New AI monitoring gives clearer view for councils

KaarbonTech has launched SMART Shot AI, a new AI-supported monitoring capability that helps local authorities understand how critical highways and drainage assets change, perform and respond between routine inspections.

Routine inspections remain essential, but they provide a point-in-time view. At locations where debris, water levels or surrounding conditions can change quickly, the evidence needed to understand what happened afterwards is often missing.

SMART Shot AI addresses that gap by combining regular image capture with AI review to identify visible change and emerging risk. It gives operational teams a clearer picture of how assets and locations behave over time, without replacing professional judgement or established inspection regimes.

The capability can show whether debris repeatedly returns after clearance, whether water continues to rise, whether an obstruction worsens or whether an issue naturally clears. This creates a more complete evidence base for deciding when a site visit is needed, where maintenance should be targeted and how an asset is performing across its operational lifecycle.

Solar-powered, self-running units can be deployed at locations where additional visibility would support decision-making, including culverts, trash screens, watercourses, high-risk junctions and other hard-to-reach or rapidly changing sites. Configurable image capture, night vision, secure upload and AI-led review allow teams to assess change through a central dashboard and focus attention where it is most needed.

Conor Holgate, Innovation & Change Manager at KaarbonTech, said:

“Local authorities already hold a significant amount of asset information, but one of the hardest gaps to close is what happens after an inspection team leaves. SMART Shot AI adds evidence over time, helping teams understand not only what an asset looked like on a particular day, but how it reacted, whether risk developed and when intervention could have the greatest impact.”

For authorities managing large and varied networks, this additional visibility can help reduce unnecessary site visits while supporting earlier, more targeted intervention. It can also provide stronger evidence for maintenance planning, investigations, funding decisions and scrutiny by showing how conditions developed rather than relying on a single observation.

The technology is now being deployed across live local authority networks, with installations focused on locations where a clearer understanding of change over time can directly support operational decisions.