Case study · Civil & water engineering

From "Where Do We Start?" to a Firm-Wide AI Roadmap

How Keller Associates— 250 people, 12 offices, employee-owned— went from scattered AI experiments to a prioritized plan their CEO presented to every shareholder-owner.

250

employees

12

offices

6

states

Employee-owned · Civil, infrastructure & water/wastewater engineering

The situation

Keller Associates had the same starting point as most mid-market firms: real AI interest, no shared picture. The board wanted a strategy. A technology committee was experimenting. Individual engineers were trying tools on their own. And the firm had seen enough generic AI advice to be wary of anyone who showed up with a pre-built answer.

Larry Rupp, Keller's President & CEO, put the bar where every smart buyer puts it: show us you understand our firm before you recommend anything.

What we did

Over seven weeks, we ran the full AI Roadmap engagement:

  1. Listen

    Interviews with almost a third of the firm

  2. Score

    Pacemark across six dimensions

  3. Map

    Opportunities ranked by value

  4. Deliver

    Phased roadmap with owners & sequence

  5. Present

    Live keynote to owners & board

  • Listened first. Wave-based interviews with almost a third of the firm— principals, project managers, engineers, and support staff across offices— so the plan would be built on how Keller actually works, not on a template.
  • Scored where they stand. A Pacemark assessment across the six dimensions that decide whether AI pays off, naming the one holding the rest back.
  • Mapped the opportunities. A prioritized workflow map (proposals, scope documents, project knowledge, reporting) ranked by what each is worth at Keller's billing rates.
  • Delivered the roadmap. A phased plan with owners, sequence, and expected returns— the document Keller's leadership took forward.
  • Presented to the owners. A live keynote and workshop at the firm's all-shareholder meeting in Boise— so every owner and board member heard the plan at the same time, from the source.

The results

The roadmap gave Keller what the board had been asking for: a shared picture of where the firm stands, a sequenced plan with owners, and governance the firm's licensed engineers could stand behind. The proposal process— the firm's largest single time sink— became the first build, and the shareholder presentation turned a leadership initiative into a firm-wide one.

In their words

"We brought in [Dan Cumberland Labs and Pacemark] to figure out where AI actually fits at a 250-person firm spread across 12 offices. They talked with almost a third of the firm before recommending anything, then handed us a clear, prioritized plan: what to do first, what to do later."

Larry Rupp

Larry Rupp, PE

President & CEO

"He raised our awareness of what's coming, pushed us to think hard about using AI responsibly, and worked with our team to build a practical roadmap for putting it to work."

James Bledsoe

James Bledsoe, PE

Board Chair

"I knew AI was something I should be using, but I had no idea where to start. He changed that."

Stillman Norton

Stillman Norton, PE

Area Manager & Board Secretary

"As an outside board member, I've sat through a lot of presentations. His was engaging and educational… there was a way for every person in the room to take part."

Julie Shiflett

Julie Shiflett

Outside Board Member · Founder, Northwest CFO

What this looks like for your firm

Keller's engagement followed the same path every roadmap does: see where you stand, name the constraint, sequence the plan so the first win pays for the next. If your board is asking the questions Keller's board was asking, the fastest way to find out where you'd start is the free AEC assessment— about 8 minutes, results on screen. Or book a 20-minute call and we'll talk through your situation directly.

Book a 20-minute call Start the assessment →

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