AI is transforming many industries — and building surveying is no exception. But to understand where AI fits into building inspections, we first need to compare how AI “thinks” with how a human Building Surveyor is trained to think and act.
How AI “Thinks”
AI doesn’t think! At least, not like we do. Instead, it predicts. Most modern AI, including large language models (LLMs) and vision models (VLMs), are trained on vast amounts of data and learn patterns within that data.
Here’s a simplified breakdown of the AI training process:
- Data Collection: AI is often initially trained on tens of thousands — and then eventually millions — of images, text samples, or both.”.
- Pattern Learning: Through machine learning, the model identifies statistical relationships and patterns from the data it is presented with. For example, in images, it might learn what cracks in walls typically look like. Whereas in text, it might learn how surveyors describe them.
- Prediction, Not Understanding: When asked a question or shown a photo, AI predicts the most likely next word or label based on its training.
So in the case of identifying a defect, it recognises a similar pattern in the image it is presented with, from similar patterns it has seen in its training and recognises something most likely to be the “best fit”.
This ‘best fit’ is based on probability, not reasoning or physical understanding.
This is why AI can appear intelligent, but lacks judgment or experience. We have to remember it only sees pixels or words that it is presented with to analyse.
How a Building Surveyor is Trained
A qualified building surveyor goes through a very different process, one rooted in formal education, supervised experience, and professional judgment.
- Academic Foundations: Most building surveyors complete a RICS-accredited degree. The degree teaches various construction methods, building pathology, legislation, and inspection techniques.
- On-Site Experience: Surveyors learn by inspecting real buildings, typically during their Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) period, under the supervision of experienced Chartered Building Surveyors during their probation period.
They develop the ability to “read” a property; to spot what’s out of place, link visible symptoms to root causes, and assess risk.
So much that many surveyors can intuitively identify defects like:
– If a floor is not level just by walking across it
– Damp is present in a room just from the smell in the room
– Spotting if elements like walls, windows and doors are out of alignment by a few millimetres just by looking at them. - Regulated Practice: Surveyors must adhere to professional standards, ethical codes and undertake CPD. Ultimately their advice must be defensible in court!
- Judgment and Context: Unlike AI, a surveyor uses nearly all of their senses; sight, smell, sound, touch and more importantly gut instinct.
They take the evidence presented to them from many sources around them and make a professional diagnosis of what caused a defect and more importantly what is likely to cause a defect in the future.
As you can see the main difference is that AI just predicts what is likely to be the issue based on the “pixels” and “words” that it is presented with.
For example, when it sees a photo of a cracked wall, it doesn’t “understand” the crack. It sees a pattern of pixels and links it to similar patterns seen during its training.
A Building Surveyor, by contrast, might walk up drive of a Victorian house, spot a large oak tree in the neighbour’s garden, know the local clay soil is shrinkable, and immediately suspect root-related movement — even before seeing any cracks.
That example shows contextual, sensory, and professional knowledge and judgment in action.
So when thinking about how AI will revolutionise Building Surveying – just remember about how differently the two learn and think!
Within the next decade, the most valuable surveyors of the future won’t fear AI — they’ll work alongside it.