The Year in Infrastructure 2025: Bentley Systems Charts an AI-Driven World

Amsterdam has always been a city of engineering audacity. As one speaker noted, “The city floats on wooden piles sunk deep into marshy ground, an infrastructure of faith that water could be ordered and that chaos could be channeled into canals.” That reflection on risk and design framed the Bentley Systems Year in Infrastructure 2025 conference, which explored how software, data, and artificial intelligence are reshaping how we build and manage the physical world.

From Canals to Data Streams

Nathan Marsh, Senior Vice President and Regional Executive for EMEA, opened the event by linking Amsterdam’s 750-year legacy to today’s digital challenges.
“Whether we’re designing a roadway or planning a global rail network,” he said, “we’re all part of the same community, using vision, collaboration, and innovation to design how people live and connect.”

Nathan Marsh, Senior Vice President and Regional Executive for EMEA

Marsh described infrastructure as a living system under pressure. By 2030, nearly sixty percent of the world’s population will live in cities. “Roads are congested, power grids stretched, and water systems stressed,” he said. His message was direct: the ingenuity that built Amsterdam’s canals must now be applied to modern networks of data and infrastructure.

Nicholas Cumins: The Productivity Gap

Nicholas Cumins, Chief Executive Officer, followed with a clear assessment of global capacity. “The Netherlands literally created new land from the sea,” he said. “Each generation builds on the last, and their lessons guide us today.”

He spoke about the growing imbalance between the world’s infrastructure needs and the number of engineers available to meet them. “There simply aren’t enough engineers in the world to do all the work that needs to be done,” he said.

Cumins cited measurable results from digital transformation: design time reduced by 20 percent, construction costs lowered by 20 percent, and project schedules compressed through the use of digital twins. “Yet even with these improvements, it is still not enough,” he said.

Artificial intelligence, he argued, can close part of that gap. Nearly half of this year’s award finalists used AI in some form. “The projects compressing schedules by 80 percent or analyzing thousands of design options all rely on AI to drive that leap,” Cumins said.

He was equally careful about its limits. “Engineers work in a creative profession where precision is non-negotiable,” he said. “AI in infrastructure will remain a collaborative process with the human in the loop.”

Cumins also introduced the Infrastructure AI Co-Innovation Initiative, inviting engineering firms and asset owners to collaborate with Bentley on the development of practical, domain-specific AI workflows

When Cumins spoke about “trustworthy AI grounded in engineering context,” the audience response was measured but intent. Heads nodded around the room, it was clear the message had landed: progress in infrastructure would depend not on automation alone, but on engineers trusting the intelligence they help create.

His phrase “trustworthy AI grounded in engineering context” echoed throughout the event.

Patrick Cozzi: Context Is Everything

Patrick Cozzi, Chief Platform Officer, described how context and openness are central to Bentley’s platform strategy. “Using Cesium as the core, we’re building an open platform for the natural and built environment,” he said. “We’re exposing foundational technology through open APIs so that engineers can design in the real-world context of their projects.”

Cozzi demonstrated photogrammetry and 3D reality capture technologies and introduced Gaussian splats, a technique that creates detailed, photorealistic models of the built environment. He also showed AI feature detectors that automatically identify assets or defects in point clouds, turning raw imagery into usable data.

Patrick Cozzi, Chief Platform Officer

“Once we can see the scanned environment, we want to analyze it and extract real-world insights,” Cozzi said. He emphasized data control and transparency. “Your data remains your data, and you control who has access.”

These advances, he said, help move from visualization to analysis, enabling decisions that are both faster and more reliable.

Julien Moutte: The Connected Lifecycle

Julien Moutte, Chief Technology Officer, introduced Bentley Infrastructure Cloud Connect as a foundation for connecting data across the full lifecycle of a project. “The lifecycle of infrastructure is not a sequence of phases,” he said. “It is a continuous cycle.”

He showed a unified, geospatial interface displaying multiple projects worldwide. “From a global portfolio view, you can zoom into the detail of a single structure in one click,” he explained. Engineers can review models, add markups, or access asset information without leaving the environment.

Julien Moutte, Chief Technology Officer

Moutte highlighted the integration of ProjectWise and AssetWise through the new platform. A demonstration of AI-powered search showed users retrieving and summarizing regulatory documents using natural-language queries.

He described this as a step toward seamless collaboration and operational continuity. “Our goal is to create a single source of truth that stays consistent from design through operation,” he said.

François Valois: AI in Design

François Valois, Senior Vice President for Open Applications, shifted the focus from platform to product. “OpenSite Plus delivers smarter, faster, and more collaborative design,” he said. “Clients will see increased speed and reduced construction costs.”

He demonstrated an engineer using a built-in co-pilot assistant to calculate stormwater volumes and update designs through natural-language commands. “The co-pilot understands civil-engineering context,” Valois said. “It is not a generic AI. It is built for design work.”

François Valois, Senior Vice President for Open Applications

He also introduced Substation Plus, an AI-driven application for utility design that enables real-time collaboration among multiple engineers. “Everyone stays in sync,” Valois said. “The same model flows forward into construction and operations, enriched with asset data and ready for the lifecycle ahead.”

Valois described this as a shift toward connected, collaborative design that supports the growing complexity of modern infrastructure projects.

Marion Bouillin: Construction Meets AI

Marion Bouillin, Senior Product Marketing Manager, presented Synchro Plus, a redesigned version of Bentley’s 4D construction software.
“Contractors take on hundred-million-dollar projects only to watch millions disappear to delays and inefficiencies,” she said. “Synchro Plus reimagines how projects are delivered.”

Bouillin outlined three principles for the new platform: data-centric architecture, an intuitive interface for field teams, and AI automation that reduces repetitive tasks while maintaining human oversight.

In one demonstration, an engineer asked the AI to map design elements to activities, automatically generating a 4D construction sequence. In another, users explored the model in an immersive environment, adjusting lighting and site conditions to improve communication.

“The goal,” she said, “is to give teams a single, accurate picture of what is happening and what needs to happen next.”

Marion Bouillin, Senior Product Marketing Manager

A Common Thread: Context, Openness, and Trust

Across all the sessions, the theme was consistent. Bentley is moving from individual tools toward a connected intelligence layer for infrastructure, built on context, open data, and human-centered AI.

Each presentation reinforced a unified vision of engineering data flowing across design, construction, and operation. What was once a collection of software products is becoming a coordinated ecosystem where information moves freely, decisions are traceable, and teams remain aligned.

When Cumins spoke of AI “grounded in engineering logic,” he described a disciplined approach rather than a speculative one. The focus is on accountability, traceability, and verifiable performance rather than experimentation for its own sake.

Infrastructure and Sustainability

Sustainability was another recurring theme. Marsh emphasized adaptability, Cumins cited measurable cost and carbon reductions from optimized foundations, and Bouillin highlighted waste reduction through better planning. The message was that productivity and sustainability can reinforce each other when systems are data-driven and predictive.

Digital twins, several speakers noted, are not digital copies but operational systems that allow organizations to measure, model, and reduce environmental impact in real time. They enable owners and engineers to simulate design alternatives and evaluate outcomes before construction begins, helping to avoid rework and reduce material use.

From Data to Decision

The central takeaway from Bentley Systems Year in Infrastructure event in Amsterdam was that infrastructure and technology are converging around one question: how to make intelligence continuous. Bentley’s answer is to embed that intelligence directly within the infrastructure lifecycle.

“When we get this right,” Marsh said, “the work we do will be an intangible legacy for the next generation.” Cumins closed with a clear statement of purpose:
“The infrastructure of the future won’t just be designed. It will learn.”

The discussion was not about replacing people but about giving them better tools. AI can extend the reach of human expertise, improving accuracy, accelerating design cycles, and creating systems that can adapt as conditions change.

Bentley’s theme from Amsterdam was pragmatic. Context is the foundation of modern infrastructure. The organizations that master it through data integrity, open standards, and collaboration will define how the world builds, connects, and endures in the decades ahead.

The post How Bentley Systems’ AI-Driven Innovations, Open Collaboration, and Digital Twin Technologies Are Shaping the Future of Sustainable Design, Construction, and Operations appeared first on Logistics Viewpoints.