AI Engineers is expanding its Middletown headquarters with a multimillion-dollar investment in new offices, a glass atrium and AI-powered technology. The 420-employee company projects revenue of $90 million for 2025.
Abul Islam started AI Engineers in 1991 as a one-man business in the basement of his Cromwell apartment, determined to provide for his growing family. He was 33 years old and worked with just a drawing table and a computer. He ordered a separate business phone line and his wife, Rubina, acted as secretary to make the operation look more professional. She also made sure their son, Tariq, then about a year old, stayed quiet in the background during calls with potential clients. Thirty-four years later, Tariq Islam is chief of staff at the civil and structural engineering company his father started and still runs, while AI Engineers today has about 420 employees, nearly a dozen locations — including an office in Pakistan — and is expected to end 2025 with revenue of about $90 million. The company is now investing several million dollars to expand its Middletown headquarters and modernize its technology, with a focus on artificial intelligence.
Elbow room
In November, the real estate arm of AI Engineers paid $1.85 million for a 2.5-acre property adjoining its 23,608-square-foot headquarters at 919 Middle St. The newly acquired site, at 909 Middle St., includes two mixed industrial and office buildings. Abul Islam, now 67, said he plans to spend more than $1 million over the next six months renovating a 9,759-square-foot building — the larger of the two — into modern offices. It aims for a high-tech, open-concept environment that promotes collaboration between different engineering and design disciplines. “We are a multidisciplinary company, with engineering studies (mechanical, electrical and plumbing), electrical and civil,” Islam said. “We do a little bit of everything, bridges, highways and a lot of civil engineering work. We also do design.” The smaller 7,119-square-foot building at 909 Middle St. is occupied by a gun magazine manufacturer. Islam said he expects the tenant to move out soon, paving the way for a possible redevelopment of the smaller building with employee amenities — such as a fitness center — and new collaboration space, including a theater for presentations and training of interns. Within two to three years, Islam plans to connect the two buildings with a glass atrium. The combined structure would be connected to the existing headquarters via a new ground-floor corridor, creating a cohesive campus. The additional space will accommodate AI Engineers’ growing staff and support a planned $2.1 million technology upgrade, which is expected to go live early next summer. This upgrade includes a new internal “supercomputer” that staff can access anywhere in the world using relatively inexpensive laptops to access virtual desktops. It’s a more efficient way to share processing power, allocating it where and when it’s needed, said Michael Giacco, VP of AI Engineers. “Now we will have this central depot where … if our citizens in Pakistan need that power, we can just increase the volume and give it to them,” Giacco said. The project also includes the addition of an AI-powered document management system, designed to leverage the company’s vast collection of internal information and data, including previous designs. Hosting the AI in-house will allow the company to maintain data security without uploading sensitive material to cloud servers, Giacco said. New systems will require additional expertise. AI Engineers plans to hire four or five people, including senior software designers, application developers and data scientists, Giacco said. Islam said the AI system would help streamline key functions – such as design, tendering and invoicing – making staff more efficient and generating long-term savings.
A long trail
Islam immigrated to the United States from Pakistan in 1983 to pursue a master’s degree in civil engineering at City College of New York. After graduating, he worked for several companies in the Northeast. AI Engineers was not an overnight success. The program’s launch in the waning days of the recession of the early 1990s made it difficult to obtain funding and find employment, Islam recalled. While submitting offer after offer, he performed daily tasks to keep the house afloat, including nightly inspections of roads and bridges in New York. The work paid well and, as few people wanted to work night shifts, it was always available. AI Engineers landed its first contract 18 months after launching: a $50,000 contract to inspect emergency bridge repairs at a Route 8 interchange in Derby. “And from then on it was luck,” Islam said. “The jobs keep coming. One was a $50,000 contract. The next was $150,000, then another subcontract, then another.” In 1995, AI Engineers leased a 600-square-foot office in the Middletown Business Park, a short distance from its current headquarters. As New York became a major source of work, Islam rented a 1,000-square-foot office in Queens in 1996. At that time, he had hired only one engineer and a secretary, but a physical presence mattered. “You have to market,” he says. “They wanted to see a local presence. And (Transportation ministries) like big companies.” Today, the U.S. arm of AI Engineers works in 17 states, performing design, inspection and engineering of bridges, roads, water pipelines, airports, rail systems and other infrastructure. It contracts with public transport services, universities and airports, among others. AI Engineers’ 23-year-old Middletown headquarters is home to about 170 employees, the most among its 11 locations. The company also has offices in Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Rhode Island and Karachi, Pakistan. Islam said he personally invested $800,000 to launch the Pakistan office in 2019. He now employs about 75 people, with most of his work in Pakistan and the Middle East. Recruitment there has benefited from Islam’s close ties with his alma mater in Karachi, the NED University of Engineering and Technology.
Latest and best choice
AI Engineers has explored several expansion options over the years. In 2008, his real estate holding company paid $700,000 for the former WFSB-Channel 3 Broadcast House building in downtown Hartford. The company demolished the 100,000-square-foot structure with plans to build its own headquarters on the site, but abandoned the project during the 2008 financial crisis. AI Engineers recently sold the Hartford property for $1.3 million and is reinvesting that money into the Middletown expansion, Islam said.
“Most companies hoard money. But what I’ve seen (my father) do throughout the history of the company is just reinvest the profits. Our growth is that we reinvest a lot in the company.” — Tariq Islam, AI engineers
In 2016, the company obtained a $1.6 million low-interest loan from the state Department of Economic and Community Development to renovate parts of its Middletown headquarters, including converting basement storage into office space. It contributed an additional $500,000 to the project and repaid the state loan in 2021. In late 2024, AI Engineers purchased 2.1 acres just down the street from its Middletown headquarters. Plans to build there were abandoned earlier this year when Islam spotted a “for sale” sign on the property adjoining his headquarters. The company plans to retain the 2.1-acre site for possible future expansion, Islam said. Meanwhile, over the past five years, AI Engineers’ revenue and staff have nearly doubled, Tariq Islam said. He attributes much of that growth to his father’s willingness to reinvest in the business, investing in technology, facilities and staff. “Most businesses will hoard money,” Tariq Islam said. “But what I’ve seen (my father) do throughout the history of the company is just reinvest profits. Our growth is that we reinvest heavily in the company.”