Tomas Kellner

Late in August, around 60 Bentley Systems engineers, designers, product managers, and experts from around the world gathered at the company’s headquarters in Exton, Pennsylvania, to put the finishing touches on OpenSite+, an engineering software solution that brings generative AI to infrastructure design.

OpenSite+ marks a turning point for civil engineering, serving as the first step in Bentley’s broader transformation into the infrastructure AI company. Interviews in Exton this summer with more than a dozen current and former Bentley executives, software and civil engineers, AI and data specialists, product leads, marketing managers—even technical support—highlight just how significant this shift is.

The in-person collaboration in Exton—and the diversity of the teams represented—was critical to getting OpenSite+ right, says Bentley Chief Technology Officer Julien Moutte. “When you’re building such a new, groundbreaking product, there’s a huge amount of innovation and collaboration that needs to happen,” he says. “When you’re working on a product that has this very rapid iteration, you need to have people gathering in a room and brainstorming how to address a problem.”