Sandeep Sathyamoorthy, Vice President and Director of Water Innovation and Technology at Stantec
Although concepts of artificial intelligence (AI) have been explored in the Water Industry since the 1960s (Zadeh, 1965), this technology has only recently gained momentum. In the wastewater treatment sector, the use of machine learning (ML), a subset of the broader suite of AI technologies (e.g., robotics), has gained significant momentum over the last decade, with artificial neural networks (ANNs) emerging as one of the high-value AI technologies.
ML/AI transforms complex data into actionable insights. These technologies enable real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and process optimization, resulting in greater efficiency, substantial energy and chemical cost savings, improved water quality, and enhanced sustainability. They also enable proactive prediction of treatment needs and early detection of issues, shifting operations from reactive to intelligent, data-driven approaches.
“Machine learning and other AI technologies are constantly evolving and expanding,” notes Sandeep Sathyamoorthy, Vice President and Director of Water Innovation and Technology at Stantec. “These are relatively new technologies for us in the water sector, and we’re now at a pivotal time in the evolution of these technologies with the rapid evolution of powerful reinforcement learning (RL), large language models (LLMs), agentic AI, and large action models (LAMs).”
Sathyamoorthy explains that, unlike traditional modeling, which relies on a mechanistic understanding of the processes, ML/AI models employ data-driven, mechanism-independent approaches to interrogate, analyze, and classify data. ML/AI models can tease out complex underlying interdependencies between historical and real-time data, which are challenging, if not often impossible, to uncover using traditional modeling.
“The use of ML/AI can unlock the ability to predict changing water quality (and resulting regulatory implications), equipment performance (and potential failure risks), and optimize treatment processes to support better decision-making,” he said.
“AI is emerging as a powerful and disruptive technology to address challenges in water resource management, infrastructure optimization, and operations,” Sathyamoorthy said. “AI models’ ability to learn from and predict patterns directly from data, examples, and experience, rather than relying on mechanisms or pre-defined rules, makes this technology highly applicable to the water industry.”
Sathyamoorthy emphasizes that while ML may appear complex, it is fundamentally rooted in mathematical relationships and pattern recognition, making it accessible and highly valuable when applied correctly. He also notes that AI and ML cannot replace a great operator, but they can help the operator uncover insights from complex relationships between measurements more clearly. This ML/AI augmentation for operations holds significant potential, and the wastewater sector is taking this journey together.
Sathyamoorthy will speak at CWEA’s Annual Conference on the Integration of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence into the Management of Systems in the Water Industry on Thursday, April 9, at 9:10 a.m. He will also speak on a different topic, Low DO, High Impact: A sustainable and cost-effective approach to nitrogen management integrating mobile media on Friday, April 10 at 11:10 a.m. For more information on CWEA’s Annual Conference 2026, go to ac.cwea.org.
With 20-plus years of experience, Sathyamoorthy specializes in applying emerging technologies to the utility and industrial sectors, with an emphasis on water reuse, resource recovery, and climate resilience. He has a Ph.D. in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering from Tufts and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell, combining technical expertise with systems thinking.
About Stantec: Stantec empowers clients, people, and communities to rise to the world’s greatest challenges at a time when unprecedented concerns are more prevalent than ever. The company is a global leader in sustainable engineering, architecture, and environmental consulting. Its professionals deliver the expertise, technology, and innovation that communities need to manage aging infrastructure, demographic and population changes, the energy transition, and more.
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