Artificial intelligence: What it means for the built environment

"The time is ripe, even overdue, to take a cold, hard look at what a highly disruptive technology could do to the industry." From the design and construction of a building through to managing and maintaining it, artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being integrated into core business strategies and impacting the work of surveyors of all disciplines and their fellow professionals. This paper examines the current thinking, state-of-the-art applications and predictions surrounding AI to uncover many examples of how it will transform the way we work and how we can exploit it to improve the quality of the built environment. Decades of steady and sometimes staggering improvements in technology has changed how most of us do our work and interact with others. For those engaged in creating and sustaining the built environment, there are threats from AI that can increasingly outperform the physical and cognitive skills of workers on all levels.