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Dr. Tom Bartley

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Dr. Tom Bartley

Independent Consultant, UK

BIOGRAPHY

Tom is an independent consultant specialising in digital transformation for infrastructure clients across the UK. His work includes advising national transport companies on asset management strategies, and supporting a number of startups developing inspection and structural health monitoring capabilities for the bridges market. Tom's focus sits at the interface between engineering practice, systems thinking, and digital transformation. Having worked across major engineering organisations and startups, he brings a unique perspective on the opportunities emerging technologies present for bridge management.

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Previously, as General Manager of Civil Infrastructure at Mind Foundry, Tom led development of Windward Inspect, combining AI, image correlation, and mobile-based inspection to streamline bridge inspection and maintenance workflows. Earlier roles at Jacobs and WSP saw him accelerate and assure complex programme delivery throughout the UK and Europe, including updates the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges.

Tom holds an Engineering Doctorate in technology implementation for project delivery underpinning his work on how organisations capture, structure, and hand down infrastructure knowledge over time.

ABSTRACT

AI-Powered Asset Management for Bridges using Digital Custodianship

As bridges worldwide approach the end of their intended service lives, engineers face increasing pressure to maintain safety, performance, and sustainability in the face of limited resources and growing complexity. Asset owners face a perfect storm of increasing deterioration rates, a retiring workforce, constrained budgets, and changing performance demands. This presentation introduces the concept of Digital Custodianship: a vision for how emerging technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) will take a proactive, data-driven role in managing ageing assets. Digital Custodianship is not about replacing engineers with technology. It is about preserving institutional knowledge, integrating historical data, and applying AI-driven insights to extend asset life and improve resilience. Digital Custodianship ensures the right knowledge is available to the right people at the right time to make decisions about maintenance and renewals. Digital Custodians are envisioned as AI-powered agents designed to operate continuously alongside human experts, learning from inspection data, environmental inputs, and historical performance to provide intelligent insights on asset condition, deterioration risk, and maintenance prioritization. Their role is not just analytical; it is custodial: offering ongoing oversight, contextual understanding, and timely guidance across the lifecycle of structures. In this talk, Tom will present: (i) digital Custodianship and its role in extending the life of existing infrastructure and buildings, (ii) how AI can serve as a persistent, intelligent observer to support condition monitoring and maintenance planning, (iii) the need for transparency and interpretability in AI systems used in civil engineering and asset management, and (iv) the need for good data and objective metrics as inputs.

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