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Bechtel, one of the nation’s largest contractors by revenue, is overhauling the way it delivers AI projects. He has tapped a company veteran to lead the charge.
The builder of Reston, Virginia selected John Platt as Senior Vice President of the EPC transformation, a new role that will change the way the contractor delivers its engineering, procurement and construction services, the company announced Monday.
Platt, who joined Bechtel in 2000, will lead the initiative as Bechtel aims to overhaul the delivery process using advanced digital technologies, AI, automation and robotics. The move builds on the company’s multi-year initiative to expand quality and execution capacity as it aims to build major projects around the world.
“Our customers’ ambitions continue to grow and advances in technology are creating new opportunities for our industry to improve productivity and speed, increasing our ability to deliver more projects and tackle the world’s biggest challenges,” said Craig Albert, president and chief operating officer of Bechtel, in the press release.
The contractor has integrated digitization, robotics and automation into its jobsite delivery methods and a portfolio of proven use cases, according to the press release. The company also believes that AI has matured to the point where it can further fuel Bechtel’s work.
Bechtel’s move comes amid a hot data center market that can provide opportunities for builders that can build the necessary infrastructure for these structures, as well as for those who want to use AI to transform their businesses.
The contractor, meanwhile, is doing both: the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Commerce Department in October to support Japan’s $550 billion investment in the United States of energy, data centers and manufacturing infrastructure. The company also partnered with chip-making giant Nvidia accelerate data center construction using Nvidia’s Omniverse model.
Bechtel is also targeting massive infrastructure megaprojects nationwide. For example, the company earned $4.77 billion from work as part of the Rio Grande liquefied natural gas construction in Texas. The Bechtel contract is part of the overall $6.7 billion Train 4 project and its related infrastructure, which will produce 6 million tons of liquefied natural gas per year.
“By integrating artificial intelligence and robotics more deeply into our execution model, we are evolving our processes, building on more than a century of experience while adopting modern approaches that deliver greater value and productivity for our customers,” Platt said in the press release.
