With everything AI is doing today to improve how we work, I keep asking myself an important question:

Do we want the next generation of engineers to use these tools without truly understanding the fundamentals behind them?

I was on a demo hosted by Matt Graves PMP, CCM, where Jonas Ebrahimi of Karmen AI showed how AI can generate a complete construction project schedule simply by uploading contract drawings, specifications, and other scope documents.

As someone who has built numerous project schedules throughout my career, some with over 6,000 activities, I have to admit that I was impressed.

But it also got me thinking:

What comes next?

And more importantly, how effective or dangerous can these tools become in the hands of people who were never exposed to the foundational knowledge that helped build the industry in the first place?

It takes tremendous expertise to develop an AI platform like Karmen. The people using it do not need to know everything behind the technology, but they absolutely need enough understanding to:

– troubleshoot issues,
– ask the right “what if” questions,
– challenge assumptions, and
– verify that what AI is generating actually makes sense.

Construction projects are capital-intensive and high-risk. The last thing we want is a future where people blindly trust AI outputs and then blame the technology when things go wrong.

AI should enhance engineering judgment and not replace it.

This is one of the reasons we created the Interactive Webbook on Heavy Civil Construction Materials and Methods.

To document and preserve the practical knowledge that has helped build America for generations, while also creating a foundation for the future.

We hope that future engineers can use this knowledge base not only to learn the fundamentals but also to confidently question, validate, and critically analyze what AI feeds them, now and in the years ahead.

Because the future does not just need engineers who can use AI.
It needs engineers who can think beyond it.