MONTREAL – After a year of big earnings and a record backlog, AtkinsRéalis Group Inc. CEO Ian Edwards said Friday that artificial intelligence marks a key path to expansion and efficiency, and sought to tamp down any fears AI could erode the need for flesh-and-blood engineers.
“We see AI as a strong enabler in our business; we do not see it as a disrupter,” Edwards told analysts on a conference call.
The chief executive described engineering as a “judgment-based profession” — with humans, not robots, at its core — but said AI tools will pave the way for growth through cost savings.
The technology will likely speed up merger activity in the sector due to the leg up it offers larger organizations, he continued.
“As smaller companies try to invest in AI they will find that increasingly difficult, and companies that have scale and balance sheet like ourselves who are able to deploy AI at scale will clearly have an ultimate advantage from a cost-based perspective,” he said.
Edwards qualified that any consolidation effect from AI likely would not start to play out for a year or two, and that AtkinsRéalis plans to take a “disciplined” approach to acquisitions in 2026.
The company has deployed a suite of AI tools for design, modelling, surveying and safety in its bidding process, he said. It has also rolled out the technology for support tasks and data collection, and implemented it in departments ranging from human resources and safety inspections to taxes and finance.
In November, Atkins bought C2AE Inc., a Michigan-based architecture and engineering firm with eight locations and 120 employees. The purchase marked the third acquisition of 2025.
In its latest quarter, the Montreal-based company reported an 81 per cent year-over-year leap in its fourth-quarter profits to $95 million.
It also boosted its backlog by 22 per cent to a record high of $21.21 billion from $17.45 billion a year earlier. The increase came from work completed and new contracts inked in its nuclear division and engineering services segment, in areas ranging from water and aviation infrastructure to public transit and defence projects.
Atkins subsidiary Candu Energy completed refurbishment of the final reactor at the Darlington nuclear plant east of Toronto last quarter. After signing a multibillion-dollar contract for a life extension on four reactors at Ontario’s Pickering nuclear power station earlier in 2025, bidding is now underway for “several large new nuclear projects across Canada and internationally,” Edwards said.
For the company’s new nuclear power reactor, called the Monark, eastern Europe sits at the “top of the pile” of likely candidates, he said.
In its forecast, AtkinsRéalis predicted organic revenue growth of five to seven per cent in engineering services this year. It expects nuclear revenue to reach $2.5 billion versus $2.3 billion last year. It also said it plans to generate $500 million in net cash from its operations.
Edwards said the quarter rounded off a years-long transformation by AtkinsRéalis into a pure-play engineering services “and nuclear-focused” company, and away from lump-sum projects — fixed-price contracts under which companies must pay for any cost overruns themselves.
Nonetheless, Atkins’ old bugbear of lump-sum projects reared up on its income statement once again.
Three so-called lump-sum turnkey (LSTK) construction contracts drained $59 million from its coffers last quarter: Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown light-rail transit system, Ottawa’s Trillium Line and the greater Montreal area’s REM light-rail network extension.
Losses from the legacy segment totalled far more than the preceding quarter’s $15 million, but far less than the one before that — $84 million.
“We’ve now substantially completed two of the three remaining light rail transit systems,” Edwards said, including the Eglinton line, which opened at long last in February — more than 14 years after it broke ground, and well after the initially planned opening date in 2020.
The company expects to lose between $100 million and $150 million this year as it completes a final construction contract, settles out final accounts and pursues outstanding legal claims, said chief financial officer Jeff Bell.
Edwards was not the only CEO to address concerns around AI this week. On Thursday, WSP Global chief executive Alexandre L’Heureux said the company remains more insulated from AI disruption than other sectors, largely due to the complexity of the infrastructure projects it manages.
“In recent months, many actors have painted all professional services firms with the same AI brush, worrying that we are entering an era where advanced AI will replace firms like WSP,” L’Hereux told analysts.
But lumping diverse industries together makes little sense in an AI context, he said.
“An AI can’t negotiate with the city council in a construction permit, and it certainly can’t take accountability in front of a professional board if something goes wrong,” he said.
Like Edwards, L’Heureux said the technology amounts to an opportunity for WSP, allowing it to further leverage data and also help with the construction of power stations needed to power the technology.
On Friday, AtkinsRéalis reported that revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 totalled $2.93 billion, up from $2.59 billion the year before.
On an adjusted basis, the firm formerly known as SNC-Lavalin said adjusted earnings from professional services and project management amounted to 97 cents per diluted share, up from 26 cents a year earlier and roughly on par with analysts’ expectations, according to financial markets firm LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2026.
Companies in this story: (TSX:ATRL, TSX:WSP)
