First Contractor on Earth to Assess 500 Miles of Pipelines Using AI

Overview

HK Solutions Group is a nationwide trenchless rehabilitation and infrastructure maintenance partner headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. Operating from 10 strategically located facilities with a fleet of more than 20 CCTV inspection trucks, the company delivers a comprehensive range of sewer assessment, rehabilitation, and infrastructure services to municipalities and utilities across the United States. Their capabilities span CCTV pipeline inspection, manhole inspection and rehabilitation using their proprietary Monoform™ technology, and — since 2020 — AI-assisted condition assessment powered by the full SewerAI platform.

HK Solutions is not a company that adopts new technology for its own sake. Every decision to change or expand their operational workflow is measured against a simple standard: does it deliver better outcomes for their clients and their crews? By that measure, their partnership with SewerAI has been one of the most consequential decisions in the company's history.

The Challenge

At the scale HK Solutions operates — more than 20 CCTV inspection crews in the field every day, across 10 offices spanning the country — the limitations of traditional manual NASSCO PACP coding were impossible to ignore. Manual coding is time-intensive, subject to variability between individual technicians, and difficult to scale without proportionally increasing overhead. As the volume of inspection work grew, so did the pressure on the back-end coding and review process.

Turnaround times on deliverables were constrained by the pace at which skilled technicians could review footage and enter condition data. Consistency was a persistent challenge: even experienced coders can interpret the same defect differently depending on fatigue, workload, or individual judgment. And for a company whose reputation rests on the quality and reliability of its data, any inconsistency in NASSCO PACP deliverables carried real risk — both for client relationships and for the municipalities making capital planning decisions based on that data.

HK Solutions needed a solution that could keep pace with their growth, improve the consistency and accuracy of their condition assessments, and free their skilled technicians to focus on higher-value work. They needed AI.

Why SewerAI

The decision to adopt an AI-assisted coding platform was not made lightly. HK Solutions evaluated the landscape carefully before selecting SewerAI as their strategic partner. What set SewerAI apart was not just the performance of the AutoCode technology — though its proven accuracy in NASSCO PACP condition assessment was a critical factor — but the depth of the SewerAI team's domain expertise and their commitment to a genuine long-term partnership.

SewerAI wasn't offering a software product and a support ticket queue. They were offering a collaborative relationship built around the specific operational realities of a large-scale sewer services contractor. For HK Solutions, that distinction mattered. Deploying AI across 20+ crews and 10 offices is not a plug-and-play exercise — it requires a partner who understands the field, understands the data, and is invested in making the technology work at every level of the organization.

In 2020, HK Solutions committed to the full SewerAI platform: AutoCode for AI-assisted defect identification and NASSCO PACP coding, PIONEER for inspection data management and workflow, and Risk & Rehab for asset prioritization and rehabilitation planning. The rollout spanned all 10 offices and the entire fleet of CCTV inspection crews — one of the most comprehensive deployments of AI-driven sewer assessment technology in the industry.

How AutoCode Works in the Field

AutoCode is SewerAI's AI computer vision technology that automates the identification and classification of sewer defects from CCTV inspection footage. Using advanced machine learning algorithms trained on millions of feet of real-world pipeline data, AutoCode analyzes footage in real time and automatically identifies and codes defects including fractures and cracks, corrosion and deterioration, blockages and debris, root intrusion, and other structural and operational conditions — generating NASSCO PACP-compliant deliverables that engineers and municipalities rely on to prioritize repairs.

For HK Solutions' crews, the integration of AutoCode into the inspection workflow meant that the most time-consuming part of the assessment process — manual defect coding and review — could be handled by AI, with human review focused on validation and quality assurance rather than data entry. The result was a fundamentally faster and more consistent pipeline from footage capture to final deliverable.

Results

The impact of the SewerAI partnership on HK Solutions' operations has been measurable, significant, and sustained across every dimension of their assessment workflow.

91% Increase in CCTV Production

By automating the coding process, AutoCode freed HK Solutions' crews to process dramatically more footage per shift. The company achieved a 91% increase in CCTV production in the field — nearly doubling output without adding proportional overhead. For a company with 20+ inspection crews, that productivity gain compounds across every project, every client, and every contract.

500 Miles of AI-Assessed Pipeline — A World First

In a milestone that no other sewer services contractor on Earth has reached, HK Solutions Group became the first company in the world to complete 500 miles of pipe assessment using AI computer vision technology. This achievement represents hundreds of thousands of individual defect observations, coded and validated at a speed and consistency that would be impossible to achieve through manual review alone. It is a demonstration — at scale, in production — that AI-assisted assessment is not a future concept. It is here, and HK Solutions is leading the way.

1 Million Linear Feet of Condition Assessments Completed

Across sewer and storm infrastructure, HK Solutions has now completed more than one million linear feet of condition assessments using the SewerAI platform. That volume of data — consistently coded, accurately classified, and delivered in NASSCO-compliant format — represents an extraordinary asset for the municipalities and utilities HK Solutions serves, and a testament to the scalability of the SewerAI partnership.

Improved Accuracy and Consistency

Beyond speed and volume, AutoCode has meaningfully improved the accuracy and consistency of HK Solutions' NASSCO PACP deliverables. The AI model applies the same coding logic uniformly across every foot of footage, eliminating the variability that arises from differences in technician experience, fatigue, or interpretation. The result is a higher-quality data product that clients can trust — and that stands up to independent audit. For municipalities making capital planning decisions that can involve millions of dollars in rehabilitation investment, that consistency is not a nice-to-have. It is essential.

In Their Own Words

"We use Risk & Rehab now as a key component of our sales presentation and how we service the customer moving forward."

— Mike Ingham, Chief Strategy Officer, HK Solutions Group

A Partnership Built for the Future

The relationship between HK Solutions Group and SewerAI is not a vendor-customer transaction. It is a strategic partnership between two organizations aligned on a shared vision: to use AI and computer vision technology to raise the standard of sewer infrastructure assessment across the industry, and to help contractors and utilities make better decisions with better data.

As the partnership continues to evolve, HK Solutions and SewerAI are exploring new opportunities to expand the use of the full platform across additional service lines and geographies. The 500-mile milestone was not a finish line — it was a waypoint. For HK Solutions Group, the future of AI-assisted sewer assessment is already underway.