There’s a great deal of discussion about how AI will change the surveying profession. Some people are enthusiastic and others are understandably cautious.
We’re interested in how it can make the everyday work of preparing property reports easier. But there is one important distinction worth making.
Producing a report and providing professional surveying advice are two very different things.
AI-assisted tools can help surveyors organise notes, prepare initial drafts, transcribe dictation and gather information.
They can also help with repetitive administrative tasks that would otherwise take up valuable time.
For a busy chartered surveyor, that’s potentially very useful.
However, AI-generated information still needs checking. We’ve explored the practical side in Using AI for Survey Reports? Here’s Where Human Support Still Saves Time.
A client instructs a chartered surveyor because they need professional advice. They want someone who understands buildings, recognises defects, interprets evidence and can explain the implications of what they’ve found.
That requires training, knowledge and experience. AI can help organise the information, but it cannot take professional responsibility for the report.
An apparently convincing piece of AI-generated text isn’t necessarily accurate. The surveyor still needs to assess the findings, verify the information and approve the final document.
Our role is different again. We don’t write surveying reports or provide technical advice. We take the material supplied by the surveyor and prepare it into the required document.
That might mean transcribing an audio recording, formatting an AI-assisted draft or producing a detailed building survey in the client’s existing template.
Our experience with property terminology and specialist documents helps us identify wording that may need clarification, but where a technical decision is required, we refer it back to the surveyor.
There’s an opportunity here to make report production more efficient without compromising professional standards.
The surveyor provides the expertise. AI can assist with drafting and administrative tasks. BackupTyping can take care of transcription, formatting and document production.
If you’re introducing AI into your report-writing process and need help with the finished documents, contact BackupTyping on 020 7096 1663 or hello@backuptyping.co.uk.
