From Automation to Intelligence: Scaling Agentic Initiatives with a Platform Engineered for Outcomes

In the architecture and engineering (A&E) industry, innovation is everywhere — on job sites, in proposal meetings, and in daily decision-making. As firms undertake increasingly complex, business-critical work — from high-stakes proposals to multi-stakeholder infrastructure projects — inefficiencies can introduce risk and hinder progress.

That's why Deltek's intelligent platform, engineered for outcomes and built with control in its DNA, is redefining how A&E firms connect people, data, and decisions. With industry-tuned intelligence, it is the core environment for enabling agentic initiatives — a digital ecosystem where AI can unify workflows, surface insights, and operate across the systems professionals already use.

It's not about replacing tools — it's about making them smarter, more connected, and more valuable than ever before.

Dela™: The AI Orchestrator Built for Project-Based Work

At the heart of our intelligent platform is Dela, an industry-tuned AI orchestrator that enhances how work gets done today and helps teams move faster, smarter, and with greater confidence.

With Dela, users benefit from:

• Smart, contextual summaries that keep teams aligned
• Guided assistance that supports project workflows
• Relevant content suggestions drawn from live project data

Dela delivers meaningful support directly in the flow of work — helping teams save time, reduce friction, and make more informed decisions across the project lifecycle.

In his recent Forbes interview, Deltek CEO, Bob Hughes, says Deltek is pursuing "AI that is useful, not flashy … a platform that unlocks the power of AI while ensuring the governance and compliance their industries require."

As firms look to scale intelligence across the enterprise, Dela provides the foundation — bringing together data, context, and guidance within a flexible, interoperable platform.

Building a Foundation for Agentic AI in Architecture & Engineering

We're entering a new phase of enterprise intelligence — one where AI doesn't just automate tasks, but supports decisions, adapts to business context, and collaborates across platforms. This is the promise of agentic AI: intelligent agents that act proactively, not reactively.

Our platform is designed to support them in two critical areas:

Intra-Platform Intelligence

A good starting point for unlocking the value of Dela is to examine the key workflows of a project manager. For example, AI can help streamline the creation of project progress reports, saving time and allowing teams to focus on higher-value tasks.

In finance, AI might act as a digital twin for the finance controller — supporting rapid, accurate month-end close and enabling more proactive financial oversight.

Cross-Application Intelligence

Agentic AI helps unify insights across systems — bringing together information from CRMs, design platforms, and more. Our platform is being designed to support these agents, with the right architecture, interoperability, and access controls in place.

The idea isn't to build isolated AI — it's to create an intelligent platform with control in its DNA, where agentic AI can thrive.

We're building for a future where AI insights and automation are seamlessly integrated into workflows, enhancing decision-making and enabling teams to act with greater speed and confidence.

Interoperability

Most A&E firms rely on a diverse set of specialized applications — from design systems and project management tools to CRM. They don't want to replace their tech stack, and they shouldn't have to.

The Deltek platform is modular and purpose-built to run on the project lifecycle, designed with interoperability at its core. Instead of locking users into one system, it will act as the connective layer that links data, workflows, and AI assistance across tools.

For example:

• Project and finance managers might collaborate through shared dashboards populated with live data and surfaced insights to optimize commercial delivery, project margin, and cash flow.
• A business development lead could receive a suggested follow-up generated from CRM and project data.
• AI can identify the best projects to pursue — analyzing historical performance, team capacity, and market trends to surface high-potential opportunities.

As Bob Hughes argues, the future of enterprise systems isn't about dashboards that merely report what happened — it's about systems that "anticipate what is next."

Enabling Cross-Platform AI Intelligence

Our platform is designed to support cross-application intelligence — enabling AI to draw insights from multiple systems and coordinate workflows across the enterprise.

Whether it's helping agents pull insights from CRM records, align project timelines, or track compliance risks, our platform is intended to become the backbone for intelligent action across systems.

As Bob puts it: “We are not building AI as a separate experience… we are embedding intelligence into the way people already work. It should not feel like a different system. It should feel like the same work done more intelligently."

That's precisely why the goal is a connected digital ecosystem powered by Dela — our embedded intelligence layer that brings context, data, and guidance into every workflow. Dela integrates information across the enterprise, interoperating with an array of different tools while ensuring AI-driven actions remain grounded in business context and data integrity.

Scaling AI Intelligence Across A&E Enterprises

To make the leap, A&E firms need platforms that:

• Enable smart assistance like Dela
• Integrate seamlessly with external systems
• Support the future deployment of agentic AI agents

With control, trust, and interoperability at its core, Deltek's intelligent platform is designed to provide the foundation A&E firms need to adopt enterprise-wide intelligence and move confidently through the project lifecycle.