As the energy and utility sector moves toward a more digital, decarbonized future, AI is playing an increasingly central role in shaping a smarter, more resilient grid. At DISTRIBUTECH, industry leaders demostrated how intelligent technologies and data-driven insights are transforming grid operations and accelerating renewable integration. Within this dynamic landscape, APC Media’s Power Players program shines a light on standout DTECH exhibitors—recognizing innovative solutions that unlock capacity, enhance resilience, and help move the energy transition forward.
Impact in Action – 4M
4M is the utility data platform for infrastructure. Powered by proprietary AI and verified by geospatial experts, 4M replaces slow, fragmented utility data processes with instant, reliable data you can trust, verify, and access across teams, technologies, and workflows.
Utilities in the project site are a major source of risk, rework, and delays during planning, design, construction, operations, and maintenance. In surveys of DOTs, engineers, contractors, and utility owners, utility issues are commonly named the number one threat to delivering projects successfully. Schedules can be compromised by utility conflicts, prolonged relocations, and accidental strikes, endangering workers and causing service outages to local communities. But with early access to reliable, comprehensive, and up-to-date utility data, project stakeholders can minimize contingency, reduce unknowns, and build better together.
By transforming millions of scattered utility records and visual evidence into actionable intelligence, 4M maps utility lines and features above and below ground, pinpointing conflicts before work begins. Utility data is continually improved using a variety of AI capabilities, including object and road mark detection, AI-generated lines in areas of low record coverage, and routing and estimating AI agents. 4M’s data is compatible with leading platforms for digital delivery, from BIM to augmented reality systems, enabling teams to visualize subsurface utilities directly from the site. Leaders in transportation, utilities, engineering, and construction rely on 4M to identify risks earlier, keep crews safer, and deliver projects on time and on budget.
Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, and Tel Aviv, 4M is backed by Insight Partners, Viola Ventures, and Waze’s former CEO. Learn more at www.4manalytics.com
Next-Gen Vision – Looq AI
Looq AI is a world leader in geophysical reasoning, dedicated to advancing critical infrastructure digitization and diagnosis. The company delivers the Looq Platform, a handheld, ground-based photogrammetric capture and AI-enabled processing system—offering creation, visualization, analysis, collaboration, and integration capabilities to digitize the built world. Looq offers qSurvey to help surveyors improve capture and process efficiency, deliver centimeter-level accuracy, and qPole to enable distribution designers and engineers to transform simple field captures into accurate engineering-ready asset models.
At the core of Looq’s innovation is geophysical reasoning, a capability that allows AI to interpret physical infrastructure in both 2D and 3D while understanding real-world context. Rather than simply extracting measurements, the technology analyzes structural geometry, materials, and component relationships to create engineering-ready digital representations. This human-like understanding enables engineers and utilities to model assets more accurately and consistently, supporting better decision-making across the lifecycle of critical infrastructure.
The launch of qPole reflects this geospatial and geophysical reasoning approach in action. The AI-enabled solution converts photographs of utility poles into precise 3D models, automatically identifying key structural elements such as height, diameter, material, and attached equipment. By training AI to recognize the DNA of a pole, Looq provides a reliable foundation for pole load analysis, asset health evaluation, and grid modeling.
By streamlining field capture and back-office processing—from roughly 30 minutes per pole to about seven minutes—Looq significantly improves efficiency while enhancing safety and data consistency. This reduction in manual workflows helps utilities address aging infrastructure, labor shortages, and increasing demands for grid resilience. Ultimately, Looq’s geophysical reasoning-driven platform enables faster, more accurate infrastructure digitization, supporting modern geospatial workflows and more reliable engineering outcomes. Learn more at looq.ai.
This article was originally published in the March 2026 issue of the Power Systems Intelligence From Core to Grid Edge magazine.
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