AI and the future of professional services

At BE News’ Skills Gap Spotlight + Hackathon event late last year, I argued that artificial intelligence (AI) is neither a magic bullet nor an existential threat. It is a disruptive force that is already changing how professional work is done and how value is created. Our challenge is to harness it to improve outcomes while preserving the human judgement, ethics and accountability on which clients rely.

AI is automating routine tasks and augmenting complex ones across the project lifecycle. Generative tools can iterate design options in minutes and cost management platforms can accelerate benchmarking.

The practical effect is a shift in what professionals do. More time will be invested in framing problems and validating machine-generated solutions. Clients will increasingly buy outcomes and will judge us by whether we can deliver better certainty on cost, time, safety and carbon, not by how many hours we spend on our professional processes.

This has business model implications. Some tasks will be de-emphasised or priced differently. New services will emerge around data strategy, assurance and performance in use. Teams may become smaller but more multidisciplinary, with deeper collaboration between designers, cost consultants, engineers, contractors and operators. This changes where human expertise sits in the value chain and elevates the premium on integrative thinking.

Skills are the hinge. The sector has long prized deep, single-discipline expertise. We will still need that depth, but tomorrow’s professionals must also be digitally literate, data aware and comfortable working across boundaries. Think ‘T-shaped’ or even ‘comb-shaped’ profiles: a blend of core disciplinary knowledge with horizontal capabilities such as problem solving, systems thinking and stakeholder engagement.

That requires a change in both initial education and lifelong learning. Universities and training providers should embed model-based working and data literacy into core curricula. Employers and professional bodies need to expand CPD so existing practitioners learn to brief, test and deploy AI responsibly rather than treat it as a black box.

Competency will also evolve. If tools can generate credible outputs, how do we know a practitioner truly understands the principles behind them and can recognise when the machine is wrong? We could move toward outcome-based frameworks that evidence competence in practice, not only through exams or logbooks.

Professional bodies can collaborate on common core standards spanning digital practice, ethics and interdisciplinary collaboration, then allow specialisms to build on that platform. Regulators, clients and insurers might want to see proportionate, risk-based assurance that higher-risk decisions are made by people who are demonstrably competent to make them.

Ethics must remain non-negotiable. AI brings risks around bias, transparency, intellectual property and environmental impact. Professionals should set guardrails for data quality, provenance and explainability, whilst being candid with clients about how tools are used and what their limitations are. The human remains accountable for decisions.

What should organisations do now? Start small but deliberate. Map where AI can reduce friction in your workflows. Pilot tools with clear success criteria. Train teams to interrogate outputs, not just operate software. Create internal guidance on acceptable use. Measure benefits in outcomes that matter to clients, including safety and carbon, to avoid chasing technology for its own sake. Most importantly, bring disciplines together earlier. AI amplifies the gains when teams think and act as one.

I am pleased to chair the recently launched Built Environment Futures Assembly, hosted by the University of the Built Environment, which is being set up to help the sector navigate this transition. BEFA’s focus on education and future skills and professionalism will bring employers, educators and institutions together to shape updated curricula, shared competency guidance and practical adoption playbooks for AI and digital practice.

We should be both concerned and excited. Concerned, because our traditional models of work are moving. Excited, because we have an opportunity to raise quality, productivity and trust. If we approach AI with a defined purpose, ethical discipline and a learning mindset, professional services in the built environment can be more valuable than ever.

Mark Farmer authored the Farmer Review, an influential 2016 independent government review of the UK’s construction labour model entitled ‘Modernise or Die’, as well as a review of the Construction (CITB) & Engineering Construction Industry Training Boards (ECITB), published in January 2025. As Chair of the Built Environment Futures Assembly, he continues to champion modernisation and collaboration across the built environment sector.