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Unlocking human intelligence: how autonomic systems will transform infrastructure at Amey

Robert Curley, Project Director for Genny
12 January 2026
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At Amey, we know that our greatest asset is not just our technology or infrastructure, but the collective expertise and judgement of our people. Every day, our teams make decisions that keep services running safely and efficiently, drawing on years of experience and tacit knowledge — knowledge that is rarely written down, but always relied upon. From the quiet call a site manager makes at five in the morning to the foresight of a planner who has seen ten winters, this expert judgement underpins the safe and efficient delivery of public services.

But what if we could unlock and scale that knowledge across our business? As one of the UK’s leading infrastructure companies, facing rising demand and expanding internationally, we need to ensure that this hard-won expertise does not stay local or siloed. Scaling it is critical to meeting the challenges ahead - and to creating solutions that are more resilient, more sustainable and consistently informed by the best of our collective intelligence.

Genny is designed to capture and scale expertise across the business.

Genny: Our knowledge engine in action

We are already putting these principles into practice. Genny, our internal knowledge engine, is designed to capture and scale expertise across the business. By indexing lessons learned, case studies, and expert insights, Genny enables teams to find answers quickly, connect with the right people, and reuse proven solutions.

In a recent pilot, Genny helped our bidding team reduce search times, increase the reuse of best practices, and identify subject matter experts more efficiently. Tasks that previously required four days now take 30 minutes, with the AI handling up to 80% of tender content creation, including scope analysis, planning, and initial drafts. The result? Faster problem-solving, greater consistency, and clearer signals of what works, driving better outcomes across our contracts.

AS is about amplifying the impact of our experts.

The path to autonomic infrastructure

Genny is our foundation, opening the doors to our next frontier is autonomic systems (AS) - self-managing infrastructure that can monitor, diagnose, and adapt in real time. By integrating advanced AI with real-time data and control systems, we can move from decision support to self-optimising assets and networks. This means infrastructure that not only predicts and prevents issues, but also takes corrective action automatically, delivering new levels of resilience, efficiency, and sustainability.

Autonomic systems also unlocks something we have never been able to fully capture: tacit knowledge - the instincts and insights built over years on the job. Historically, this knowledge has been difficult to share, but AS changes that. By leveraging conversational AI, machine learning and knowledge graphs, we can surface patterns, connect expertise and make the right information available at the right moment.

This is not about replacing our experts. It is about amplifying their impact, ensuring every team benefits from the best of our collective intelligence and delivers better, more informed solutions for our clients, and for the communities we serve.

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AS unlocks tacit knowledge: the instincts and insights built over years on the job.

We are redefining what intelligent infrastructure delivery looks like.

Delivering real business impact

Our vision for AS is not theoretical - it is about measurable outcomes that change how we operate and deliver value. By embedding AS into our processes, we will move from incremental improvements to transformative gains in safety, efficiency and resilience.

We can now detect risks earlier and improve forewarning; our teams are empowered to make safer decisions, reducing incidents before they occur. Access to expertise and proven solutions is accelerated, meaning that knowledge flows seamlessly to where it is needed most - enabling faster, more consistent delivery on every project. Productivity is enhanced as knowledge sharing becomes second nature, allowing teams to collaborate more effectively and enhance best practices that have already demonstrated their value. And as market pressures and client demands evolve, AS will support more adaptive planning, helping us to build resilience into our supply chains and respond confidently to new challenges.

By making knowledge accessible, actionable and always available, we are not just improving performance, we are redefining what intelligent infrastructure delivery looks like.

We want to set new benchmarks for intelligent infrastructure across the industry.

Responsible innovation, human-centred design

Infrastructure is evolving. It is no longer just about concrete and steel; it is about intelligence, adaptability and collaboration. That is why our approach to AS is grounded in human-centred design, transparency and ethical deployment. We are committed to ensuring that technology augments, not replaces, the expertise of our people, and that it always aligns with public value, safety and regulation.

Looking ahead, our focus is on scaling these capabilities across every part of our business, deepening integration with our operations and exploring new partnerships to accelerate innovation. As AS matures, we see opportunities to redefine service delivery, enhance sustainability and set new benchmarks for intelligent infrastructure across the industry.

And as this transformation unfolds, the quiet call from a site manager at five in the morning and the foresight of a planner who has seen ten winters will no longer stay local; they will shape decisions everywhere, amplified by AS and shared across our entire organisation. The journey has started - and we are leading it.

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