Bentley Systems (NASDAQ:BSY) Chairman Greg Bentley used an appearance at the J.P. Morgan Boston TMC Conference to outline why the infrastructure software company sees artificial intelligence as a long-term growth driver, while acknowledging that commercial monetization of some AI-related capabilities is still in its early stages.
In a discussion hosted by J.P. Morgan’s Alexei Gogolev, Bentley said the company’s management team is focused on “infrastructure AI” and argued that AI is accelerating both Bentley’s software development and broader changes in how infrastructure is designed, operated and maintained.
Bentley said engineering firms, which he described as the company’s largest constituency, are facing record backlogs while the number of infrastructure engineers is growing only about 1% per year. That shortage, he said, creates a need for efficiency tools that can help firms do more work without relying on additional headcount.
AI Focused on Design Optimization
Bentley said AI could allow engineers to move beyond a single design approach and use agentic systems to run “hundreds and thousands of iterations” across potential designs. He said the opportunity includes optimizing constructability through Bentley’s SYNCHRO applications, mitigating subsurface risk, reusing prior design modules and improving performance using data from Bentley Infrastructure Cloud.
He framed the software opportunity in the context of total infrastructure project costs. According to Bentley, design has historically averaged about 5% of total installed cost, while software has represented about 1% of design billings, or roughly 5 basis points of overall project cost.
“The owner will not be interested in optimizing and reducing the five basis points spent on software in the project when it can be a de-risked project and perform much better,” Bentley said.
On the owner-operator side, Bentley said the larger opportunity is in operations and maintenance. He said engineering logic created during project design is often not used during the remaining operating life of an asset, where he said 80% of costs occur. Bentley said AI-enabled asset analytics can combine drone capture and engineering models to determine whether maintenance is needed and help ensure infrastructure remains safe.
STAAD MCP Server Still in Exploration Phase
Asked about the recently released STAAD MCP server and potential token-based pricing for API consumption, Bentley said the product had been available for only a couple of weeks and had seen “more than a couple hundred downloads,” though the company cannot count downloads made through Claude itself.
He said Bentley does not expect monetization from API consumption or MCP consumption this year. Instead, the company wants customers to experiment with the tools without a commercial barrier.
“Our determination is to benefit the long term by having our accounts do as much exploration and experimentation with the APIs and MCP services as they can do with no intention to monetize it during this year,” Bentley said.
Bentley said the initial APIs and MCP services execute on an engineer’s desktop, reducing near-term cost risk for the company. He added that customers may be able to perform hundreds of iterations “at machine speed” in the time it would have taken to complete one at human speed.
Bentley also said the company has 220 accounts spending more than $1 million annually and 820 accounts spending $250,000 or more. He said many large customers are already investing in AI research and development and using existing APIs inside Bentley products, though Bentley does not currently track or monetize that usage.
Data Ownership and Competitive Positioning
On the risk that horizontal AI platforms or open-source tools could replicate Bentley functionality, Bentley said STAAD users generally prefer commercial products and noted that STAAD understands design codes in relevant jurisdictions. He said engineering firms have more to gain by using proven tools already accepted by engineers and mandated by some owner clients.
Bentley also emphasized the company’s position that customer data remains customer intellectual property. He said infrastructure design data is sensitive because it includes critical assets such as airports, wastewater systems and grids, and cannot be fully anonymized because it is geolocated.
“We have a responsibility to secure it and steward it,” Bentley said.
He said Bentley does not seek standing permission to use customer data for AI training. Instead, the company may request authorization for specific projects and maintain a registry of data agreements.
Asset Analytics and Seequent Growth
Bentley said Asset Analytics recently crossed a $50 million revenue run rate. He described the revenue as recurring but said it is not always classified as annual recurring revenue because some inspections or construction-related subscriptions may not renew every year.
He cited cell towers, roadway miles, Google Street View-related data and distribution poles as areas contributing to the current revenue base. In the United States, he said distribution pole inspections are required every five years, which affects how the company views ARR classification.
Bentley said the company is working to make the business more substantively and contractually annual by encouraging more regular drone or other survey capture, adding AI to extract more value and improving packaging.
Discussing Seequent, which Bentley acquired nearly five years ago, Bentley said the business has grown since the acquisition and that its civil infrastructure portion has become a “very significant double-digit proportion.” He said not quite half of Bentley’s top design firm accounts use Seequent for subsurface modeling and ground-informed design, and he sees further opportunity because ground conditions are a major source of project overrun risk.
E365 Renewals and Acquisition Priorities
Bentley said the company’s E365 consumption program now represents 46% of ARR. He said renewal increases include annual price escalation, typically in the mid-single digits, along with negotiated floors and ceilings on future consumption. Bentley said the average negotiated collar increase has been about 10% across geographies and account sizes.
On capital allocation, Bentley said the company has reduced leverage to under 2x, which it views as “tolerably optimal,” and has capacity for roughly $400 million of annual acquisitions given cash flow above $500 million. He said acquisitions remain a priority, particularly AI capabilities for additional asset types in Asset Analytics and established simulation engines that could expand the dimensions of engineering optimization.
Bentley said the company will also continue share repurchases, but he characterized acquisitions as the higher priority.
About Bentley Systems (NASDAQ:BSY)
Bentley Systems, Inc is a global software provider specializing in infrastructure engineering applications for the design, construction, and operations of roads, bridges, rail and transit systems, water and wastewater networks, power plants and grids, industrial facilities, and communications infrastructure. Founded in 1984 by brothers Keith and Barry Bentley, the company is headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania, and maintains offices and development centers across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
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