for hazardous chemicals and liquids where we don't have that problem with alt-some of the alternative energy sources. Of course, we're gonna see the airspace becomes a, a lot more coordinated.
Jess: Of course, we're enabling a, autonomous aircraft and you know, deliveries of things like, you know, Walmart and Amazon sending out deliveries. But there's a coordination there. So maybe air traffic control gets federated and we're gonna see maybe some kind of persistent overwatch technology that will enable different lanes of aircraft movement from our lower four hundred airspace for those drone deliveries to EVTOLs for inner city and you know, commercial airlines, military and yeah, just a different airspace in the future.
Jess: You know, with the spectrum getting so tight and all of these things requiring over-the-air communications, I see that maybe the spectrum can be dynamically allocated based on the need. Right now it's very fixed. you have a, [00:40:00] a governing, the Federal Communications Commissions governs the usage and what is allowed to go over a particular spectrum or a particular frequency.
Jess: And so maybe you know, we introduce dynamic allocation. You know, just a lot of fun stuff.
Jessica: Jess, I think I broke a sweat listening to you that, all of that. That's pretty that's
Jess: I feel like a lot of those things are in research today. and just moving it forward it, you know, it takes a lot of adoption and a lot of processes there. Of course, the human is still there, but yeah
Rachel: I just wanna say if there was aaspiring sci-fi writer out there, they should be listening to the last, like, five minutes of this episode 'cause there are all your ideas, and you should credit Jess with all of them. But,
Jessica: Oh, 100%.
Rachel: amazing. Jessica, you, now your turn. I mean, hard to follow that up, but let's go.
Rachel: What are you seeing
Jessica: oh, I'm, I am not gonna compete with the inner workings of Jess Baker's brain any day. But especially in three to five years and 85 years in the future. That's, it's incredible what what people like Jess who understand all of the [00:41:00] systems and technologies and the research that goes into this what is possible, right?
Jessica: And I think of you know, my team and the broader team at RS&H is that, that entrepreneurial spirit and that innovative mindset is what is possible, right? To, To bring forth. I love these 85-year questions, right? I'm not gonna be around in 85 years. I don't have a crystal ball. And I try to think the best way to look forward is sometimes looking back, right?
Jessica: And so I try to think about what our RS&H founders, what they thought the world would've looked like 85 years from when they founded our organization. Would they, you know, be describing our tool sets? Would they be describing technology? Like, have even imagined or envisioned that this is the way we deliver our work?
Jessica: What I do think remains really consistent, whether it's three years from now or 10 years from now or 85 years from now, is that we still need to build [00:42:00] infrastructure and shelter and community spaces for humans. And I think that 85 years from now, and maybe in, in Jess's brain there's some ability for me to survive that long and be around to see it I think 85 years from now I'm still gonna be able to point out what a building is and understand that these different layers of air traffic are connecting, you know, societies and people together.
Jessica: And I think an engineer from 85 years ago looking forward that length c- would be able to do exactly the same thing. I think what's gonna remain very consistent 85 years from now, three to five years from now, 10 years from now, whatever timeframe you put what you put togetherour need for engineering mindsets and our need for creating the right solutions for the needs of humanity, right? that is going to remain core to the function of engineering and AEC professionals as [00:43:00] we move forward. I think what's different about from 85 years ago to today, and then today to 85 years, is what we're building is going to change, right?
Jessica: So 85 years ago, we were building buildings, we were building roads, we were doing all of that stuff. Maybe not a data center from 85 years ago. They, maybe they were just like, "What is that big, building for?" But I think 85 years from now, we're gonna be building in space. You know, we're going to be out...
Jessica: Where we're building, what we're building is going to be different, and maybe we won't be able to identify exactly what that structure is or exactly what that space is. But I think that common thread of it's all going to be used for the connection of society and people and just remain core to the function of our profession.
Jessica: I think it helps ground me in, you know, helping our organization evolve and remaining true to our domain expertise that it really it really puts things in perspective here.
Rachel: Well, I, wow, I couldn't have paid you to close [00:44:00] out this episode any better because this is
Jessica: even used the word perspective. Yeah.
Rachel: I know. But honestly, both of you did such a great job there, too. Not all the questions as well, but there's always this, as we mentioned, there was this through line of there is technology, but there are humans, and the humans are first.
Rachel: And really just focusing on that being the first thing, the last thing, and everything in the middle. So I just so appreciate you all. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise here on AEC Perspectives by RS&H. But that, I know that brings us to the end, so... And who knows? Maybe in 85 years we'll still be doing this podcast.
Rachel: Again, it'll probably be different people, maybe robots, who knows. But we'll always be connecting the people that are part of the industry. But thank you, Jess. Thank you, Jessica, for joining us here on AEC Perspectives. Again find and subscribe to us wherever you're listening to your favorite podcasts.
Rachel: As I mentioned, share this with the people in your life that this will mean the most to because now they'll have an insider track into what's going on in the AEC industry, how to be a part of it, how to be on the forefront of it, and how [00:45:00] to best benefit from what RS&H provides in architecture, engineering, and construction.
Rachel: Thank you all so much for joining us for this episode. We'll be back with you next time with a new episode of AEC Perspectives. Bye
Jessica: Bye
[00:00:00]
Jessica: Jess, I think I broke a sweat listening to you that, all of that. That's pretty that's
Jess: I feel like a lot of those things are in research today. and just moving it forward it, you know, it takes a lot of adoption and a lot of processes there. Of course, the human is still there, but yeah
Rachel: I just wanna say if there was aaspiring sci-fi writer out there, they should be listening to the last, like, five minutes of this episode 'cause there are all your ideas, and you should credit Jess with all of them.
Rachel: Welcome back to a new episode of AEC Perspectives, brought to you by RS&H. Hi, everyone, I'm your host Rachel Moore, and I'm excited to tell you about today's episode, where we have not one but two experts to tell us where judgment meets machine. It's not a riff off a very well-known film franchise.
Rachel: We're actually talking about the industry here. RS&H's playbook for digital transformation, okay? So [00:01:00] here's what we're gonna do in today's episode. We're gonna bring two of RS&H's digital innovation leaders to the microphone for an honest, forward-looking conversation about how technology advances are reshaping the architecture, engineering, and construction industry.
Rachel: Our two guests are going to share how RS&H is putting technology like AI, yes, we said it, to work across the full project life cycle and build into business ecosystems, not as a trend to chase, but as a deliberate capability tied directly to the firm's strategic plan that's focused on continuing to strengthen the firm for its employee owners.
Rachel: Again, wonderful aspect of RS&H we always love to shout about. The through line of today's discussion is gonna be pretty simple and candid, which is why we have our two guests on. Technology serves people, not the other way around, and our two guests are gonna make that case that the firms pulling ahead are the ones who are building capacity thoughtfully, governing responsibly, and investing in the human judgment that makes technology [00:02:00] advances genuinely useful for clients and associates.
Rachel: So that was a mouthful, but just wait, there's more. We're gonna have way more words coming your way about all this. A quick note, though. If you're thinking right now, "Who should I share this episode with?" I'm about to tell you. AEC professionals that's engineers, architects, designers. If any of you are curious about AI adoption, this is the episode for you.
Rachel: Also, owners and clients state departments of transportation municipalities, airport authorities. If you're all weighing what digital transformation means for your projects, you wanna listen to this, and industry leaders and decision-makers that are shaping technology strategy or trying your best to.
Rachel: And of course, prospective talent exploring where the profession is headed.
Rachel: Amazingly, applicants into the AEC industry kind of care that you know what's next, and so they'll see that as an additive. So what are we gonna accomplish today? We're translating all of this for you into tangible client and project benefits, okay? We're gonna position RS&H as a trusted, credible voice on [00:03:00] responsible digital delivery and AI in AEC.
Rachel: I'm excited to welcome Jessica Chambers to the podcast. Jessica is the vice president of digital technologies and solutions at RS&H, and she brings 20 years of experience leading digital transformation across the AEC industry.
Rachel: Along the way, she's built innovative digital service lines and pioneered digital twin solutions that have opened new capabilities and delivered real value for clients. She's thoughtful, as you're about to experience, forward-looking, and never shies about tackling the hard questions. We'll see if we have any hard questions for her for this episode.
Rachel: Jessica, welcome to the podcast.
Jessica: Thanks for having me, Rachel, and you're absolutely right. I love a hard question
Rachel: Ooh, we're gonna try today. All right, and then next up I have Jess Banker. Jess is director of digital solutions at RS&H, where she leads digital innovation for our clients with a focus on AI and machine learning strategy and business development, as well as internal capability building across market sectors.
Rachel: She brings 25 years of technical [00:04:00] experience in systems engineering work spanning working with private and public industry. Jess, thanks for joining us as well on the podcast.
Jess: Thank you. It's good to be here.
Rachel: Yes, ma'am. I'm excited to have both of you here. I'm gonna bring this first question first to you, Jessica, and then Jess, you can round up too with your answer, but let's go. The AEC industry has traditionally competed on relationships and expertise. Your positions are that technological advances now allow firms to compete on speed and margins as well.
Rachel: I would love you each, Jessica first walk us through where that plays out across a project's life from generative design to risk monitoring to computer vision in the field. What does it mean for the clients relying on us? Jessica, to you first
Jessica: Yeah, I think first of all, like, you know, the the relationships and expertise are always going to be our central to our value that we bring to our clients. And where we can offer value is through these emerging technologies across the project life cycle. So [00:05:00] whether we are doing our transportation planning or we are delivering you know, the final construction and commissioning handover to a client, each and every step of that way we will find ways to deliver more value to our clients.
Jessica: But without relationships, without trust, that isn't going to really occur. So, our understanding of our clients, our understanding of our expertise in our specific domains is really gonna be where we can begin to harness the value proposition for this automation across the project life cycle here.
Jessica: You know, even pre-contract, so understanding our client, understanding the industry using these tools to automate and collect research and understanding our past projects creating the best proposal possible for a particular value proposition for a client.
Jessica: So even before the client even sees what we're producing, we're already leveraging a lot of automation to gain better insights and to put our best foot forward. Additional value that we present there is through automation tasks in the planning phase. [00:06:00] This could be digital data collection with respect to you know, facilitating drone imagery or creating digital models that we use as foundations for different scenarios to offer our clients.
Jessica: So, all the way through to like a computer vision if we're doing a bridge inspection or if we are doing a facilities conditions assessment, you know, what defects can we integrate and automate into our workflows to provide great insights faster to our clients? Every step of the way across that, that project we're thinking of different ways to implement these technologies to deliver better outcomes, not only for ourselves, because it scratches an itch for me for sure, but also across our you know, the value proposition for what our clients need.
Rachel: Absolutely. Well start to finish makes a lot of sense, especially if you're trying to incorporate all of these things throughout the life cycle of a project.
Rachel: Jess, I wanna bring this next the same question rather over to you. And just a quick quick footnote everybody as is what happens with anybody who lives anywhere on the planet, weather happens. So if you happen to [00:07:00] hear any like rain and thunder that's probably happening in Jess'.
Rachel: It could happen in all of us. So we're just gonna keep trucking and that's why we are resilient in recording these podcasts anyway, because the, the expertise stands forth above all the weather. But Jess, with that, over to you. What else about you know, incorporating AI and technology through the life cycle, and how does that kinda, you know, support that relationship and expertise capital that we have with clients, and what are your thoughts there?
Jess: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I, I think Jessica said it well. I think expanding on that perspective is mainly what I've been seeing is that technology is fundamentally shifting the composition of what our day-to-day looks like in terms of engineering work. I mean, technology really, all work t- depends on technology, and we've been using technology for a while, but what's happening, the shift is it's different.
Jess: It's more than that. Like take a transportation planner, for example. They might run, like, hundreds of travel demand simulations or [00:08:00] traffic simulations and then have to sit there and comb through thousands of pages of reports and you know, environmental studies and things like that. We can now train a large language model to parse through that data within a few minutes.
Jess: And so, that now changes the dynamics because we're taking what used to take several days to hours to now down to several minutes. And so, similarly with the roadway engineer, you know, who they're comparing y- you know, survey data, they're researching utility conflicts, they're mining geospatial information and looking for, like, constraints on roadways.
Jess: This is also all about collecting, harvesting, parsing through information, searching, finding and things like that. The construction manager, they're always looking at they're reviewing schedules, they're looking at inspection reports and they're really just trying to understand, "Is my project on schedule?
Jess: Is there any identified issues that present risks to my cost, to my [00:09:00] schedule?" And so, most of this work, it's manual, it's lengthy, it's tough. And so these newer technologies, mainly the large language models for the examples that I just gave, they're alongside embedded AI in some of the native tools that we're using that we're now starting to see you know, allows the engineers to shift that work from managing information, searching and finding, to now you know, validating the outputs you know, evaluating the alternatives and coordinating across the different disciplines at those handoff points.
Jess: And so, applying engineering judgment. So fundamentally we see that shift as a result of that, we're seeing engineers produce a lot more work in a short period of time, and I think a lot of that is due to the democratization of specific roles and activities that once required these specialized skills.
Jess: You know, now we-- they're enabled through technology. So, you know, software development can be done through you know, [00:10:00] these, these tools. Even developing, even kinda like marketing can be done design, data administration. We can engage with data in a natural conversation now, whereas before, it took specialized data management skills to do.
Jess: And I think information and systems are now being connected in different ways that enables a reduction in the technical cost of what it takes to run an organization. And from a business perspective, that's really where speed and margin come through.
Rachel: Yeah. Oh I'm sure anyone listening, I- we mentioned up front, like, who this is for, and, you know, maybe they're, like we said, they're kind of on the cusp of understanding how this technology can help them. Both of you just really painted a very clear picture about not just how it helps specific roles, but also the client project overall which is amazing.
Rachel: And you did what I'm about to do. You segued perfectly because I was about to say several times in a row, it's almost like we're summoning it. AI, AI, AI. Oh my gosh, everywhere we're turning, y'all, everyone is talking about AI. But it's [00:11:00] not the only technology advancement in the field these days.
Rachel: I know it's hard to believe 'cause it's literally all anything anyone's talking about, but it's not the only one. And that's why I'm glad you all are here on the episode here because I wanna hear from you. And Jess, I'll take this question to you first and then to Jessica. What are those other new advancements that are out there, and how are those impacting the AEC industry?
Rachel: 'Cause yes, we could focus all day on AI, but what else is there?
Jess: Yeah. I think maybe to address the AI piece first, I just kind of, felt it necessary to comment that it's not just about an AI tool. AI is truly becoming more like a non-negotiable part of our infrastructure, of our digital infrastructure, for many reasons. And because of that, just making sure that you have the right ontology of instruments that will enable the business to deliver that digital capability.
Jess: That's- Yeah ... I mean, understanding what the right tools are to enable citizen development and how we govern that and invest in it and and how we [00:12:00] use those, those tools. You know, for example, what mix of tools is gonna enable us to operate at the speed of mission need. But what we're seeing in industry really is that the craft of architecting and engineering and then managing that construction projects, they're becoming more computational. So through the use of the tools you know, we can evaluate more alternatives, and we had already mentioned generative design, and we can understand what the trade-offs are earlier so that we can make better decisions.
Jess: Of course we already mentioned connectedness, like system connectedness, but information itself is being digitized. BIM is a good example of that, you know. So instead of you know, information living inside the drawings or on paper and managing information on those piece of paper, we are you know, that information is now being structured in ways that software can understand it, and then we can build these processes around it to identify where does you know, the occlusions occu- occur or [00:13:00] objects clash and automate some of that work.
Jess: And I would say deliverables also are moving from document deliverables to model deliverables. So these are 2D, 3D, 4D models that continue creating value beyond just the design phase or the construction or the commissioning phase. It moves us- moves into operations and maintenance as well. And that's when our digital twins become so powerful because of that engineering information,
Rachel: Yeah, you just highlighted several things too. I mean, as you mentioned, it's not just AI. Technology s- supports us in so many ways. You know, and even to the point where we're able to have this conversation across, you know, different geographies and stuff.
Rachel: but this is all such great... I really appreciate you sharing this expertise too, because it is just really painting the picture of what's possible, particularly for any firms out there who may not have tapped into all this.
Rachel: Jess, I wanna take this also the same question to you. What are your perspectives on like the other technologies? Yes, AI, but also what else is available out there that RS&H is taking advantage of, but also your clients [00:14:00] and other people in these projects need to be using?
Jessica: Yeah, certainly. And in the field is an area I wanna focus on too. So, you know, our firm typically lives in the space of design and engineering, and all pre-construction, and all of this stuff that needs to happen before we get out into the field. But all of the technology advancements that are happening in the field as well, right?
Jessica: Robotics and supply chain, and all of these elements that are influencing how we actually do the building of our infrastructure and our buildings itself is also changing and shifting. What's foundational to all of it is data, and how to get data extracted from one place to another into the hands of somebody who needs to make a decision.
Jessica: That is the thread that ties all of this together. So, you know, even if we have robots building bridges, or we have 3D printing happening with our buildings the information needs to get from you know, planning to office and engineering, to a [00:15:00] machine, guide that machine, and then bring back any potential issues or obstructions that has on, in the field.
Jessica: Some of the really exciting things that I've seen in the field that, that make me think differently is what happens, you know, when a construction site is shut down through the ability of, you know, visualization and data capture on the backs of robots, and really instructing the agents how to move things around a construction site.
Jessica: Where that information is sourced from how it gets reported back for progress and reporting is really essential for us to start thinking about. I think some other underlying technologies that enable all of that too are computing power, and edge technology, and things like Starlink that have made maybe some more remote areas a bit more accessible to leverage these technologies.
Jessica: So I think we'll see a lot of scalability on the construction site and in the field itself. we have done some really extensive emergency management you know, data collection following storms and really you know, [00:16:00] some detrimental natural disasters where we leverage some tools like drones and digital terrain modeling and rapid assessment from field to office where, you know, some of our infrastructure wasn't enabling that.
Jessica: So this edge computing functionality, I think is really empowering us to apply these tools in places where they haven't been able to be applied before. You know, those they bring a lot of value to our clients, they bring a lot of value to ourselves, but I think most importantly, they bring a lot of value to the communities that they're servicing and why we build our infrastructure.
Jessica: So, really excited about the entire landscape of all of that. As Jess mentioned we need an AI ontology to apply across the board here. And we need clean data data schemas and data integrations and platform integrations in order to ensure all of this is done seamlessly
Rachel: Well, it's, it's pretty evident why RS&H has both of you. You obviously have very crucial perspectives and expertise to bring to the fore of what is, you know, [00:17:00] happening with everybody incorporating technology. And I wanna give a quick call-out, too. If anyone missed, we have another episode on drone inspections and using drone inspections drones in inspecting bridges.
Rachel: Yet another example of technology really upping the game out in the field and making jobs easier a little bit and, you know, accomplishing stuff and has that impact. And so, so wonderful. I love that you brought up the field. I love... Yes, and thank you so much bringing up, like, how we're looking at AI and all these things and the democratization and everything like that.
Rachel: Say that three times fast. It's not easy, but it's important. Well, and I wanna, get into, you talked about scale. let's double-click into that a little bit. I wanna help our audience understand that, particularly the phrase "test then scale," that approach to technology within RS&H.
Rachel: I don't know, how do you decide which use cases are worth solving, and how does governance keep that work responsible when you're talking about testing then scaling?
Jess: That's right. I like to think of it that the objective is not just about implementing and then testing and scaling. It's really about [00:18:00] building enterprise capabilities. So with that, we have to think about, you know, where do we ground our decisions in? And I think it all starts with anchoring that into real problems.
Jess: And then of course frameworks, prototypes, processes for assurance, transition, and execution. These all are a really vital pieces to that life cycle there. So, you know, grounding everything first into an engineering problem and understand who exactly has that problem, how they're affected with that problem.
Jess: You know, a day in the life of the person who has that problem before we even talk about any technology. We spend some time understanding that workflow, what that looks like where they're spending their time- Yeah ... where you know, what's creating friction for them at the end of the day, what's the ideal outcome that they're trying to improve on.
Jess: You know, so understanding that bridge engineer or the project manager or the construction inspector, and what keeps them up at night. And then we determine that the right technical approach, sometimes it's AI, [00:19:00] sometimes it's automation, sometimes it's just better data integration or connected systems or just a little bit of analytics.
Jess: I, I think technology really needs to follow the workflow. And so, pr- I will mention one of the things that we've seen is that prototyping has now moved to the kind of the front of that life cycle because once upon a time, it took a lot of resources, and it, sometimes it could take several years, a couple of months to several years to do a feasibility you know, analysis or assessment.
Jess: But now we can-- Some of these tools are enabling quick prototyping for some of those studies. So we can test much earlier with ideas, with our users, with our clients, and determine pretty quickly whether we're solving that right problem. It allows us to move out much quicker and brings information to the front on investment decisions that we would need to make.
Jess: I, I think as the solution matures from innovation to operations, this is where a lot of our frameworks and governance come into play. I, I do think there's something about, you know, [00:20:00] creating an innovation life cycle you know, a-and really understanding where those risks are and assuring the quality of decisions as we transition.
Jess: I think a lot of what we're seeing you know, on the execution side, it needs ownership, it needs resources, it needs business development to scale. We need, you know, of course, our learning management systems need new training materials and how we're, you know, different support models and things like that.
Jess: We're really almost operating a little bit like a startup, And so, so that's the, the reality is that technology kind of evolves really, really fast. And then building that capability to keep up with that speed, I think is what's going to create that long-term value
Rachel: I love that you bring that up. I mean, I gotta say, I mean, I feel like anyone out there listening, doesn't really matter how old your company might be, and we'll get into the longevity of RS&H before we close today. But facing all this stuff can feel like, okay, we're brand new. You know, we're taking this all again.
Rachel: And Jessica, I know I wanna get over to you as well to help answer this, because testing and [00:21:00] scaling, you know, just to Jess's point, can feel like you're a little bit of a brand new company. What are your thoughts on that, about that approach and how we're incorporating technology and governance?
Jessica: Yeah. I wanna pull on the thread with operating as a mini startup. I feel like, you know, across our 2,000 associates here at RS&H, they are all consider themselves little mini startups in a way. We have such a strong entrepreneurial spirit here at RS&H, and it should be embraced, and it's very much welcomed.
Jessica: As we look at testing and scaling, like in putting these frameworks in place that, that Jess just described it enables our entrepreneurial spirit to continue with governance, with some guardrails, right? With understanding that we do have the ability to leverage these prototypes to improve our day-to-day lives, to improve our workflows, and test them out in a very safe space before we, we start to scale.
Jessica: So some of the things that we're working on here [00:22:00] are the the criterion, right? That how we're going to assess what needs to stay in this citizen development space and we look at that from an impact perspective, an investment perspective. We're looking at that from a scale and an internal and external, as well as risk.
Jessica: And all of those things overlaid in one another, whether or not they need a a SME like, like Jess guiding and shaping what that tool looks like and how it grows, or if we have our domain expertise just checking in and making sure they're on the right path with our technology experts. I think when it gets really exciting and into that startup space is when we begin to incubate these ideas that can really make a difference drawing value out to our clients packaging and coupling them with other digital managed services as well as some of our core service offerings.
Jessica: That's when I think things get really exciting and Jess is such a tremendous advocate and a wealth of knowledge around how to incubate these tools and technologies [00:23:00] to fruition making sure that they're delivering value to ourselves and our clients, but also that they are really making a difference in the AEC space themselves.
Jessica: Any of that without governance, oof, boy, like we're in for it, you know? and that's, that's a delicate balance, right? Is to make sure that we are harnessing everything out of that entrepreneurial spirit and innovative culture but also not having these governance frameworks operate as a throttle down.
Jessica: They can throttle down, but they can also throttle up and I think as long as our organization continues to leverage that throttle as a risk mitigator but also an accelerator for bringing ideas to market we're in a really great spot
Rachel: Nice. Yeah. I love mentioning that, yeah just the pacing of it, the ways that it can adjust to whatever the need is right there. And even like, you know, again, kinda pulling on, like you said, on the thread of the startup with every great startup comes great need for hiring and possibly some new roles, which brings us into another aspect of RS&H which is [00:24:00] opportunity in the workforce.
Rachel: And that's what technology advances bring us most. and that, this really kinda doubles down, too, on the this is about humans. Technology is to support human first, though. And the fact that, I mean, you both are excellent examples of this. A human was needed with this expertise in order to activate this technology and make this possible.
Rachel: So with that, and Jessica, I'll take this question to you first and then to Jess would love to ask you all about the new job families that are emerging with all this technology, like, computational engineers we talked about, and data-enabled designers and how pairing digital talent with licensed professionals will produce outputs that clients can truly trust.
Rachel: So Jessica, yeah, tell us more about what kinda job opportunities is this opening up?
Jessica: Oh my gosh, so, so many. And I see this as like, it's such a great convergence of skills. So not only coupling, you know, two different backgrounds together, a technology without an engineering background and engineering without a technology background, there's power in coupling those together, domain expertise and [00:25:00] technology, you know, excellence.
Jessica: There's also a lot of power in enabling and seeing the evolution of the role of an architect or the role of an engineer and the digital skills and capabilities that are molding and shaping and becoming part of those job descriptions themselves, right? So it's not only about creating new roles, it's also augmenting the core roles that we have today.
Jessica: So 50 years ago, you would never see AutoCAD or computer skills, you know, as part of an engineer's job. I challenge anybody to give me an engineering job that doesn't mention like, you know, OpenRoads or Revit or like any of the other tools that we're using today.
Jessica: They're essential components, and I feel like our roles and responsibilities as technical professionals are also emerging in the automation and data space too, how we use these tools to be better engineers and and deliver our work differently. So it's a really great [00:26:00] reshaping and we have had to create some new job families.
Jessica: So we rolled out a digital operating model last year that we are still operationalizing and setting up digital teams that are embedded within our project delivery. So we're starting to see the role of a data engineer not just sit in a incubator or under Jess's team where we hoard and capture all of the digital technology talent in one core team.
Jessica: Mm, mm, mm. That gets federated out, and that is absolutely essential for us to make sure that we are embedding these emerging technologies in the right way with the right professions. I also feel that starts to mold and shape some of the difficult conversations we have to have, right?
Jessica: Like, well, 50 years ago, an engineer was an engineer, right? There's a stamp, there's a seal, there's a, you know, that, that goes along with being an engineer. Well, you know, we have data engineers. Can we call them engineers? Can we call them data architects? They're sitting right next to a licensed architect.
Jessica: What does that mean? So these [00:27:00] conversations have been absolutely fabulous as we upskill and begin to talk more and more about digital roles in, in molding and shaping what we create here at RS&H. I'll touch on one more piece that I've really noticed and really excites me about the future of our profession, too, is that it's not just companies like RS&H that are putting these things together.
Jessica: It's beginning much earlier in the process at our colleges and universities and our high schools, right? Is you know, providing these skill sets, coding and coupling computer science courses in with civil engineering courses, making sure that they are set up for success as they enter into the workforce as emerging professionals and project engineers and before licensure that they have these skills embedded along with their curriculum.
Jessica: So that's been a really great evolution to see at our leading universities.
Rachel: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And hopefully anyone listening to this, if they're thinking about going into the AEC [00:28:00] industry, you know, and maybe are... You haven't even gone to college yet they're like eyeballing like, "Oh, that gave me some good clues, like what I need to be trying to couple with." And Jess, I wanna take this over to you and give you an opportunity to answer too.
Rachel: Like, I know Jessica mentioned like some of these kinda marrying up of different terms of job titles that maybe we hadn't seen in the past. You know, do you have some other examples of that too? Like what are you kinda seeing as far as like the job families being created?
Jess: Yeah, definitely. I agree. Uh, You know, solution architect systems engineer, you know, tho-those are traditionally words you know, that just like Jessica said, the convergence of some of these roles across domains namely are just evolving into these kind of hybrid practitioners who combine their engineering exper-expertise with now data automation you know, different software capabilities being empowered through these tools.
Jess: An example I like to give is you know, my sister, this was probably about a decade ago, so it's been ongoing. She had called me when she was working at NASA. She got her biological [00:29:00] degree. You know, a, a scientist she is you know, studying biology and understanding stromatolites in, in different biological communities.
Jess: so she called me one day and said, "You know, Jessica, I have these really long, massive, big data files of DNA strands that I need to analyze and my work is asking me to you know... I can't open these files in Excel. My work is asking me to analyze these and produce a conclusion. Can you write me a program?
Jess: if I wanted to go to school for computer science, I would have gone to school for computer science, but this is not me. I'm a scientist, you know. I analyze organic material." And so that's an example of something it's just affecting or just it's a global effect that's happening due to these technologies.
Jess: We're also seeing an increase of existing digital roles moving into domains that were previously not seen before. Of course, more data science moving into the AEC industry and such, AI, ML, [00:30:00] machine learning engineers you know, talent that we just hadn't seen before.
Jess: Yeah.
Rachel: Wild. Yeah tons of opportunity out there, and yeah, it just makes people perk up and be like, "Let me just imagine up my favorite profession that marries these two things together, and I'm gonna go do that thing, and now it's possible."
Rachel: So obviously tons of opportunity. But There's a flip side to that coin. The industry is facing a real workforce shortage while clients are growing more technically sophisticated.
Rachel: So I wanna hear from both of you. Jessica, go to you first. How do technology advances expand what each associate can accomplish? We've already kind of, you know, touched on that a little bit in earlier answers, but how does technology expand that? And then why does that raise the bar for the kind of independent judgment and advisory relationships that clients need from a partner like RS&H?
Jessica: I'm thrown by the flip side of the coin, 'cause I actually see them as the same side of the coin, right? we see these emerging capabilities embedded in our talent what they're able to do. I think Jess mentioned it earlier too, is the productivity. And what [00:31:00] we're able to do with fewer labor hours is quite astonishing.
Jessica: When we layer in judgment, I think that is where we begin to rely on our 85 years of domain expertise and knowledge transfer between more senior professionals into junior professionals and really ensure that we have the right judgment happening at the right time across these tools.
Jessica: I've started talking a little bit about the, the AI junkie, right? And the AI junkie which is a very negative term, and I kinda mean that in a negative way, is the dependency on AI and over-dependency on AI that demonstrates an absence of judgment.
Jessica: And we can use AI every day, all day, but it does not excuse us from using our critical thinking and exercising judgment. So, I went to a a conference where we talked about human in the loop. You know, that's a very [00:32:00] common term as we talk about AI and these emerging roles and making sure we embed judgment.
Jessica: But one of my colleagues not here at RS&H, but in my ecosystem, has also said, "Human in the lead," right? It's not enough to just be in the loop. It's having a human in the lead and understanding what this process entails and where to look to insert your critical thinking and judgment.
Jessica: That's very important. I think another layer, too, to think about this, stepping outside of my you know, AEC consulting you know, role, is also looking at this from the perspective of our clients and what they're empowered and enabled to do with these tools and technologies. And what I like about that is, you know, we saw this really huge pendulum shift out to AEC consultants and less being done.
Jessica: You know, DOTs used to design their own bridges. Like, they used to have rooms full of engineers doing all of their things you know, independently. And We saw a very large pendulum shift out into the consulting world, and I don't think that [00:33:00] pendulum shift is going to come back, but I think there is going to be another added layer of judgment coming from our clients and another assurance of quality before we bring our infrastructure and building projects out to the communities and the people that they serve.
Jessica: The productivity gains are phenomenal in this area. We can accomplish a lot more with fewer labor hours, and that, that's going to be very important.
Jessica: it reminds me of a story at my previous firm. I remember getting a call and you know, just AI was all over the news, and we had just had a big corporate, you know, leadership session and you know, just got a call and it was like, "Can AI design a bridge?"
Jessica: And I'm like yeah, of course AI can design a bridge. Would you drive on that bridge?" Like- and that trust, right? So the trust and judgment and inserting that into the right areas. you know, I think AI can design a bridge, a robot can build it um, using synthetic concrete that was grown in a lab.
Jessica: I think all of [00:34:00] that is possible. But I wouldn't be driving over that bridge unless I knew there were engineers and construction professionals along the way in the lead, in the loop, exercising their judgment
Rachel: Absolutely, 100%. And Jess, I know you probably have some thoughts on this too, 'cause you've, you have also brought up governance already in this episode. What are your thoughts about, on that independent judgment and advisory relationships that we need with all this technology?
Jess: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I think Jessica said it very well, you know, i- in terms of you know, keeping the human in the lead and the human in the loop. I think to address some of those shortages, we're really gonna have to understand how do we scale the existing talent that we have. And one of the things that RS&H is focusing on is enabling you know, knowledge, sharing of knowledge across the different disciplines and you know, building out communities where we can focus on maturing the practice and sharing lessons learned and sharing playbooks and, and things like that.
Jess: You know, just something that's going to fill the gap and [00:35:00] get information shared very quickly. This also becomes a really great resources for our clients to tap into a much deeper bench strength across the firm
Rachel: Yeah, absolutely. it just really is evident that y'all are poised, you know, and really positioning RS&H for what is happening right now with technology and all the aspects we need to consider about it. I love the stories too. These are great because it really does... it brings it right into reality where it's like, well, yes, we're all getting asked these questions, like, you know, and these experiences by people we know in our lives.
Rachel: As we've been looking at the present, let us shift into a future look, shall we? Let's peek together. We have been asking each of our guests on all these episodes kinda to take a look forward also while we're simultaneously looking back.
Rachel: You know, I wanna ask both of you, what does technology look like in our field in just maybe three to five years as digital twins and AI-assisted design become baseline expectations? But then that's in the context of like, well, what about, like, on a 10-year horizon or [00:36:00] even 85 years? Because, as we already mentioned, RS&H has been around for a while, not just 30 years, not just 50 years, 85 years.
Rachel: 85-year anniversary is this year. I wanna find out from you contextually then, like, where does agentic AI, life cycle optimization, a- and that honest conversation about energy and carbon, where does all that take us? So I know that was a mouthful. I'm asking you to look, like, three to five years, then 10 to 85 years future.
Rachel: Future. But Jess, over to you first. Where are we going?
Jess: Yeah. I mean, I think over the next three to five years it's all, you know, practical use, getting better at you know, using the tools or getting more utility out of the tools that we already have in place and improving those processes. Like, an example of that is the, you know, CCTV cameras that are out there that are, they're static, they're not mobile.
Jess: They are just capturing a moment in time. They're not recording. And so if we can apply you know, AI algorithms to that infrastructures and give [00:37:00] it the ability to perceive and to reason and to understand things like, what am I looking at? Is this a roadway or am I looking at vegetation?
Jess: Am I pointed in the wrong way? You know, is this construction site, is the MOU on it? I- is this you know, the correct SOPs? Am I seeing a pedestrian on a highway? I need to alert an operator. So, you know, understanding and bringing intelligence to the existing, some of the more static tools I think is what we're gonna see.
Jess: I think in over the next 10 years or so, you know, I don't know, I- I would tend to think that we would probably reach a super intelligence, you know? In working across we're gonna see teams of artificial intelligence working on some of the more harder problems and coordinating across different engineering activities.
Jess: You know, we're gonna continue seeing the advancement of some of the technologies that we've been struggling with today, like the driverless vehicles you know, and things like that. I think if we look [00:38:00] over several decades ahead out almost a century I think our imagination becomes the limit there with what could happen.
Jess: So some things that are fun that I was ideating earlier was, you know, w-you may be driving by a construction site and seeing robots you know, doing all of the, some of the more risky things, you know, like way on on, on some of those cranes and you know, I was thinking what if transportation corridors were alive to understand context of the traffic that's on it?
Jess: You know, so being able to understand you know, what m-materials it's made out of, when it needs maintenance and understand the conditions that are happening so that it can communicate along the corridor. Maybe there's in-ground pavement charging, and maybe we'll see you know, the, the gas stations change over time to a completely different experience because now we're accommodating for in-ground loop detection.
Jess: different alternative energies require different requirements. [00:39:00] Maybe you know, the gas station of today is more like accommodating for hazardous chemicals and liquids where we don't have that problem with alt-some of the alternative energy sources. Of course, we're gonna see the airspace becomes a, a lot more coordinated.
Jess: Of course, we're enabling a, autonomous aircraft and you know, deliveries of things like, you know, Walmart and Amazon sending out deliveries. But there's a coordination there. So maybe air traffic control gets federated and we're gonna see maybe some kind of persistent overwatch technology that will enable different lanes of aircraft movement from our lower four hundred airspace for those drone deliveries to EVTOLs for inner city and you know, commercial airlines, military and yeah, just a different airspace in the future.
Jess: You know, with the spectrum getting so tight and all of these things requiring over-the-air communications, I see that maybe the spectrum can be dynamically allocated based on the need. Right now it's very fixed. you have a, [00:40:00] a governing, the Federal Communications Commissions governs the usage and what is allowed to go over a particular spectrum or a particular frequency.
Jess: And so maybe you know, we introduce dynamic allocation. You know, just a lot of fun stuff.
Jessica: Jess, I think I broke a sweat listening to you that, all of that. That's pretty that's
Jess: I feel like a lot of those things are in research today. and just moving it forward it, you know, it takes a lot of adoption and a lot of processes there. Of course, the human is still there, but yeah
Rachel: I just wanna say if there was aaspiring sci-fi writer out there, they should be listening to the last, like, five minutes of this episode 'cause there are all your ideas, and you should credit Jess with all of them. But,
Jessica: Oh, 100%.
Rachel: amazing. Jessica, you, now your turn. I mean, hard to follow that up, but let's go.
Rachel: What are you seeing
Jessica: oh, I'm, I am not gonna compete with the inner workings of Jess Baker's brain any day. But especially in three to five years and 85 years in the future. That's, it's incredible what what people like Jess who understand all of the [00:41:00] systems and technologies and the research that goes into this what is possible, right?
Jessica: And I think of you know, my team and the broader team at RS&H is that, that entrepreneurial spirit and that innovative mindset is what is possible, right? To, To bring forth. I love these 85-year questions, right? I'm not gonna be around in 85 years. I don't have a crystal ball. And I try to think the best way to look forward is sometimes looking back, right?
Jessica: And so I try to think about what our RS&H founders, what they thought the world would've looked like 85 years from when they founded our organization. Would they, you know, be describing our tool sets? Would they be describing technology? Like, have even imagined or envisioned that this is the way we deliver our work?
Jessica: What I do think remains really consistent, whether it's three years from now or 10 years from now or 85 years from now, is that we still need to build [00:42:00] infrastructure and shelter and community spaces for humans. And I think that 85 years from now, and maybe in, in Jess's brain there's some ability for me to survive that long and be around to see it I think 85 years from now I'm still gonna be able to point out what a building is and understand that these different layers of air traffic are connecting, you know, societies and people together.
Jessica: And I think an engineer from 85 years ago looking forward that length c- would be able to do exactly the same thing. I think what's gonna remain very consistent 85 years from now, three to five years from now, 10 years from now, whatever timeframe you put what you put togetherour need for engineering mindsets and our need for creating the right solutions for the needs of humanity, right? that is going to remain core to the function of engineering and AEC professionals as [00:43:00] we move forward. I think what's different about from 85 years ago to today, and then today to 85 years, is what we're building is going to change, right?
Jessica: So 85 years ago, we were building buildings, we were building roads, we were doing all of that stuff. Maybe not a data center from 85 years ago. They, maybe they were just like, "What is that big, building for?" But I think 85 years from now, we're gonna be building in space. You know, we're going to be out...
Jessica: Where we're building, what we're building is going to be different, and maybe we won't be able to identify exactly what that structure is or exactly what that space is. But I think that common thread of it's all going to be used for the connection of society and people and just remain core to the function of our profession.
Jessica: I think it helps ground me in, you know, helping our organization evolve and remaining true to our domain expertise that it really it really puts things in perspective here.
Rachel: Well, I, wow, I couldn't have paid you to close [00:44:00] out this episode any better because this is
Jessica: even used the word perspective. Yeah.
Rachel: I know. But honestly, both of you did such a great job there, too. Not all the questions as well, but there's always this, as we mentioned, there was this through line of there is technology, but there are humans, and the humans are first.
Rachel: And really just focusing on that being the first thing, the last thing, and everything in the middle. So I just so appreciate you all. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise here on AEC Perspectives by RS&H. But that, I know that brings us to the end, so... And who knows? Maybe in 85 years we'll still be doing this podcast.
Rachel: Again, it'll probably be different people, maybe robots, who knows. But we'll always be connecting the people that are part of the industry. But thank you, Jess. Thank you, Jessica, for joining us here on AEC Perspectives. Again find and subscribe to us wherever you're listening to your favorite podcasts.
Rachel: As I mentioned, share this with the people in your life that this will mean the most to because now they'll have an insider track into what's going on in the AEC industry, how to be a part of it, how to be on the forefront of it, and how [00:45:00] to best benefit from what RS&H provides in architecture, engineering, and construction.
Rachel: Thank you all so much for joining us for this episode. We'll be back with you next time with a new episode of AEC Perspectives. Bye
Jessica: Bye
