Within the next 20 years, we will see a fundamental change in how building surveyors interact with buildings. The skillset required will shift drastically. In my previous articles, I have discussed how data collection will be pivotal, along with autonomous humanoid robots
The new generation of surveyors will need a solid grounding in data collection, labelling, and processing, because data is what AI processes to arrive at its answers. That knowledge can easily be taught at the university level: Python, core AI, even training local language models for specific tasks.
At the same time, they will still need a strong technical understanding of traditional building surveying practice, because someone has to know whether the AI is getting it right or not
The APC Problem Nobody Is Talking About
The traditional route into the profession is well established: theory at university, then applied experience in the field under the RICS APC, shadowing senior surveyors and building competency across a range of work types.
The problem is serious. During the next decade, as AI takes over much of the work that many graduate surveyors would do (inspections, schedules, measured surveys), the hands-on experience that the APC depends on becomes increasingly scarce. You cannot shadow a robot. You cannot learn critical judgment by watching automated output.
Future surveyors will still need training to oversee AI systems, validate their outputs, and handle disputes and litigation when things go wrong. We can’t rely on the experts we have in the profession now, as within 20-30 years, those experts will have most likely retired.
The current pipeline for producing those experts is quietly breaking.
I know this issue well. When I completed my own APC, my diary was lacking in certain areas despite passing the exam; it was the diary that delayed my membership. That was in an era of abundant hands-on work. The problem will be considerably worse for the next generation.
A 35-Year-Old Idea Whose Time Has Come
To think through a solution, I went back to my own university dissertation from 1989–90: “Education, Training, Simulation and the Surveyor.”
One could say that it was in prehistoric times with respect to technology. At the time, the CD-ROM was a relatively new technology, and the internet had not yet been released to the public. The ideas in that dissertation were sound, but the technology to implement them simply did not exist. That is no longer the case.
The answer is an interactive simulation based on real buildings, and here is the irony: it will be the data collected by autonomous robots and advances in AI that allow these simulations to be created at very little cost. The same technology displacing the surveyor will train their replacement.
How It Works
The trainee surveyor walks through a building using a VR headset, accompanied remotely by a senior Chartered Surveyor. The resource efficiency alone makes this compelling, five trainees can walk through the same building simultaneously, each taking a different route, each observing different elements, with one senior surveyor available to guide, prompt and answer questions.
The foundational skills this teaches, methodical inspection and critical thinking, are precisely what the profession most needs to preserve.
Critically, the simulation does not have to be passive. The trainee reads the AI-generated report of the inspection and checks it for accuracy. Since future surveyors will not be writing reports themselves, this is exactly the skill they need to develop, not authorship, but validation.
Closing the Loophole
The obvious objection is that set simulations can be shared between trainees, undermining assessment integrity. The solution is already available: AI-generated scenarios.
Advances in AI video generation have reached the point where it is almost impossible to distinguish AI-created footage from real footage. Language models can be trained to generate unique building scenarios, settlement, thermal expansion, dampness, and timber decay, creating a fresh simulation for every candidate. No two trainees see the same building.
These simulations can be created using domain experts for their professional input. The finished simulation systems can be approved by the RICS and formally integrated into the APC framework as recognised training. The financial case for developing the underlying platform is strong; this technology will serve far more professions than building surveying alone, making the research and development costs commercially viable.
What Does The Profession Need To Do Over The Next Decade?
The competency framework will need to adapt. Simulation-based training is only as valuable as the professional body’s willingness to recognise it. The RICS has moved before when the evidence was compelling, and the evidence here will become impossible to ignore as the volume of traditional APC experience continues to shrink.
The question is whether the profession shapes that change or waits until it is imposed from outside.