Waterloop Podcast: AI Goes Underground to Inspect Our Sewers

SewerAI's Eric Sullivan joined the waterloop podcast to discuss how artificial intelligence is transforming the way cities inspect, understand, and manage their underground water infrastructure. The episode — titled "The Surprising Way AI Fixes Our Sewers!" on YouTube — dives deep into the technology reshaping wastewater system maintenance across the country.

AI-Powered Sewer Inspection: From Manual to Automated

For decades, sewer inspection has been a labor-intensive, time-consuming process — field crews lowering cameras into pipes, technicians manually reviewing hours of footage, and engineers making repair decisions based on incomplete or inconsistent data. SewerAI is changing all of that.

Using computer vision and cloud technology, SewerAI's platform automatically detects and classifies defects in sewer pipes — trained on hundreds of millions of feet of inspection data. What once took days of manual review can now be completed in a fraction of the time, with greater consistency and far less human error.

Freeing Field Crews to Focus on What Matters

Sullivan explains that the shift to AI-assisted inspection doesn't replace the people doing the work — it empowers them. Field crews can focus on safety and operational efficiency rather than spending hours in front of a screen reviewing footage. Meanwhile, engineers receive clean, structured, AI-coded data that enables faster, more confident repair decisions.

The result is a smarter workflow from end to end: cameras capture footage in the field, data syncs to the cloud in real time, AI processes and classifies defects automatically, and engineers access actionable insights through a centralized platform — all without the bottlenecks of traditional manual review.

Benchmarking, Prioritization, and Continuous Monitoring

One of the most powerful aspects of SewerAI's platform is its ability to aggregate and benchmark data across hundreds of utility systems. Rather than viewing each inspection in isolation, utilities can now monitor the condition of their entire pipe network continuously — tracking changes over time, comparing performance against peer systems, and demonstrating measurable improvements to regulators and stakeholders.

This shift from reactive to proactive asset management is a game-changer for municipal water utilities. Instead of waiting for a pipe to fail, cities can prioritize capital investments based on real condition data — extending the life of infrastructure and reducing costly emergency repairs.

Big Data and Affordable Technology Making Inspection Accessible

Sullivan also highlights how the convergence of big data, AI, and increasingly affordable camera technologies is democratizing access to high-quality sewer inspection. Smaller utilities that previously lacked the resources for comprehensive inspection programs can now leverage the same powerful tools as large metropolitan systems.

As the cost of sensors and cameras continues to fall and AI models grow more accurate with every foot of data they process, the future of pipe inspection looks smarter, faster, and more accessible than ever — reshaping how we manage the critical infrastructure beneath our streets.

Listen to the Episode

Catch the full episode on the waterloop website, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. waterloop is also available on YouTube Music, Amazon Music, and Audible.

waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet dedicated to exploring solutions, sustainability, and equity in water — covering the people, technologies, and policies shaping the future of water management.