The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has published a new piece of research which predicts the effect that artificial intelligence (AI) will have on architects and their profession in ten years’ time.
It comes as a survey for its Future Business of Architecture programme showed that 88% of architects believe that AI use will become increasingly important for their organisation’s business by 2035, closely followed by business development, sustainability consultancy and client asset management.
Conversely, the quantitative data indicates that architects foresee traditional business tools, such as marketing and project management will be less important than AI to achieving business success during the coming decade.
Image: King's Cross Masterplan by Allies and Morrison and
Porphyrios Associates. Photo: John Sturrock
Architects anticipate that AI will have a significant impact on both design and construction, with 50% of architects surveyed predicting that technology will have a ‘transformational effect’ on how the profession work at concept design stage and 51% on manufacturing and construction. Only 10% of architects thought that the briefing, concept design and spatial coordination stages of projects would not be affected by AI, digitalisation and automation.
The research paper, Artificial Intelligence: The unreliable outlier driving the future of architecture, maps out three likely future scenarios for architecture in the wake of advances in AI – good, bad, and largely unchanged – and explores how other innovations are transforming architects’ work by causing ‘technological disruption’.
It is the third evidence-led white paper to emerge from the Future Business of Architecture.
Report co-author and RIBA Director of publishing and learning content, Helen Castle said: “It was fascinating to capture members’ views about AI and technology, how it’s influencing their day-to-day practice and how they see it evolving and changing the way they work in the future.
“The most interesting take away from the qualitative research was that, although architects feel that AI will become increasingly more important by 2035, they don’t believe that it will lead to a demise in the demand for soft skills and business development. Quite the reverse in fact, the ascendance of AI will lead to human relationships, communication skills, ethical decision-making and critical thinking taking on even greater significance for the future business of architecture.”
RIBA President, Chris Williamson said: “Like many in our profession, I suspect, I feel a mixture of excitement and trepidation about AI and its potential to radically change the business of architecture. I felt very much the same way when Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) first started making an impact on the industry. Both tools seemed equally radical at the time but instead of diminishing architects’ role and value, they enhanced it.
“We need to consider the capabilities of AI seriously and be prepared to embrace the immense possibilities. I’m equally convinced that the research led insights and scenarios in this white paper are vital because they provide architects with the tools to harness AI in whatever form it may take in the next decade.”
Artificial Intelligence: The unreliable outlier driving the future of architecture is the penultimate white paper from the RIBA Future Business of Architecture programme. The programme also includes CPD webinars and culminates in a global online conference on 8 October.
