Gamuda Berhad is a leading Malaysian engineering and construction company with operations across the world, including in Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, and more. The company is known for its innovative approach to construction through the use of cutting-edge technology.
Speaking at MongoDB.local Kuala Lumpur in August 2024, John Lim, Chief Digital Officer at Gamuda said: “In the construction industry, AI is increasingly being used to analyze vast amounts of data, from sensor readings on construction equipment to environmental data that impacts project timelines.”
One of Gamuda’s priorities is determining how AI and other tools can impact the company’s methods for building large projects across the world. For that, the Gamuda team needed the right infrastructure, with a database equipped to handle the demands of modern AI-driven applications.
MongoDB Atlas fulfilled all the requirements and enabled Gamuda to deliver on its AI-driven goals.
Why Gamuda chose MongoDB Atlas
“Before MongoDB, we were dealing with a lot of different databases and we were struggling to do even simple things such as full-text search,” said Lim.
“How can we have a tool that's developer-friendly, helps us scale across the world, and at the same time helps us to build really cool AI use cases, where we're not thinking about the infrastructure or worrying too much about how things work but are able to just focus on the use case?”
After some initial conversations with MongoDB, Lim’s team saw that MongoDB Atlas could help it streamline its technology stack, which was becoming very complex and time consuming to manage.
MongoDB Atlas provided the optimal balance between ease of use and powerful functionality, enabling the company to focus on innovation rather than database administration.
“I think the advantage that we see is really the speed to market. We are able to build something quickly. We are fast to meet the requirements to push something out,” said Lim.
Chi Keen Tan, Senior Software Engineer at Gamuda, added, “The team was able to use a lot of developer tools like MongoDB Compass, and we were quite amazed by what we can do. This [ability to search the items within the database easily] is just something that’s missing from other technologies.”
Being able to operate MongoDB on Google Cloud was also a key selling point for Gamuda: “We were able to start on MongoDB without any friction of having to deal with a lot of contractual problems and billing and setting all of that up,” said Lim.
How MongoDB is powering more AI use cases
Gamuda uses MongoDB Atlas and functionalities such as Atlas Search and Vector Search to bring a number of AI use cases to life.
This includes work implemented on Gamuda’s Bot Unify platform, which Gamuda built in-house using MongoDB Atlas as the database. By using documents stored in SharePoint and other systems, this platform helps users write tenders quicker, find out about employee benefits more easily, or discover ways to improve design briefs.
“It’s quite incredible. We have about 87 different bots now that people across the company have developed,” Lim said.
Additionally, the team has developed Gamuda Digital Operating System (GDOS), which can optimize various aspects of construction, such as predictive maintenance, resource allocation, and quality control.
MongoDB’s ability to handle large volumes of data in real-time is crucial for these applications, enabling Gamuda to make data-driven decisions that improve efficiency and reduce costs.
Specifically, MongoDB Atlas Vector Search enables Gamuda’s AI models to quickly and accurately retrieve relevant data, improving the speed and accuracy of decision-making. It also helps the Gamuda team find patterns and correlations in the data that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Gamuda’s journey with MongoDB Atlas is just beginning as the company continues to explore new ways to integrate technology into its operations and expand to other markets.
To learn more and get started with MongoDB Vector Search, visit our Vector Search Quick Start page.