How Bunnell-Lammons Engineering is Transforming Civil Engineering with Secure, Custom AI
- Cameron Duncan
- May 20
- 3 min read
Updated: May 21
In 2025, competitive advantage is no longer just about engineering expertise or client relationships. It’s about how organizations unlock and protect their unique knowledge: their proprietary methods, decades of accumulated data, and internal workflows. This knowledge is BLE’s secret sauce, built over 30 years of delivering high-quality civil engineering solutions across the Southeast.
But leveraging AI to amplify this knowledge comes with a challenge: AI platforms crave data. Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI providers are like kids in a candy shop, eager to consume everything they can access. To unlock AI’s full potential, beyond simple automation and productivity improvements, AI needs access to sensitive information: technical specs, project plans, cost data, and internal processes.
How do you harness AI’s power without risking exposure of your most valuable data?
BLE’s AI Journey: Balancing Innovation and Security
BLE, led by visionary leaders like COO Jeff Helvey, recognized early that AI would reshape engineering. Jeff’s conviction is clear: “AI is not going to replace engineers, but engineers that use AI will replace engineers that do not.” To stay competitive, BLE needed AI tools tailored to their unique workflows. They needed AI tools that could integrate seamlessly with their existing systems and protect their data.
That’s why BLE partnered with Hallian Technologies.
HallianAI: Enterprise-Grade, Secure, and Tailored for BLE
HallianAI is not a cloud SaaS product. It’s a privately hosted, enterprise-grade AI platform installed directly on BLE’s own servers, behind their firewalls. This architecture ensures BLE’s data never leaves their control.
Key features BLE benefits from include:
Role-based access control and two-factor authentication to tightly manage who can see what.
Data encryption at rest and in transit to protect sensitive information.
Access to 1800+ large language models, enabling cutting-edge AI capabilities.
Custom AI assistants and AI workflows built specifically for BLE’s environmental, geotechnical, and solid waste engineering teams.
Data connectors that can integrate AI with BLE’s CRM, ERP (Unanet), and other internal databases, providing a unified data foundation.
Practical Impact: The Technical Reference Library and CQA Workflow
One of Hallian’s first projects for BLE was the Technical Reference Library. BLE had amassed thousands of documents over decades — technical specs, reports, textbooks, and conference materials. Navigating this vast trove was a challenge, especially for newer engineers.
“AI is not going to replace engineers, but engineers that use AI will replace engineers that do not.” - Jeff Helvey, Chief Operating Officer, BLE
Hallian helped curate this down to about 10,000 relevant documents and built three AI assistants tailored to BLE’s core engineering groups. These assistants use retrieval augmented generation (RAG) to provide context-specific answers, cite sources, and suggest solutions, making critical knowledge accessible instantly.
Currently, Hallian is in the final phases of testing a Construction Quality Assurance (CQA) AI workflow for BLE. This tool will analyze dense, 400-page proposals for landfill expansions, extracting key specifications, test requirements, and frequencies automatically. This workflow promises to save BLE’s CQA team enormous time and reduce errors.
Driving Adoption Through Training and Collaboration
Despite the power of these AI tools, BLE faced a common challenge: low adoption rates. Employees were unsure how to use the AI assistants effectively.
To address this, BLE launched a comprehensive training program with Hallian’s support:
General AI training sessions for all professional staff to build foundational knowledge.
Department-specific workshops where teams identify real problems AI can solve.
Ongoing coaching and Q&A to support practical application.
An internal knowledge base with tutorials, videos, and platform documentation.
This people-first approach reflects Hallian’s core belief: AI should empower people, not replace them. It should restore meaning and collaboration to work, not reduce it to drudgery.
Why This Matters for Engineering Firms in 2025
BLE’s story is a blueprint for engineering firms navigating AI adoption:
Security and control matter — your data is your competitive advantage.
Custom AI solutions tailored to your workflows unlock real value.
Training and culture are critical to adoption and impact.
AI is a tool to amplify human expertise, not replace it.
At Hallian Technologies, we build AI platforms and solutions that respect these truths. We help organizations like BLE unlock the unique value of their people and knowledge — securely, responsibly, and with integrity.
Interested in learning how your AEC firm can leverage AI without compromising security? Contact us to explore a tailored AI solution that fits your unique needs.
About Hallian Technologies
Hallian Technologies builds secure, privately hosted generative AI solutions for AEC, manufacturing, and higher education organizations. Our mission is to empower organizations to unlock the unique value of their people and knowledge through AI — without sacrificing privacy, control, or human dignity.
