The New Industrial Revolution: Mike Walsh on AI, Digital Workers, and the Future of Engineering

At the 2025 ACEC Fall Conference in San Diego, global futurist, author, and CEO of Tomorrow, Mike Walsh delivers a compelling vision for how artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping the business of engineering. Walsh explains why we are entering a new industrial revolution—one driven not by mechanical automation, but by the emergence of digital workers capable of reasoning, making decisions, and executing specialized tasks once performed exclusively by humans. He breaks down the core strategic shifts engineering firms must embrace to thrive in this rapidly evolving landscape. He highlights the growing importance of unique, proprietary data as the foundation for competitive advantage, and explores how digital twins can transform planning, modeling, and real-time operations. He also challenges firms to rethink the very nature of work, describing how leaders can redesign processes to maximize the complementary strengths of both people and machines. Throughout the conversation, Walsh offers practical guidance for engineering executives, project managers, and technical teams looking to adopt AI not simply as a tool, but as a catalyst for innovation and organizational reinvention. From reshaping client services to optimizing project delivery and cultivating new forms of expertise, he outlines clear pathways for firms to use AI to accelerate performance and build long-term strategic value. This episode provides a forward-looking roadmap for anyone in the engineering industry seeking to understand the profound changes reshaping the profession—and how visionary leaders can harness AI to build a more adaptive, resilient, and future-ready organization.