By Corina Pons
MADRID (Reuters) – Infrastructure giant Ferrovial has set up an artificial intelligence hub and plans to widen the AI use by next year at its main toll road and airport businesses, such as London’s Heathrow, the head of the hub told Reuters.
Ferrovial has been providing artificial intelligence services to its businesses and employees since April after two years of work on an AI solutions centre in Spain.
“We have been very fast … Highways and airports are using artificial intelligence solutions, but the volume of technology we are going to deploy by 2024 will be much higher,” Luis Carlos Pietro Fernandez said at the Ferrovial headquarters in Madrid.
The builder of highways, airports, metro lines and the largest shareholder in Heathrow Airport has recently moved its holding company to the Netherlands as part of efforts to become listed in the United States, one of its key markets.
Ferrovial is working with Microsoft AI products, but has its own, completely isolated version, and is building the framework for an AI service that will help its various businesses.
Some 24,000 Ferrovial employees already have access to the proprietary service, which they can use anonymously, to help them write emails or do translations, among other things.
AI FOR AIRPORT BOTTLENECKS
The hub has created a tool for Heathrow, Britain’s largest airport, to predict how passenger traffic would change if a conflict or natural disaster occurred elsewhere and affected the normal flow of passengers, Fernandez said.
It can also identify anomalies, such as cracks in airport runways, making inspection work easier.
Ferrovial, which is also responsible for the expansion and future operation of New York’s JFK airport, is developing tools to help identify bottlenecks at airports and quickly alert airlines in the short term.
Among other things, they would be able by next year to detect when airport counters are starting to fill up and more need to be opened.
The company is also using AI tools on its highways to detect cars going the wrong way, objects or people on the road, and is working on perfecting the sensors.
In parallel, Ferrovial is working on ways to communicate directly with motorists using its U.S. toll roads and give them more information than just the rates. AI will also help it contact potential users to offer discounts and attract more traffic.
(Reporting by Corina Pons; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Conor Humphries)
