2026 ACECNJ Fall Conference

Every engineering firm leader has had the same conversation: a project went over budget and nobody saw it coming. The data was in Deltek the whole time. The Friday report came on Monday. The change order conversation happened three weeks too late. This session walks through a different model. Instead of dashboards waiting to be read, AI agents continuously read project, time, billing, and resource data from Deltek Vantagepoint and surface what needs attention - before the margin erosion happens. We will share the practical architecture, what is working today, and the honest gotchas (data quality, PM adoption, false positives) we have encountered along the way. This is a practitioner session for principals, CFOs, COOs, operations leaders, and IT decision-makers at engineering firms who are evaluating AI for project management and finance operations. Attendees will leave with a realistic view of what is possible today, what still requires manual work, and a framework for evaluating AI investments against their firm's data maturity.

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the practical architecture for connecting AI agents (such as Claude) to Deltek Vantagepoint data via API and MCP (Model Context Protocol).
2. Identify which project intelligence use cases (margin risk, utilization forecasting, AR aging, pipeline analytics) are realistic today versus aspirational.
3. Recognize the data quality and process prerequisites that determine whether an AI implementation will succeed or stall.
4. Apply a decision framework to evaluate AI investment opportunities against the firm's specific project portfolio and operational maturity.

Audience:
Engineering firm principals, CFOs, COOs, finance directors, operations leaders, and IT decision-makers — both Transportation and Non-Transportation tracks. Particularly relevant for mid-sized engineering firms (50–500 employees) operating on Deltek Vantagepoint or Deltek Vision who are evaluating practical AI investments in 2026 and 2027.
The session addresses the strategic question every firm leader is being asked by their board this year: "What is our AI plan, and is it real?" It speaks to project-based service business models where margin protection, resource utilization, and proactive intelligence are operational priorities.