For engineering firms that manage refineries, chemical plants, pipelines and long-lived industrial facilities, some of the most valuable project knowledge exists not in databases but in decades of reports, drawings and the experience of engineers about to retire.
With technical documentation spread across multiple design and information systems and project archives, companies are increasingly exploring artificial intelligence tools to capture this expertise and make it usable in complex industrial asset portfolios.
Worley Consulting says it is deploying this approach using an artificial intelligence platform designed to organize engineering documentation, operational records and in-house expertise on industrial projects. The system was developed in-house and is now offered to customers through a partnership with software firm Bloomfire.
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Internal deployment creates early use
Industry snapshot
27%
of engineering and construction companies report using or piloting AI technologies
Source: Autodesk/IMF Construction Technology and Innovation Report
Worley began rolling out the system internally between April and December 2025 using an internal platform called WorleyIQ. AI powered by LLM now serves about 3,000 engineers, consultants and digital specialists across the enterprise and has reached full adoption among its target users, according to the company. Engineers primarily use the platform for AI-powered search through engineering documentation, discovery of subject matter experts across global teams, and curation of validated technical content reused in new projects.
The platform is accessible through a web or mobile portal, as well as collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack, allowing engineers to search for technical documentation and project records directly within their existing workflows.
In the first two months after full launch, Worley said users averaged about five searches per person per month as engineers used the platform to locate internal knowledge and retrieve project knowledge from across the organization.
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Industry groups say interest in AI-enabled knowledge systems is growing in the engineering sector.
An October 2025 technology handbook published by the American Engineering Business Council says AI tools, from predictive analytics to natural language search, help companies analyze technical documents, automate information retrieval and connect engineers with internal knowledge bases more quickly.
Engineering knowledge management research identifies similar challenges in asset-intensive industries. Project documentation and technical records are often scattered across multiple project-based systems, whether CAD or BIM files on a cloud platform, or simply construction documents on a hard drive or physical sheet sets.
They are also found in departments such as facility management for clients or a project library for design firms. The retirement or departure of experienced engineers can result in the loss of critical institutional expertise, according to a white paper on AI-powered engineering knowledge systems published by technology consultancy Augusta Hitech.
“Industrial companies don’t lack data: they lack reliable and actionable insights that can be used when making decisions,” said Fabricio Sousa, global president of Worley Consulting. “We are integrating and deploying business intelligence directly into our customers’ workflows to drive value and manage risk through streamlined information management.”
Engineering use cases drive adoption
The collaboration between Worley and Bloomfire integrates Bloomfire’s Enterprise Intelligence platform into Worley Consulting’s digital advisory services for clients in the energy, chemical and resources sectors. Bloomfire provides the knowledge platform while Worley configures the system for specific asset portfolios using what the company describes as deployable “digital accelerators” – asset-specific data models and connectors that integrate engineering documentation, operational data and internal expertise into a unified knowledge environment.
Under the partnership model, Worley acts as an integrator and implementation partner, combining the Bloomfire platform with consulting services including governance frameworks, data management, operational integration and organizational change management designed to integrate the system within engineering workflows.
For operators and project teams, the engineering value proposition is tied less to generic search than to continuity over long project cycles.
Engineering, procurement, and construction management programs for industrial facilities often span years, with technologies evolving, equipment changing, and project documentation dispersing across multiple silos during transitions from design to construction and finally operations.
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Worley says the system is meant to organize these records so that engineers can start working with reliable prior knowledge rather than rebuilding the context from scratch.
“When clients see knowledge structured around how industrial assets actually work, their immediate reaction is, ‘we need that,'” said Barry Walker, senior vice president of AI and machine learning at Worley Consulting. “Our shared clients will now experience the same benefits as Worley Consulting, from the ability to preserve institutional knowledge to the potential to de-risk operations at scale.”
Walker said one of the most immediate applications is accessing lessons learned from previous projects. Engineering teams can use AI search to retrieve prior design knowledge, maintenance troubleshooting guidance or operational experience as a “trusted starting point,” which he said can reduce delays and help engineers respond more quickly to process plant incidents or operational problems.
Bloomfire CEO Philip Brittan said the partnership grew out of the internal deployment of Worley’s technology. “They became a customer and built something internally called WorleyIQ using Bloomfire as the infrastructure,” Brittan said in an interview. “Customers saw the tools they were using and started asking, ‘What is this?’ We want it too.”
Brittan said that customer deployments are customized rather than simply opening up the same internal database to external users.
“They’re a distributor. They implement it for you. They customize it,” he said, adding that Worley helps clients connect the right content sources, configure the platform around specific use cases and align it with broader digital transformation initiatives.
“Worley operates globally through experts in energy, chemicals, resources and emerging technologies, which opens up markets we could not access on our own,” said Matt Fryar, Bloomfire’s director of sales. “Our partnership reflects both the readiness of our platform and the strength of the relationship we’ve already built through Worley’s internal deployment.”
The goal is to turn decades of engineering documentation and operational experience into a searchable technical resource that engineers can use during design, troubleshooting, and operations, helping to preserve expertise that historically disappeared as projects were closed and experienced engineers left the workforce.
