29 th International Conference on Engineering, Technology, and Innovation (ICE 2023) touched upon the critical issues in engineering of the generative AI era. By looking at the key challenges in data-driven project management and sustainable development, the overarching theme emerging from the event was one of adaptation to AI and data tools as essential part of the work process and supporting new approaches in engineering, technology development and innovation and entrepreneurship. This points to a promising future ahead, where digital transformation reaches the extended engineering disciplines, which is the theme of the following ICE conference. Having said that, the use of digital tools also presents a number of problems, from data-driven biases to challenges of interdisciplinary, inter-organisational and inter-entity collaborations.