Why the smartest QS teams are betting on AI

28 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment, William Doyle MRICS argues that a large portion of knowledge‑worker activity—searching for context, requesting feedback, and locating past documentation—can be automated by AI, potentially reclaiming up to half of a professional’s time. He suggests that this reclaimed time can be redirected toward more strategic activities such as decision‑making, risk mitigation, and enhanced supplier pricing and sourcing. Doyle also highlights a shift in thinking: beyond merely reducing existing work, AI can generate new, higher‑value work streams, a prospect especially relevant for construction and quantity surveying teams.

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if we think about any of, you know, our workers, knowledge workers, you know, people sitting behind a desk the majority of the time. Yeah, a lot of it is looking for context, asking for feedback, and searching for documentation or evidence of something that's happened in the past. I think the real opportunity is if AI can do a lot of that stuff that we potentially spend 50% of our time on, what could we now do with all of that time? We could spend a lot more of our time on intelligent work, right? Decision-making, reducing risk on our projects, better pricing with suppliers, or going out to more suppliers. Because I think when we think about AI, we always think about what work does it reduce. But I think a really exciting thing that we're, that we're starting to think about is what type of work does it actually increase, which I think is a really, a really interesting application, especially in the context of construction.