The power of collaboration: Balfour Beatty joins forces with Microsoft to ‘hack’ the biggest business opportunities

Jon Ozanne, Chief Information Officer, discusses Balfour Beatty’s recent ‘Big AI Challenge’, the power of collaboration and the importance of data in driving productivity

What do you get when you bring together some of the greatest minds from Balfour Beatty and Microsoft? The power of collaboration. That’s one of the (many) things I learnt last week at our ‘Big AI Challenge’ where 70 employees from both organisations ‘hacked’ some of our biggest business opportunities at Microsoft’s flagship Experience Centre in the heart of London’s West End.

Over the years, I’ve experienced real enthusiasm across our business for using data analytics and Artificial Intelligence to improve the way we work. But the challenge for me is how to effectively channel that enthusiasm so that we can drive productivity gains across our business.

That’s what the Big AI Challenge was all about. We came together to test out how we could use data and AI to generate solutions for six business-generated ideas submitted through My Contribution – our programme for employee led business change, which allows us to tap into the rich seam of creative thinking from people who understand our business better than anyone.

The energy in the room was electric and the results…well, they were pretty impressive too. It was almost impossible to pick two winning ideas to refine, scale and deploy across our business to drive meaningful productivity gains.

But. Drum roll please. The results are in, and they speak for themselves:

Auto generation of inspection and test plans (ITPs): ITPs are to quality, what method statements are to safety – every activity requires one (meaning we produce thousands each year), and they must be accurate to prevent costly defects and rework. One of the six teams created a prototype tool which automatically populates the required information, into a template, reducing human error, improving quality, and saving time.              

Highways repair ‘clustering’: Balfour Beatty Living Places repair c.220,000 potholes each year, averaging 6.5 jobs per team per day. Those jobs are scheduled manually, which means inefficiencies, human error and resource mismanagement can creep in. The other winning team worked out that by developing and teaching the AI tool to ‘cluster’ the jobs you can reduce mileage and travel time, increasing the number of jobs a team can take on and consequently, driving a 20% productivity gain, reduced carbon emissions, road space optimisation and reduced road user disruption.

These incredible ideas are just the start. Our next steps are to work on each of the six ideas in the coming weeks, properly mapping and planning resources, testing technology and seeing what’s required to progress from proven concepts into scalable solutions.

‘The Big AI Challenge’ taught me that with the right mindset, knowledge and tools, the sky is the limit. Here’s to a future where collaboration combined with data, technology and AI continues to help us problem-solve and convert ideas into outcomes.

The Big AI Challenge was just the start, but the opportunities are endless.