Mott MacDonald takes its digital evolution and AI enablement to the next level with Microsoft Azure AI Foundry

Mott MacDonald has expanded its collaboration with Microsoft to further transform its digital infrastructure and accelerate digital and AI enablement across its business. This latest investment in Microsoft Azure AI Foundry marks the next stage in a decade-long digitalisation journey, which has already seen the global engineering, management and development consultancy develop industry-leading digital solutions for clients around the world.

Over the last 18 months, Mott MacDonald has empowered more than 3,000 citizen developers through its digital workspaces platform, a collaborative, secure environment that unlocks staff creativity and enables rapid innovation. Leveraging the scalability and flexibility of Azure AI, this approach enables teams across the business to dynamically access high-performance computing resources and deliver faster, AI enabled digital solutions that directly address client needs—while maintaining governance and agility.

These digital solutions are already being applied on some of the world’s most complex projects. Mott MacDonald has recently infused its consent management solution with AI to deliver critical public consultations faster and more accurately for major projects. Similarly, a significant chat-powered upgrade to the Mott MacDonald Carbon Portal has democratised low-carbon design optimisation.

The investment in Azure AI has significantly expanded access to advanced digital technologies across Mott MacDonald's workforce. Complemented by the company’s responsible AI policy, published last year, which establishes a leading framework for the safe and secure application of AI tools, development pathways are in place for building modern digital applications on the digital workspaces platform. These guardrails support the successful democratisation of AI across the business, ensuring that innovative solutions are developed responsibly and effectively.

David Johnson, group development director at Mott MacDonald, said: “The world’s most complex infrastructure projects require highly technical and digitally enabled solutions. Our clients need these to be reliable, scalable and absolutely secure. By deepening our long-term collaboration with Microsoft we are taking the next step to enable the democratisation of AI across our business, delivering better outcomes for our clients and the communities they serve.”

Read more about Mott MacDonald's AI journey in Microsoft's UK Stories article