The second annual AI Symposium from Highways Magazine and leading field software supplier FYLD successfully brought together a wide swathe of the sector, including international colleagues, to discuss moving from AI ambition to operational reality.
The wide-ranging debate covered ownership of the agenda and the pace of change in highways delivery, with attendees emphasising that the sector needs to work closely with operational teams when it comes to implementation and needs better collaboration across different stakeholders to unlock AI success at scale.
Attendees highlighted that AI tools work best when field teams help shape the implementation and so it is important to ask frontline workers what their problems are before handing them a platform.
Another common argument was the importance of not getting stuck in pilot mode: pilots chasing novelty rather than intent, with no defined timeline, stakeholder buy-in or measurable outcome, do not shift behaviour, attendees argued.
The practical benefits of AI were also highlighted, not necessarily as a revolutionary change, but as a vital development to make operations more efficient, handle the huge amount of data the sector now produces, and to enable conversations about what issues can now be identified and acted on that couldn't be before.
Summing up the day's conversation, Joshua Wood, strategic account director at FYLD, said: 'We had tier ones, contractors, supply chain, local authorities and government, so it was a really good mix. You can definitely see some of the challenges that exist between public and private sectors.
'The way we can use AI is to support the decision-making for a human and actually maybe get rid of some of the overwhelm of information. It's about maybe filtering out some of the noise to help a human make the best decision they can.'
You can read all about the full conversation in the September issue of Highways. Sign up for your FREE digital issue here.
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