🔒From basement startup to high-tech Middletown hub, AI Engineers is investing millions in HQ expansion, tech upgrades

Abul Islam launched AI Engineers in 1991 as a one-man operation in the basement of his Cromwell condo, determined to support his growing family. He was 33, working with just a drafting table and a computer. He ordered a separate business phone line, and his wife, Rubina, played the part of secretary to make the operation appear 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 of the civil and structural engineering firm his father started and still leads, while AI Engineers has grown to about 420 employees, nearly a dozen locations — including an office in Pakistan — and is projected to end 2025 with about $90 million in revenue. Now the company is investing several million dollars to expand its Middletown headquarters and upgrade its technology, with a focus on artificial intelligence.

Elbow room

In November, AI Engineers’ real estate arm paid $1.85 million for a 2.5-acre property abutting 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 expects 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 office space. He’s aiming for a high-tech, open-concept environment that fosters collaboration among different engineering and design disciplines. “We are a multidisciplinary company, with survey engineering, (mechanical, electrical and plumbing), electrical, civil,” Islam said. “We do a little bit of everything, bridges, highways and quite a bit of civil work. We also do design.” The smaller 7,119-square-foot building at 909 Middle St. is occupied by a firearm-magazine manufacturer. Islam said he expects the tenant to relocate soon, clearing the way to potentially redevelop the smaller building with employee amenities — such as a fitness center — and new collaboration space, including a theater for presentations and intern training. Within the next two to three years, Islam plans to link both buildings with a glass-heavy atrium. The combined structure would connect to the existing headquarters through a new ground-level corridor, creating a cohesive campus. The added space will accommodate AI Engineers’ growing staff and support a planned $2.1 million technology upgrade expected to go live by early next summer. That upgrade includes a new in-house “supercomputer” that staff can access anywhere in the world using relatively inexpensive laptops to tap into virtual workstations. It’s a more efficient way to share processing power, allocating it where and when it’s needed, said AI Engineers Vice President Michael Giacco. “Now we will have this central repository where, … if our folks in Pakistan need this horsepower, we can just turn the dial up and give it to them,” Giacco said. The project also includes adding an AI-enabled document management system designed to harness the company’s vast collection of internal information and data, including past designs. Hosting the AI in-house will allow the company to maintain data security without uploading sensitive material to cloud servers, Giacco said. The new systems will require additional expertise. AI Engineers expects to add four or five hires, including senior software designers, application developers and data scientists, Giacco said. Islam said the AI system will help streamline key functions — like design, bidding and billing — making staff more efficient and generating long-term cost savings.

A long runway

Islam immigrated to the United States from Pakistan in 1983 to pursue a master’s degree in civil engineering from the City College of New York. After graduating, he worked for a series of companies across the Northeast. AI Engineers wasn’t an overnight success. Launching in the waning days of an early-1990s recession made it difficult to secure financing and find work, Islam recalled. While submitting bid after bid, he performed per diem jobs to keep the household afloat, including overnight road and bridge inspections in New York. The work paid well and, because few wanted the overnight shift, it was consistently available. AI Engineers landed its first deal 18 months after launch: a $50,000 contract to inspect emergency repairs on a bridge at a Route 8 interchange in Derby. “And from that point onward, it was all good luck,” Islam said. “One job after the other keeps coming in. One was a $50,000 contract. The next one is $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 leased a 1,000-square-foot office in Queens in 1996. At that point, he had hired only one engineer and a secretary — but a physical presence mattered. “You have to market,” he said. “They wanted to see a local presence. And (departments of transportation) love big companies.” Today, AI Engineers’ U.S. arm works in 17 states, performing design, inspection and engineering on bridges, roadways, waterworks, airports, rail systems and other infrastructure. It contracts with state transportation departments, universities and airports, among others. AI Engineers’ 23-year-old Middletown headquarters houses about 170 staff, 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. It now employs about 75 people, with most of its work in Pakistan and the Middle East. Recruitment there has benefitted from Islam’s close ties to his alma mater in Karachi, the NED University of Engineering and Technology.

Last, best choice

AI Engineers has explored multiple expansion options over the years. In 2008, its real estate holding company paid $700,000 for the former WFSB-Channel 3 Broadcast House building in downtown Hartford. The firm demolished the 100,000-square-foot structure with plans to construct 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 in the Middletown expansion, Islam said.

"Most companies will hoard the cash. But what I have seen (my father) do throughout the history of the company is just reinvest earnings. Our growth is that we reinvest hugely into the company." — Tariq Islam, AI Engineers

In 2016, the company secured a $1.6 million low-interest loan from the state Department of Economic and Community Development to renovate portions of its Middletown headquarters, including converting basement storage into office space. It contributed another $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 abutting his headquarters. The company plans to hold onto the 2.1-acre site for possible future expansion, Islam said. Meantime, over the past five years, AI Engineers has roughly doubled in revenue and staff, Tariq Islam said. He credits much of that growth to his father’s eagerness to reinvest in the business, putting money into technology, facilities and staff. “Most companies will hoard the cash,” Tariq Islam said. “But what I have seen (my father) do throughout the history of the company is just reinvest earnings. Our growth is that we reinvest hugely into the company.”