Bentley Systems continues to expand its AI-assisted and -powered offerings, as a growing number of its customers finding success by using artificial intelligence in their workflows. The company has also implemented governance around AI model training so that only data that has been explicitly licensed or purchased for this purpose is used. And, in an effort to work more closely with its customers, Bentley announced the Infrastructure Ai Co-Innovation Initiative to collaborate with customers on the future of AI workflows.

Bentley Systems is continuing its roll into the realm of AI with new infrastructure AI capabilities. It is also kicking off an Infrastructure AI co-innovation initiative, announced at its Year in Infrastructure conference that invites engineering firms and asset owners to collaborate on the next generation of AI workflows.

“AI is poised to transform infrastructure,” said Bentley CEO Nicholas Cumins. “Our vision is for AI to empower infrastructure engineers—not replace them. Trustworthy AI, built on infrastructure context, can improve engineering productivity and transform workflows across project and asset life cycles.”

At last year’s conference, Bentley introduced OpenSite+ for civil site design, the first in a series of new AI-powered open applications from the company. This year at the conference, Bentley unveiled additional next-generation applications for substation design and construction management that accelerate the adoption of AI across project delivery. 

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

• Site design: OpenSite+, now in limited availability, is an all-in-one solution that delivers projects up to 10 times faster, without sacrificing accuracy, by automating tedious tasks.  
• Substation design: OpenUtilities Substation+ (available in an early release program) is a new application that brings digital twin and AI-powered capabilities to substation design, allowing multiple users to work at the same time in the same model, thereby reducing errors and rework during construction. 
• Construction management: Synchro+, part of Bentley Infrastructure Cloud, is a next-generation, AI-powered construction application that redefines traditional 4D modeling. By shifting to a data-centric workflow, Synchro+ streamlines construction planning and coordination, integrating Cesium for rich geospatial context, and leverages AI to explore construction sequences with greater depth, speed, and actionable insights. It will be available for early access in December 2025.

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

Bentley also announced new AI-powered search capabilities in ProjectWise, part of Bentley Infrastructure Cloud, designed to significantly reduce the time users spend searching for information. With a streamlined interface and contextualized AI search capabilities, users receive instant, concise summaries generated by AI, without opening files or switching between applications. ProjectWise AI capabilities will be available for early access in December 2025, with general availability planned in 2026.

As users rely on Bentley Infrastructure Cloud to manage their engineering files and data, Bentley emphasizes its commitment to data stewardship. To this end, Bentley has implemented governance around AI model training so that only data that has been explicitly licensed or purchased for this purpose is used—this includes contributions from accounts that have agreed to supply data for the benefit of the broader Bentley user community. Users also have the option to fine-tune Bentley AI models with their own data, for exclusive use within their organizations. To further support transparency, Bentley has introduced the Data Agreement Registry, an auditing system that provides visibility into how data was used to train Bentley AI models.

Underscoring the importance and growing use of AI in engineering and infrastructure projects could be found in the annual Bentley Going Digital Awards, recognizing excellence in project delivery and asset performance through digital innovation. According to Bentley, nearly a third of this year’s award submissions—and about half of the finalists—incorporated AI into their projects.

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

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