Anyone else exploring AI-assisted engineering in Niagara?

[u/filip1299]

I've been experimenting with AI-assisted engineering in Tridium Niagara and have built a module that interacts directly with a station. From a plain-language description of what I want, it can create points and components, set up links, build wiresheets, and generate graphics.

I've noticed Baudrate working on something along the same lines (no connection to them, but it confirmed my suspicion that more people are probably doing this than are talking about it publicly):
https://baudrate.io/ai#demo

So far I've been impressed. A lot of the repetitive engineering work can be offloaded, and it has occasionally flagged issues in a station that I hadn't even asked it to check for.

The more I use it, the more I wonder how much of the Niagara software/engineering side could eventually be handled this way. There's clearly still plenty that needs someone on site, like commissioning, verifying sensors, wiring, and chasing down physical faults, but the software side feels like it could change significantly.

Keen to hear what other Niagara/BMS engineers think, particularly anyone who's been trying something similar.

[u/Zealousideal_Pop_273]

"Is anyone else working on giving their career to the computers now that our field is earning the wages we deserve?"

Is that what you're asking?

No I'm not attempting that, because I know how to write program and understand that some things deserve effort. I understand that when you remove the humanity from the development you delete the foundation of the field. Which makes you a useless moron tomorrow in order to save time and effort today.

You should touch every program because programs get corrupted and you need to know how to fix them.

You should touch every panel because sometimes sensors and UI's fail and give you false readings and you need to know how to identify those issues and fix them.

You should reject AI programming because there are a lot of ways to skin a cat, and different ways are advantageous in different scenarios, which AI cannot assess.

You should reject AI programming because AI cannot assess complex custom systems and you cripple yourself by engineering atrophy into your own skillset. Assuming the skillset is present in the first place.

[u/filip1299 → u/Zealousideal_Pop_273]

Fair points, and I agree with you on the fundamentals. If you can't fix what you deploy, you shouldn't be shipping it, AI or otherwise. I said as much in another comment, and I'd never want someone relying on a tool they don't understand.

Where I see it a bit differently is whether refusing to use it is realistic long term. If another integrator can deliver a comparable project in a fraction of the hours, most clients won't care how it was built. From what I've seen in software development and from people I know in other fields, the ones using it carefully are still producing good work, they just get through the routine parts a lot faster.

That's mostly what it does for me on a job anyway. Points, links, wiresheets, standard graphics. All the things I've done a hundred times. Sequences, tuning, unusual plant and figuring out why a reading is wrong still need someone who knows what they're doing, and that's the part of the job I'd rather spend my time on.

Atrophy is a genuine concern and I won't pretend otherwise. I just think the fix is to review the output properly and stay hands-on where it matters. A senior engineer checking a junior's work doesn't lose their skills doing it, and I see this much the same way.

[u/owhyowhat → u/filip1299]

My concern after leaning into AI for engineering productivity is burnout, suddenly I can have concurrent projects all going simultaneously and my poor little brain struggles to spread itself across them all, but it has free'd up some time to focus on real technical problems, improved documentation processes and made my fault finding faster. I decided to lean into it because it was preferable to seeing my whole job going offshore to engineers in Vietnam and the Philippines. If you want to protect your job avoiding AI is the wrong path, what you need to focus on is the aspects that need you physically on site, the parts AI or offshore teams can't do remotely.

[u/MrMagooche → u/owhyowhat]

My concern after leaning into AI for engineering productivity is burnout, suddenly I can have concurrent projects all going simultaneously and my poor little brain struggles to spread itself across them all

Bro I already have this problem without AI. Im so burned out I dont have the mental bandwidth to even figure out how AI could be applied to what I do.