Services
AI Implementation & Project Intelligence
We have deployed enterprise-grade AI within live major-project environments in protected industries. We help boards, programme leaders and project controls directors understand what AI can do for major project delivery, and how to implement it successfully.
Overview
Overview
Buying AI software is not the same as implementing AI successfully. Project controls teams on major programmes are highly capable, but much of their expertise is consumed by the manual effort of producing the reporting that should be enabling decisions in the first place.
By the time that information reaches decision-makers it is often out of date, and the harder questions get less attention than they deserve: where the slippage is actually coming from, which sequences are recoverable, and where acceleration can be achieved safely and realistically.
Herne is not selling AI software. We sell the ability to implement and apply AI within real major-project environments. The technology is an enabler; the value comes from combining sector expertise, project controls, commercial understanding, governance and experienced human judgement with enterprise AI.
What we do
- AI Implementation Advisory
- AI-enabled project controls
- Schedule intelligence
- Schedule assurance
- Risk & schedule analysis
- Recovery & acceleration analysis
- Scenario analysis
- Project performance intelligence
- Portfolio intelligence
- Decision support
Strategic technology partnership
The Herne Group × Nodes & Links
We combine deep nuclear, defence and major-project delivery expertise with Nodes & Links’ purpose-built schedule intelligence platform. Nodes & Links is not a general-purpose AI tool applied to project data. It is built on project controls foundations, schedule logic and programme analysis.
What we deliver
Five service areas.
Technology is only part of implementation. People · Process · Governance · Data · Controls · Technology.
AI Implementation Advisory
Engage us to determine where AI can improve your project delivery, particularly in protected, highly regulated and complex project environments.
- Appropriate project controls use cases
- Implementation approach
- Data requirements
- Assurance and governance
- Adoption and integration into existing processes
- How outputs should be validated
- How intelligence becomes action
AI-Enabled Project Controls
Integrating advanced analytics and enterprise AI with established project controls disciplines, so the controls function moves from retrospective reporting to forward-looking decision support.
- Planning and scheduling
- Cost and performance management
- Risk and change
- Forecasting
- Reporting and data architecture
- Schedule assurance
Acceleration & Delay Recovery
Advanced analysis alongside experienced project controls practitioners, to find where intervention will deliver the greatest benefit while there is still time for it to influence the outcome.
- Interrogate programme logic
- Identify schedule vulnerabilities and recovery opportunities
- Assess acceleration options and path crashing
- Test scenarios
- Prioritise management attention
- Support credible intervention strategies
Schedule Intelligence & Assurance
Advanced technology and experienced planners interrogating the schedule properly. Automated output does not replace professional schedule assurance; it informs it.
- Schedule integrity and logic
- Critical and near-critical paths
- Schedule risk and forecast confidence
- Emerging delay
- Recovery and acceleration opportunities
- Scenario options
Portfolio Intelligence
Project intelligence applied across multiple projects and programmes, so executives can see where attention is needed across an interconnected portfolio.
- Portfolio visibility
- Benchmarking and performance comparison
- Emerging-risk identification
- Prioritisation
- Executive decision-making
How it works in practice
From intelligence to action.
AI does not independently make project decisions. Every step involves experienced practitioners, and every output has to survive established project governance.
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Project data
Schedule, cost, risk, change and performance data from the live programme.
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AI-enabled analysis
Advanced interrogation of logic, delay, performance, risk and opportunity.
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Expert validation
Experienced project controls practitioners challenge and validate the findings.
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Delivery strategy
Recovery, acceleration and intervention options developed.
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Governance & change
Options tested against baselines, commercial position, risk and project governance.
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Project impact
Interventions implemented, monitored and measured.
“There is no other software out there that allows us to interrogate a live programme in this way and quickly identify where intervention is possible, where delivery performance can be improved, and where recovery and acceleration opportunities genuinely exist. It is truly helping us recover slippage and accelerate key milestones.”
Andy Garnett, Project Controls Director, The Herne Group
Case studies
Work in this area.
Client names are withheld in line with our confidentiality obligations.
Questions
What boards and programme directors ask us.
Will AI outputs survive regulatory and audit scrutiny?
They have to. In nuclear and defence, decisions, assumptions and controls outputs must withstand scrutiny from clients, regulators, assurance teams and auditors, and black-box outputs with no visible reasoning will not gain trust. Every analysis we rely on is transparent: the logic is visible and the reasoning is traceable. In these environments that is not a differentiator, it is a baseline expectation.
Does this replace our project controls team?
No. It gives them their time back. Complex analysis that can require days of manual processing can now be undertaken in minutes, allowing experienced practitioners to spend more time assessing the findings, testing interventions and supporting better project decisions.
Does the AI make the decisions?
No. Technology surfaces the intelligence. Experienced project professionals determine what it means, what is credible and what should happen next, and every option is tested against baselines, commercial position, risk and established governance before anything is implemented.
How does this work in a protected or List-X environment?
We already operate inside those environments every day, and we have designed PMO infrastructure to run within a List-X Common Working Environment. Security clearance, data handling and assurance shape how any implementation is planned from the outset.
We have already bought a tool. Why do we need you?
Because buying software and implementing it successfully are different problems. Implementation touches use cases, data, governance, process, people, adoption and assurance, and it has to integrate with the project controls function you already have. That is the work we do.
Other services
Other services
Get in touch
What could this mean for your programme?
If you are being asked what AI means for your projects and how to implement it safely, start with a conversation with one of our directors.