From Inspection to Action: Live Demo of Risk & Rehab + Smart Project Builder Webinar

Q1. How do we approach municipalities with concerns about data privacy regarding AI tools?

Data privacy is one of the most common — and most valid — concerns utilities raise when evaluating AI-powered infrastructure tools. At SewerAI, we've made security a foundational investment, not an afterthought. Pioneer is the only sewer software platform in North America to hold both SOC 2 Type 2 attestation and ISO 27001 compliance — the same security standard used by major financial institutions.

What does this mean practically? An independent auditor has verified our controls around security, availability, and data integrity. Your inspection data, GIS layers, and rehab plans are stored in a secure, access-controlled cloud environment. Uploading your data to Pioneer does not make it public, does not feed open AI models, and does not leave your organizational control.

For municipalities navigating IT approval processes, we have engineers and IT staff who will join calls with your team to walk through security architecture, answer technical questions, and provide documentation. We've done this successfully with cities across the US and Canada. The right question to ask any vendor isn't just "is it secure?" — it's "can you prove it?" We can.

Visit our Trust & Security Standards site

Q2. Is there GIS export functionality for teams using Esri/ArcGIS products?

Interoperability with existing GIS ecosystems is critical for utilities and engineering firms that have already invested in Esri/ArcGIS environments. The answer is yes — Pioneer supports GeoJSON export directly from both the risk map and inspection map views. Your team can download asset data, risk scores, and inspection results for import into ArcGIS, QGIS, or any other GIS platform that accepts GeoJSON.

For firms looking to attach risk scores and rehab recommendations to pipe and manhole records in bulk within an Esri geodatabase, the GeoJSON export provides a clean, structured dataset that maps to standard asset attributes. This enables you to bring Pioneer's AI-generated risk outputs directly into your existing GIS-based workflows without manually transcribing data.

Looking ahead, Sewer AI's API has recently undergone a significant overhaul and expansion. Current integration partnerships include CityWorks and Cardigraph, with additional work order and asset management platform integrations actively in development. If your team uses a specific platform, we'd like to hear about it — customer demand directly shapes our integration roadmap.

See the full API documentation

Q3. Can the platform identify uninspected assets that should be prioritized for inspection?

This question gets at one of the most persistent challenges in infrastructure management: selection bias. Traditionally, assets are inspected based on perceived risk — which means the data you have is skewed toward assets you already suspected were problematic. This creates blind spots.

Pioneer addresses this directly. Many of the variables that drive risk scores — pipe age, diameter, material, proximity to waterways, hospitals, roads, and railroads, land use overlay — do not require an inspection to be scored. This means Pioneer can produce meaningful risk scores for uninspected assets purely from GIS attributes and geospatial data already loaded in the system.

In practice, this means a utility can toggle to "uninspected assets only" in the risk and rehab table, instantly generating a prioritized list of pipes that carry elevated risk with no inspection on record. This "Inspect Next" preset filter surfaces your highest-risk uninspected assets in seconds — giving your field crews a data-backed inspection queue rather than relying on gut feel or reactive response. The goal: use inspections to either confirm risk and trigger action, or lower the risk score by revealing that a pipe is in better condition than its attributes suggested.

See how Pioneer prioritizes uninspected assets

Q4. How does Smart Project Builder handle point repairs that need to happen before CIP lining?

This is a nuanced, real-world question that separates a capable rehab planning tool from a simplistic one. In practice, a pipe may be a strong candidate for cured-in-place pipe (CIP) lining, but conditions within that pipe — a deformed rigid section, a protruding service tap, calcium deposits, evidence of active groundwater infiltration — make lining unsafe or ineffective without preparatory work first.

Smart Project Builder accounts for this. When the AI analyzes a pipe segment and identifies conditions such as deformed rigid pipe, protruding taps, or significant debris, it will recommend prerequisite point repairs alongside the primary rehab method — without requiring the user to prompt it specifically. In a recent example, a pipe recommended for manhole-to-manhole lining was flagged by the system for a required point repair at a deformed rigid section and a tap cut-back before lining could proceed. The sequencing logic is built into the recommendation engine.

Beyond structural conditions, the platform also accounts for operational conditions: groundwater infiltration may trigger a grouting recommendation alongside CIP, and calcium or root intrusion may generate a milling recommendation as a precursor. The result is a more complete, defensible rehab plan — one an engineer or contractor can actually execute in the field.

Try Smart Project Builder with your own data

Q5. Do I have to use Autocode to get Risk & Rehab outputs?

No — and this is an important point for utilities and engineering firms with existing inspection databases. Manually coded NASCO-compliant inspection data can be uploaded to Pioneer and used to generate full Risk & Rehab outputs without requiring re-inspection or re-coding through Autocode.

This matters because many utilities have years of existing CCTV data coded in the field or by prior contractors. That historical data has value, and Pioneer is designed to put it to work immediately. Upload your existing NASCO databases alongside a GIS shapefile, and you can begin generating risk scores, rehab recommendations, and Smart Project Builder reports against your full historical record.

That said, SewerAI does advocate for Autocode for new inspection data going forward — particularly when consistency and accuracy of condition coding is uncertain. Manual coding quality varies significantly across crews, contractors, and time periods. Autocode applies a uniform, AI-assisted standard reviewed by NASSCO-certified analysts, which produces more reliable and defensible data over time. The recommendation is to use what you have to get started, and establish AutoCode as the standard for new data collection.

Submit your existing data for a free preliminary rehab plan

Q6. Can the platform optimize for nearby assets to reduce contractor mobilization costs?

This is a sophisticated capital planning question, and it reflects the reality that risk scores alone don't determine the smartest rehab program — economics do. A pipe rated risk level 3 may be smart to include in a project if it sits between two risk level 4 pipes being rehabbed in the same mobilization.

Pioneer's Decision Tree engine supports configurable proximity logic: you can set parameters so that pipes within a certain radius of a higher-risk asset are included in a project even if they fall below the normal risk threshold. This reduces remobilization costs and makes better use of contractor time on site.

Smart Project Builder takes this further with natural language prompting. You can instruct the AI: "Build me a CIP lining project for highest-risk assets, but include any risk level 3 or above pipes within 500 feet to reduce mobilization cost, within a $200,000 budget." The system will recalibrate its asset selection accordingly. This kind of prompt-driven capital optimization — combining risk logic with geographic and economic constraints — is one of the most powerful use cases for Smart Project Builder and one of the clearest demonstrations of how AI can augment, not replace, engineering judgment.

See how Smart Project Builder handles budget-constrained planning

Q7. How can we group rehab projects by repair type for contractor specialization?

In practice, a rehab program often involves multiple contractors or crews with different specialties — one firm may specialize in CIP lining, another in point repairs, a third in open-cut replacement. Sending every asset type to a single contractor, or manually sorting a spreadsheet by rehab method, is inefficient and error-prone.

Pioneer's risk and rehab table provides dynamic filtering by recommended rehab method. You can filter for all assets recommended for CIP lining, export that list, and send it directly to your lining contractor. Separately, you can filter for point repairs and generate a scope of work for a different vendor. This filtering is available in bulk, meaning you're not doing this asset by asset.

Smart Project Builder also supports this workflow conversationally. You can ask it to generate separate project summaries organized by rehab type — one for lining candidates, one for point repairs, one for O&M cleaning. Each can be exported as a PDF with its own map, asset table, and cost estimate. This dramatically simplifies the process of building out RFP packages for different scopes of work.

See how Pioneer streamlines multi-contractor rehab planning

Q8. What data is required to get started with Risk & Rehab?

Getting started with Sewer AI's Risk & Rehab engine requires less than most utilities expect. The minimum input is a GIS shapefile (or equivalent GIS layer) of your sewer system. This single file provides Pioneer with the pipe network geometry, asset attributes (size, material, age, depth where available), and location data needed to begin generating risk scores for uninspected assets.

With a GIS layer alone, Pioneer can produce a baseline risk prioritization of your entire system using geospatial consequence-of-failure factors — waterway proximity, road and rail crossings, hospital and school proximity, land use — alongside pipe attribute-based likelihood-of-failure factors. You'll see which assets carry the highest risk even without inspection data.

Adding NASSCO inspection databases and CCTV video takes the analysis to the next level, incorporating condition data alongside asset attributes for a more complete risk picture. Historical data, even if coded years ago, can be uploaded and incorporated immediately. Pricing for Risk & Rehab is not based on total linear footage — it's structured by utility population served, so smaller utilities aren't priced out of accessing the same capabilities as large municipalities. And Pioneer provides unlimited cloud storage, so bringing in historical data doesn't add cost.

Submit your GIS file for a free preliminary rehab plan

Q9. How does the platform handle inspection scheduling and time-based prioritization?

Managing inspection cycles across a large system — balancing recently inspected assets, assets approaching reinspection age, and high-risk uninspected pipes — is a complex scheduling problem that most utilities still manage in spreadsheets. Pioneer provides several mechanisms to bring structure to this process.

Custom tags and labels can be applied to assets at scale — by basin, by inspection cycle, by program year, or by any attribute relevant to your operations. These labels allow you to segment assets into inspection cohorts and track where each asset sits in your inspection rotation. Combined with Pioneer's risk scoring for uninspected assets, you can build an inspection queue that balances scheduled reinspection obligations with opportunistic inspection of high-risk, never-inspected pipes.

Risk recipes can also be configured to weight time-since-inspection as a factor in the risk score, meaning pipes that are overdue for reinspection naturally rise in priority alongside pipes with known condition issues. For utilities with formal inspection cycle programs (e.g., CMOM requirements), Sewer AI can help configure risk recipes and tagging workflows that map to your specific regulatory obligations — typically through a deeper-dive configuration session.

Schedule a configuration consultation for inspection cycle management

Q10. What is the pricing structure, and is it affordable for smaller utilities?

SewerAI's pricing model was deliberately designed to make enterprise-grade AI infrastructure tools accessible to utilities of all sizes — including small and mid-sized municipalities that often face the greatest resource constraints with the least capacity to manage them manually.

Unlike many infrastructure software vendors that charge by total linear footage (which can make costs prohibitive for systems with large footprints but small populations), SewerAI's pricing is structured by population served. This means a small utility isn't penalized for having a geographically spread-out system.

Current launch pricing bundles AutoCode licenses with Risk & Rehab access, offering discounts up to 52% off list pricing — with Risk & Rehab included free for the first year. The preliminary rehab plan offer costs nothing: submit a GIS shapefile and available inspection data, and Sewer AI will produce a risk-scored prioritization, Pioneer Structural Benchmark comparison, preliminary budget estimate, visual risk map, and executive summary PDF. This serves as both a proof-of-value demonstration and a starting point for a conversation about the right package for your utility's size and needs.

Get your free preliminary rehab plan or talk to us about launch bundle pricing