Boilermakers

Gecko Robotics has deployed AI-powered crawling inspection robots across hundreds of industrial boilers and storage tanks in the US, with its platform processing millions of data points per inspection and producing actionable corrosion maps that previously required weeks of human scaffolding and manual UT. Flyability's Elios drones are now standard equipment in refinery and power plant turnarounds, entering confined spaces that previously required extensive human entry permitting. AI vision companies including Neurala and Cognex are actively training defect detection models on industrial inspection datasets, with several vendors claiming performance parity with ASNT Level II inspectors on standard defect types.

Autodesk Construction Cloud's AI features can now parse drawing sets, identify relevant specifications, and surface conflicts — capabilities that were entirely manual cognitive work two years ago. Procore Copilot and similar construction AI platforms are integrating large language models directly into drawing management workflows, enabling field workers with minimal training to query drawing intent and extract installation requirements. Startups like Moveo and Dusty Robotics are building systems where drawings become direct machine inputs for autonomous execution, bypassing human interpretation entirely for certain layout tasks.