By Pat McLarin, Segment Director, Civil, Seequent
Even though COVID-19’s effects are finally disappearing in the rear-vision mirror, its repercussions live on in engineering challenges.
As we tip past the midpoint of a decade still reverberating from the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are signs that some of the unpredictability of change in civil engineering may be being better managed as organisations build resilience.
There are many uncertainties still on the horizon, sparked by geopolitical tensions and outright conflict, climate change and water security concerns, trade issues and labour shortages, and rising demand for energy as the world seeks to transition to more renewable power sources. How we harness artificial intelligence (AI), though, is certain to be pivotal.
As Bentley Systems Vice President of Infrastructure Policy Advancement Mark Coates says, COVID-19 and geopolitics have shown that it isn’t possible to de-risk a single project in isolation. The Institution of Civil Engineers Systems Approach to Infrastructure Delivery1 (SAID) report was a reminder that we are always working inside wider systems, and a recent survey2 by Bentley, law firm Pinsent Masons, and engineering consultancies Mott MacDonald and Turner & Townsend confirmed the same in digital form.
‘If we pour AI into fragile systems without changing how we govern projects, contracts and data, we do not remove risk; we just move it around faster,’ Coates says.
What is becoming clearer, however, is cautious optimism about improved delivery of mega projects around the world, albeit with an Achilles heel, and perhaps a better sense of how AI can help civil engineers progress such work.
Here are three themes to keep a close eye on during 2026:
1. The impacts of uncertainties
Business as usual, or as close to usual as possible, is something of a pipedream these days. There are so many influencing factors from sources external to an infrastructure project, as well as those operating within the project itself.
It’s a bit hackneyed to continue the ‘most certain thing is uncertainty itself’ school of thought, as there are some good signals, if you know where to look, of how the industry is changing and what we can do to prepare for that.
Some patterns are emerging from the fog that is a consequence of large-scale recent global events. Rising spending on defence around the world, and the boosts from this to local and national supply chains, is one of these. Another is the race to build data centres to support AI and the need to secure enough energy to power these electricity-intensive establishments, as well as source enough water to cool them.
This increasing demand for secure and non-volatile sources of energy is a huge challenge, coming at the same time as it becomes clear that the international community is not on track to limit warming in accordance with the Paris Agreement, with the implication that we will need to ramp up our adaptation and mitigation measures against rising temperatures. A broader range of environmental challenges, such as to protect water quality and biodiversity, also adds uncertainty to the picture for next year and beyond.
The geopolitical environment also brings unpredictability to the completion of infrastructure projects because of its significant effects on supply chains and their reliability. Tit-for-tat tariff escalations seen in 2025 added considerable uncertainty, and it would be prudent to anticipate that 2026 will see some policy shocks of equal magnitude, though high demand and constrained supply of key components, materials, or services may be as big a factor for the construction industry as geopolitics.
COVID-19’s repercussions are slowly fading, but remind us how connected we are as a world in terms of impacts on the economy, on both labour and skills shortages, and on prices and supply chains.
The latest CRUX Insight3 report of construction and engineering projects across the globe offers some hope in civil, with the number of monetary claims and time overruns falling, particularly among those projects started since 2020.
Despite that, unforeseen site conditions remain in the top 10 causes of claims, though most causes have reduced in frequency, albeit with some regional variations. More difficult economic times mean cash flow and payment issues were ranked higher in the report.
2. Adoption of AI and digital resiliency
The AI boom of the past couple of years has been astonishing. Very few people in the engineering sector today would not be using AI in some shape or form to help with project work, whether it be for design or research, or for data management or report writing.
AI platforms still require close human supervision and constant checking for accuracy. They remain far from infallible. There currently aren’t enough engineers to meet demands for new projects around the world. AI can help fill this gap by carrying out certain tasks, but it should not be seen as a substitute for engineers.
The data that feeds our daily work is the key. Open platforms really shine in connecting people with the data, while providing the opportunity to control and manage data quality and governance.
For example, to adapt to the challenges of accelerated project delivery, a data platform can aid in carrying out repetitive data capture and analysis, and in speeding up fieldwork investigations. By rapidly sharing data with clients and colleagues through the cloud, a project can be nimble and develop in real time to pivot in the most useful direction.
Bentley Systems’ Chief Executive, Nicholas Cumins, talked about this in his keynote address at the Year In Infrastructure conference in October. He considered engineering capacity the biggest challenge facing project delivery, and called trustworthy, context-aware AI the solution to design and build at scale, and to lifting productivity without compromising safety or breaking respected engineering constraints. According to Cumins, AI should empower engineers, not replace them.
The importance of data and its governance to any project cannot be overstated. When it comes to AI’s use of it, we not only need to be certain of the integrity of the data – that it is accurate and properly managed – but also that it is secure, and the owner retains control and proprietorship of it.
‘SAID talks about data as the oil in the project engine, and our AI survey shows many organisations are driving with the oil light already flashing,’ says Coates. ‘They want AI on more projects, yet they are still arguing about who owns the data, how it can be shared safely across joint ventures, and what level of audit trail is acceptable when AI influences design decisions.’
3. Pressure to build infrastructure, and fast
The latest population estimate says 8.23 billion people now live on the planet. That’s two billion more than at the turn of the century and twice the number 50 years ago. By 2060, the United Nations estimates that total population will reach 10 billion. India and China now have 2.9 billion people between them, accounting for about 35 per cent of the world’s population.
As the population of developing countries continues to grow, the clamour for infrastructure gets louder. There’s increasing political pressure to turn around sometimes massive projects – data centres, new energy systems or high-speed rail – at an increasingly rapid pace.
One of the major challenges we now face is to ensure that these mega projects are robust and put safety first. Cheap and plentiful labour in some nations may help produce quick builds, but they may not be great builds.
A more cautious approach, ensuring that everything that should be taken into account actually is, is essential. We’re reminded of the partial collapse of the newly opened Hongqi Bridge in Western China’s Sichuan province, following a landslide in November.
SAID and the survey results point to the same answer: if you are going to use AI to compress programmes, you must also strengthen project controls, clarify contract language on AI use, and agree on clear outcomes up-front. Otherwise, you are not accelerating delivery; you are accelerating claims and disappointment.
Undue haste is, of course, not just a worry at the construction stage. Duress to speed up the exploration and design phases of a major project can also lead to a dangerous and costly white elephant. Fast-tracking without robust investigations and realistic timeframes is opening the door to potentially catastrophic outcomes down the track.
There are many fantastic projects underway around the globe – many of them life-changing for the communities who will rely on them. These include ambitious water projects in the developing world, along with the Delta Conveyance Project to modernise California’s water system, and the proposed upgrade to the Panama Canal to expand and bolster it against the effects of climate change.
Pumped hydro-storage plants in the United Kingdom are going to be generating many gigawatts of electricity to meet peak demand, while there are plans for huge offshore cables between parts of the United Kingdom and neighbouring countries.
Transport mega projects will also be progressing at speed next year. Keep a watch out for high-speed rail programmes such as Thailand’s Bangkok–Nong Khai line, India’s Mumbai–Ahmedabad route, the Jakarta–Bandung project in Indonesia, California’s High-Speed Rail, Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh–Dammam line, and HS2 in the United Kingdom.
As we look to 2026 and beyond, civil engineers face an increasingly tricky balance to harness trust, constantly keep a check on new technologies, work to provide bigger and bigger infrastructure quickly, and guarantee its safety and integrity for the millions who will depend on it.
End notes
- Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), ‘A Systems Approach to Infrastructure Delivery – putting the principles into practice (Part 2)’, London: ICE, 2022
- Infrastructure Policy Advancement, ‘AI Global Survey Findings – FB Whitepaper’, Infrastructure Policy Advancement, 2025
- HKA, ‘CRUX Insight: Eighth Annual Report – From Insight to Foresight’, London: HKA, 2025.