How SYSTRA UK and Ireland scales AI automation securely with VIKTOR AI

SYSTRA Limited, across the UK and Ireland, uses the VIKTOR AI platform to automate engineering processes with AI across its engineering teams, in a secure and governed environment. Engineers turn their own calculations into verified automations that colleagues across the organisation can run. For example, in pre-stressed concrete beam design, this has cut engineering time by 40–45% and time spent on review and feedback cycles by 80%.

This approach is being recognised as highly innovative. SYSTRA Limited and VIKTOR AI have been shortlisted at TechFest 2026 for the category "Best Use of Technology: Digital Engineering", with the pre-stressed concrete design automation. Winners will be announced at TechFest in London on November 25, 2026.

Below, we explain how SYSTRA Limited went from a proof of concept to organisation-wide AI automation with VIKTOR AI. We will also explain the results achieved so far, and how the VIKTOR AI platform keeps engineers in control.

From proof of concept to organisation-wide AI automation

SYSTRA’s innovation team in the UK and Ireland started working with VIKTOR AI as a proof of concept. The goal was to let engineers use AI to automate their own engineering work, while ensuring company-wide governance and control on quality, project data or IP. SYSTRA Limited wanted one governed environment in the UK and Ireland where new ideas could be tested safely, the best ones scaled to the rest of the business, and an automation one engineer builds relied on by colleagues on other projects.

That is what the VIKTOR AI platform is designed for: turning engineering challenges into verified solutions, safely and at scale. Since the proof of concept, SYSTRA Limited’s engineering teams have automated dozens of processes by building apps with AI. Many replace complex Excel workbooks that only a few people understood, turning them into shared tools anyone on the team can use and check.

Built by engineers, for engineers

Automation at SYSTRA in the UK and Ireland is driven by the engineering teams themselves: engineers decide what to automate, build it and set the standards for it, within the governance of the VIKTOR AI platform.

The Structures and Architecture team shows how this works in practice. Its discipline lead set aside dedicated time for AI automation, and within six weeks the team had automated six recurring calculation processes. The team also wrote its own guidance for building and validating these automations, so every new one follows the same standard.

Specialists within the UK and Ireland have presented automated culvert design as a key innovation, with design time on some projects expected to be 50% faster and more design options for clients, including lower-carbon ones. The Track team has followed, automating smaller dashboarding and interface tasks that the whole team can use once published.

“In our sector, AI is changing concept design from a four-week job to a week at most. Engineers can build tools anywhere. What VIKTOR gives us is a structured, secure environment where the tools one engineer builds can be used with confidence by everyone else.”

Llewelyn Morgan

Head of Innovation, SYSTRA UK and Ireland

Three automated processes presented at TechFest 2026

The Innovation team at SYSTRA in the UK and Ireland, alongside VIKTOR AI, presented three of these automated engineering processes at TechFest 2026, in the Digital Engineering, Artificial Intelligence and Design Efficiency categories. The pre-stressed concrete beam design automation has been shortlisted in Digital Engineering.

Pre-stressed concrete beam design: 40–45% less engineering time

The pre-stressed concrete design automation, covers pre-tensioned and post-tensioned beam design, including seismic checks. It fills the gap between heavyweight analysis software and spreadsheets, so engineers can test options early with architects. Compared with the previous workflow, engineering time has dropped by 40–45% and time spent on review and feedback cycles by 80%, while engineers now explore three times as many design options.

Eurocode compliance checks with AI

With second-generation Eurocodes coming into force, the AI-powered Eurocode compliance automation uses project information to show which clauses apply to each element. It produces reports that engineers attach to their calculations. This helps teams scope bids accurately and demonstrate compliance with fewer review rounds.

Pile cap design optimised with VIKTOR AI in ETABS and Midas Civil

The pile cap automation applies beam theory and the strut-and-tie method parametrically to find the leanest quantities. With VIKTOR AI in ETABS and Midas Civil, loads are taken directly from the analysis models into the design.

Engineers in control: governed and verified AI automation

With VIKTOR AI, SYSTRA Limited uses AI to speed up engineering work, while every design decision stays with the engineer. Instead of handing decisions to a black box, every automation runs verifiable calculations checked against references such as Eurocode 2, so each design decision can be traced back to its inputs. SYSTRA Limited’s automations also include a learning mode that guides less experienced engineers through the design checks.

Governance is built into the VIKTOR AI platform. Each automation moves through the Development, Testing, Acceptance and Production (DTAP) stages before it reaches production, with SYSTRA administrators in the UK and Ireland deciding which automations become trusted company tools. Because every automation is written in Python, the engineering logic stays transparent and remains SYSTRA Limited’s IP.

Screenshot 2026-10-02 151637.png

What’s next: full engineering workflows with VIKTOR AI

The next step for SYSTRA’s specialists in the UK and Ireland is to use VIKTOR AI to orchestrate workflows across the engineering tools its teams already use.

Teams are building workflows with VIKTOR AI in Autodesk that move data between models, calculations and outputs in one controlled environment, and are exploring workflows with VIKTOR AI in Bentley iTwin for rail projects. The aim is to cut manual file conversion and re-checking, so engineers spend their time on engineering rather than admin. Each new workflow passes through the same validation and governance process as the automations SYSTRA Limited already runs in production.

AI engineering automation you can trust, at organisation scale

The next phase of AI in engineering relies on the ability to combine AI with engineering expertise and verification. SYSTRA Limited and VIKTOR AI are building that foundation together. Engineers automate their own processes, the VIKTOR AI platform verifies and governs them, and the whole organisation benefits from every automation that reaches production. The TechFest 2026 shortlisting is one confirmation that this approach works. The time savings on SYSTRA UK and Ireland projects are another.

Want to see how your engineering teams can automate processes with AI, securely and at scale? Book a demo.

About SYSTRA in the UK and Ireland

SYSTRA Limited is a multidisciplinary engineering and transport consultancy with offices in the UK and Ireland working across rail, highways, water, energy and the built environment.