Here’s a sobering thought: almost 90% of the tasks undertaken by surveyors could be automated using artificial intelligence.
The Impact of Emerging Technologies on the Surveying Profession report, prepared by Remit Consulting for the RICS, found that 18 of the 43 basic tasks undertaken by surveyors had a high degree of vulnerability to automation over the next 10 years. A further 20 tasks showed a significant degree of vulnerability.
Does that mean that 90% of you are redundant – or that you will have to cut your hours to half a day per week? Absolutely not. Unless, of course, you are unwilling to change.
In truth, 90% of most workplace tasks could be automated in whole or in part – and yes, I’m ahead of you here, including the writing of this comment piece. However, a key question is: would those tasks deliver the same level of value if they were undertaken by AI?
Automation will bring many benefits to real estate: accuracy, consistency, transparency and timeliness will improve. Cost savings should materialise. But crucially, those who embrace change will be able to focus on adding value in other ways. The need for interpretation and advice will continue (for now at least). And those who can combine well honed client management skills with newly acquired data science skills will thrive.
So which surveying tasks are most ripe for automation? Rent collection, says the report. Lease management, valuation, and property, asset and facilities management are also highly disruptable. Those of you working in acquisitions and disposals will be least disrupted.
But whichever end of the disruption league table you find yourself, the worst thing to do would be to pretend the status quo is sustainable.
Speaking of obsolescence, do we need developers to develop real estate?
Two bits of news beg the question. One is a mooted plan by Sidewalk Labs to develop a 12-acre site in Toronto “from the internet up”. The other is the fact that the likes of Facebook, Apple and Google have the time, money and inclination to develop HQs themselves.
The precise consequences of both dynamics remain unclear, but they will be profound.
Again there are more questions than answers. What does it mean to design a city from the internet up? And is it only fabulously wealthy tech giants that will develop without developers?
In all likelihood the Sidewalk Labs, Facebooks, Apples and Googles of this world won’t be content to develop just for themselves, they will seek wider applications for their experience.
Just as it would be a mistake for surveyors to underestimate the impact of AI and resist change, so it would be for developers as their world changes in a way every bit as profound.
With all this disruption, where best should this new thinking be applied? Five places leap to mind: Leeds, Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Airport, Toton in Nottinghamshire and London Euston. The first four are new stations which will serve the phase 2 route of HS2 and act as a catalyst for new commercial districts. The fifth – a 54-acre commercial and residential district at Euston, NW1 – is also HS2-driven.
And who might we look to as early adopters of this new thinking? Expect those on the Euston shortlist – Westfield Europe, Euston Regeneration Partnership (led by Argent Related), Canary Wharf Group, Landsec and Lendlease Europe – to be in the vanguard of the revolution.
And how might they and others go about it? This week the government accepted nearly all the policy recommendations in the Farmer Review of the UK construction labour model. Its focus on improving training and boosting modern methods of construction is not just advisable, it may well be essential.
It feels like a blueprint for change is emerging.
To send feedback, e-mail damian.wild@egi.co.uk or tweet @DamianWild or @estatesgazette
