NCSEA hosted a webinar based on its whitepaper, The Future of Structural Engineering 2026, earlier this year. The webinar called out “three forces reshaping the profession” – AI + technology adoption, workforce capacity + retention, and the future of high-performing teams. We asked our internal team members to provide commentary on each of these “forces” and how we see it showing up.
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AI + technology adoption
lydia yeager
LEAD DEVELOPER
AI adoption through a business-process lens | How firms should make decisions about AI while the tools, costs + risks are still changing
The webinar framed AI + technology adoption around several connected issues:
- Expected impact
- Validation
- Client trust
- Cost
- Professional responsibility
Technology used to be easier to isolate. It might be a device, a software install, or a defined workflow change. Today, AI is appearing inside everyday work, creating practical questions about value, validation, support and long-term fit.
To address these questions, the first step is to define:
- What is the business need?
- What is the work affected + how?
- Who are the users involved?
- What are the risks, the cost and the expected value?
Where firms can apply AI in ways that are meaningful, cost-effective + appropriate to the work
The strongest practical opportunities are in repeated work:
- Manual steps
- Recurring documentation
- Known workflows
- Stable formulas
- Reworked information
- Processes that depend too heavily on individual habits or limited cross-training
Those are business-process opportunities before they are technology opportunities.
Some may be good candidates for AI. However, it is important to first identify what may be better solved through:
- Documentation
- Standard automation
- Integration
- Training
- Clearer process ownership
The goal is to identify where operational improvement has practical value, clarify the requirements, assess the options, and design a solution that fits the business rather than forcing the business around the tool.
How we can validate AI output for critical business functions
Validation means understanding the source, assumptions, consequence of error, required review and who owns the result. A meeting summary, an internal draft, a workflow automation and a client-facing technical deliverable do not require the same level of validation. Practical guardrails should follow the consequence of the use: where the lines are hard, where judgment is required and where experimentation is acceptable because the cost of being wrong is low.
That’s how validation becomes actionable: by connecting the use case to the risk, the review standard, and the level of reliance.
The process starts by defining the use case, the business function affected, the acceptable risk, the review standard, and the point at which the output becomes work product.
AI has the potential to create value when the use case is clear, the output can be trusted, the business value is measurable, and the solution can be supported over time.
workforce capacity + retention
mollie vrable
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER
The NCSEA report highlights that a firm’s greatest competitive advantage is no longer just the work it wins, but its ability to attract, develop + retain talented people. For many years, the A/E/C industry has been talking about challenges in recruiting talent, but we know that retaining + developing our people is also essential; it determines a firm’s capacity to serve clients, maintain quality + prepare future leaders. We believe Schaefer leads the field in these areas and agree with many of the report’s key findings.
balancing engineering fundamentals + technology fluency
We agree that preparing the next generation of engineers requires both a strong technical foundation and the ability to adapt to an increasingly technology-driven workplace.
From an HR perspective, this is less about specific tools and more about creating a workforce that is curious, adaptable + committed to continuous learning. At Schaefer, we view technology as something that helps our team members work more efficiently and focus on higher-value activities rather than as a replacement for engineering expertise.
Through Schaefer Foundry, our internal development + innovation group, we also explore and implement technologies that improve efficiency, support project teams, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
structured mentoring and timely feedback as growth accelerators
We strongly agree with NCSEA’s emphasis on structured mentoring + professional development.
For several years, Schaefer’s co-op and internship program has served as our primary source of new hires, allowing us to invest in engineers early, provide meaningful project experience and develop critical thinking skills from the start of their careers. We have also prioritized mentoring, ongoing feedback and professional development opportunities that help team members take on increasing responsibilities over time.
Whether an internship or full-time employment, all new hires have a dedicated mentor and progress through our mentorship program. We’ve seen how it helps our new hires to adapt to our firm, and to onboard more effectively + efficiently, besides building relationships quickly.
We’ve also provided a lot of feedback training internally, as part of a yearlong Flow of Feedback campaign, to better equip our people with giving + receiving feedback across levels of our firm.
Our 2026 Zweig Group Best Firms to Work For survey results reflect how highly our team members value these opportunities and recognize the unique level of development and training available at Schaefer. We believe continued investment in mentorship, coaching + real-time feedback will be essential to developing future leaders.
clarifying career paths and valuing diverse ambitions
We also agree that team members are more likely to remain engaged when they can clearly see opportunities for growth within a firm.
At Schaefer, career pathing is intentionally structured through visual career maps, annual Individual Development Plans (IDPs) and ongoing conversations between team members and their managers. These tools help our people to understand what’s required for advancement and to create meaningful development goals throughout their careers. Our employee ownership program further reinforces long-term career growth by creating a direct connection between individual contributions and the firm’s success.
The report also recognizes that employees define success in different ways, and we strongly support that perspective. At Schaefer, we understand that not every engineer aspires to the same career path. Some are passionate about technical expertise, while others are drawn to client relationships, project leadership or business development. To support these diverse ambitions, we offer both technical and client-facing career paths, allowing our people to pursue opportunities that align with their strengths, interests + professional goals.
workload stress + burnout risk
The report’s warning about workload stress + burnout is something we’ve been actively working to address. We recently launched our Healthy Cultures initiative, which focuses on improving workload planning, distribution and delivery across the firm.
The goal is simple: create an environment where our people can do great work without sacrificing the time needed for mentoring, collaboration + professional growth.
By encouraging teams to “share the load,” collaborate through challenges,” and “think long-term,” we hope to strengthen both team members well-being and our ability to develop the next generation of engineers.
We also support work-life integration through a flexible work policy that is available to all of our team members, recognizing that flexibility looks different for everyone, but is essential to building a sustainable + engaged workforce. Besides having freedom within the workday to manage your personal workload and not stress about that dentist appointment or bus drop-off, we also offer hybrid work schedules.
the future of high-performing teams
john ashbaugh
VICE PRESIDENT
NCSEA’s findings reinforce something I’ve seen throughout my career: technical expertise is essential, but being a great structural engineer requires more.
Technical excellence is the starting point. Great engineers don’t simply deliver a technically correct, code compliant solution. They work with the project team to deliver the right solution.
That requires understanding more than codes, loads + structural systems. We need to understand our client’s goals + priorities, the architectural design intent, the unique requirements of the MEP systems, the constructability of our design, and ultimately, what success looks like for the owner and end users. Sometimes that means thinking one or two steps beyond the question at hand. It also means engaging early.
Structural engineers as accessible partners
NCSEA’s research emphasizes the value of structural engineers being accessible partners rather than downstream reviewers. When we’re engaged early and remain accessible throughout a project, we have more opportunities to ask questions, validate assumptions, and understand the goals, constraints + challenges facing the rest of the team. We can help identify cross-discipline impacts early, before they result in costly or disruptive changes that the team has to react to later.
Being an effective partner also requires empathy. Architects, engineers, contractors + owners each bring different priorities, responsibilities + challenges to a project. A structural design decision that appears to have little impact beyond our work may have significant implications for others on the project team. Understanding those perspectives leads to better collaboration, more productive conversations and better solutions.
Our professional value isn’t measured only by the structural design we produce. It’s also reflected in project outcomes, the project risks we help identify + mitigate, the quality of the decisions we help the team make, and our ability to understand the bigger picture. Are we asking the right questions? Do we understand the challenges facing our client, the end user and the rest of the project team? Are we bringing our experience to the table early enough to make a difference?
Project teams + AI
This broader definition of our professional value becomes especially important as we consider AI and where it may lead structural engineering and the A/E/C industry.
Our profession has experienced significant technological change before. Advances in structural analysis and design software, as well as building information modeling software, have given engineers increasingly powerful tools, but they never changed who was responsible for the engineering. There will undoubtedly be opportunities to thoughtfully incorporate AI into aspects of our workflows, but potential efficiency gains can never take precedence over our professional responsibilities.
As licensed professional engineers, we remain accountable for the engineering under our charge, for exercising professional judgment and, above all, for protecting the health, safety and welfare of the public. Those responsibilities are non-negotiable and can’t be delegated to technology.
Technology also can’t replace the human relationships that make successful projects possible. Whatever tools we use, we still need to understand our client’s goals, collaborate, communicate clearly, recognize risk and exercise judgment within the context of the entire project.
Our tools will continue to evolve, but the human element—judgment, accountability, communication, empathy, relationships + trust—will remain essential.
For me, the future of great project teams comes back to a few simple principles:
Be accessible. Understand the bigger picture. Earn the trust of the people you work with. And use your expertise to help the entire team deliver the right solution.
