Stories

It’s not just the future of the energy, industrial and critical infrastructure sectors that depend on digital transformation. Today’s success requires asset owners and operators, contractors and other key stakeholders to adopt digital tools or risk being left behind. But it’s not enough to simply deploy technology for technology’s sake. It has to matter. It has to create measurable value for the customers and their bottom line.

KBR has validated a suite of digital capabilities that include digital engineering, data analytics and automation solutions to accelerate the quality of the work delivered for customers, including mega infrastructure and energy projects, to reduce schedules, and to create long-term value.

“A big part of KBR’s success has been its willingness to stay at the forefront of innovation and use technology to work smarter, faster and better,” said Jay Ibrahim president of KBR’s Sustainable Technology Solutions business. “Historically, we’ve delivered many first-of-their kind projects because our people aren’t afraid to adopt new technologies and work methods. Importantly, though, our people use those tools to get the job done right, which is another reason our customers trust us and lean on us.”

KBR is now rolling out a cutting-edge new quality assurance application that digitally transforms the technical checking and approval process for project documentation. On mega-scale detail design projects, data is still consolidated into tens of thousands of documents that all must be reviewed and accepted. The app uses automation to significantly increase “right first time” quality of the documentation sent to customers, thus reducing the number of review cycles and shortening project schedules, which is crucial for mega infrastructure and energy projects.

KBR Sustainable Technology Solutions teams developed and then tested the app in 2025, adjusting workflows to take full advantage of the solution. The benefits were seen almost immediately and include:

• Accelerated schedule performance through streamlined checking and approval cycles
• Enhanced quality and compliance, reducing re-work
• Increased collaboration and productivity across teams

Most important among the benefits: improved client satisfaction.

“It’s not going overboard to say that our customers have been delighted by the accelerated delivery and the transformational jump in ‘first time right’ quality,” said Paul Baillie, senior vice president of KBR Integrated Solutions. “This fantastic addition to our digital capabilities suite is already setting a new benchmark for efficiency and consistency in documentation, which allows our project and technical experts to focus on areas where we can create the greatest impact — delivering projects on time, on budget, and with uncompromised quality and safety.”

After the successful pilot phase, KBR teams have already released version 2.0 of the app and will begin scaling on a project-by-project basis in 2026. This approach will help ensure performance improvement that can be measured by project controllers and reviewed across the business. In 2026, KBR expects this to be its new norm for delivery of projects and will be deploying additional solutions to further increase the value achieved.

The rollout of the app is another example of how KBR digital and business experts are eager to seize opportunities to use technology not only to work better, but also to help customers meet their objectives and to create a safer, more sustainable future.

“We understand that successfully and strategically deploying these technologies is critical on several levels,” said Greg Conlon, KBR’s chief digital and development officer. “Some of the challenges we’re helping customers solve — like energy security, energy transition and complex critical infrastructure — have larger societal and geopolitical implications. Delivering at speed and scale is nonnegotiable. Furthermore, these technologies are helping ensure long-term value creation for our customers, in terms of project efficiency, safety and return on capital investment. And finally, continued development of our digitalization offerings is critical for our people. They are fearless when it comes to taking the reins, learning about and understanding these emerging tools, and driving internal efficiencies we can use to strengthen our workforce of the future.”

Learn more about how we work with our customers to innovate across work processes and achieve breakthrough value with KBR Digital Accelerators.