This is a daunting time to be embarking on a career as a graduate surveyor in the property industry. My cohort, I realise, is not the first to have left university to find an unhelpful economic backdrop subduing the graduate recruitment market. However, I suspect it is the first to find itself confronted with articles in the press questioning which jobs will exist a few years from now; and whether Artificial Intelligence (AI) will transform the world of work to such an extent that entire professions will simply cease to exist in due course.
For those who qualified back in the 1990s, or earlier, the question of whether AI will make the surveying profession obsolete is probably of little more than passing interest; they can realistically hope to be retired before AI’s influence becomes too pervasive. But my generation can’t afford to take a “head in the sand” approach. Most of us are going to need to work for the next 40 years or so. As Bill Gates once famously observed, although society tends to overestimate how much impact a new technology will have in a one-year timeframe, it tends to underestimate the impact it will have over a decade. So, if AI is going to make the role of surveyors redundant by the time we are in our mid-30s, it would be pretty futile for us to be setting out on this career path now.
Fortunately, however, I remain optimistic that it won’t. Although the rise of AI has raised concerns about the potential redundancy of certain roles in the property sector, there are still many areas that I am convinced will continue to require human attention. While technology can streamline processes and enhance efficiency, the human touch in surveying remains irreplaceable.
Why is the human touch necessary? Interpersonal skills are vital in the property industry to facilitate effective communication, foster strong relationships, aid in negotiation, build trust with clients, and contribute to problem-solving. For example, at Dalcour Maclaren, the firm where I am training, I work largely on the compulsory acquisition of land, where dealing with people’s emotions and making ethical decisions, are key elements of the job. Whilst I can see that AI has the potential to become a very useful tool in valuing properties that are to be compulsorily purchased (given AI’s ability to analyse market trends and large complex data sets), I believe any attempt to use AI to manage a compulsory purchase process would be hugely counterproductive. I certainly wouldn’t be content as a landowner having to deal with a chatbot insisting on buying my property.
Further to this, surveying is a field that seems to me to require a high level of human expertise and professional judgment. While powerful, I am sceptical that AI could replicate the nuanced understanding and experience that a human surveyor brings to their role.
So while I think AI has the potential to automate and streamline many tasks within the property industry, I think it is very unlikely to completely replace surveyors. I do not doubt that in the not-very-distant future AI will be able to handle repetitive tasks, process large amounts of data, and provide insights that can help surveyors make better decisions. But, I am convinced that the role of the surveyor will remain crucial, and their expertise and skills will continue to be in demand in the foreseeable future. I certainly hope so…
