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Aipedia: Quantity surveyors
QSs and employer's agents can use AI to help review amendments to JCT and NEC forms, but must not let it push them into legal advice outside their competence. A missed onerous clause can cost the client heavily, and PI may not respond as expected.
Part of: AI in quantity surveying
In short
During procurement, QSs and employer's agents often review contractors' or employers' amendments to standard forms, commenting on commercial risk. AI tools can compare amended clauses with the standard form and summarise changes. The risks are missed onerous clauses, AI summaries that misstate the effect of an amendment, and the QS giving what is in substance legal advice outside their competence, contrary to RICS Rule 2. PI usually covers the firm's declared professional business; advice that falls outside it, or that the client should have taken from a lawyer, may be harder to defend and insure.
Standard forms such as JCT and NEC may be heavily amended. Employers issue schedules of amendments, contractors propose their own, and the QS or employer's agent is often asked to comment on the commercial effect: payment terms, retention, liquidated damages, risk transfer and change mechanisms.
AI tools can compare the amended text with the published form, list every change and draft a commentary. Generative AI chatbots are also asked direct questions such as "is this clause onerous?" The answer can sound authoritative, but the tool does not know the client's risk appetite, the project, or whether its reading of the clause is legally right.
Several existing duties apply to this work:
Typical failure points include:
Illustrative: an employer's agent uses AI to review a contractor's schedule of amendments on a design and build project. The tool summarises a change to the payment provisions as administrative. The employer signs without taking legal advice. Later a dispute shows the change materially weakened the employer's position. The employer claims from the employer's agent, saying it relied on the review as advice on the contract's effect.
A claim about a negligent commercial review is usually handled as professional negligence under the RICS Approved Minimum Wording, subject to the policy terms. Where the QS has given what amounts to legal advice, the position may be less clear. Insurers commonly look at whether the advice fell within the professional business declared and described in the policy, and the claim may also be harder to defend on liability. Some policies and appointments restrict cover for services outside the insured's usual profession, so the wording matters.
Our guide to AI contract clauses and indemnities looks at how contracts allocate AI risk, and JCT and NEC appointment PI requirements covers the insurance clauses in QS appointments.
Put these controls in place:
Apex arranges PI for quantity surveyors and employer's agents. A broker can check how your policy describes your services and whether contract review work is covered. Related: AI valuing variations, AI and tender confidentiality, the QS PI guide and the QS AI hub.
Yes, on commercial and cost effect, which is part of normal QS work. Rule 2 of the RICS Rules of Conduct requires members to act within their competence, so advice on legal effect or enforceability should generally be left to a lawyer, and the report should say so.
It can, because AI produces confident readings of legal text that may be wrong, and the output may look like legal advice. A named surveyor must still decide whether the review is reliable under the RICS AI standard (4.2).
It depends on the policy's description of the professional business and what was declared. Advice clearly outside your profession may be harder to defend and may raise cover questions. Check the wording with your broker if contract review is a regular service.
It should say that AI was used to compare the amended text with the standard form, which edition was used, that every amended clause was read by a named QS, and that the report covers commercial effect only. RICS standard 4.3 also requires advance written notice to the client.
Tell us about your firm and the work you do. A broker will review how your current PI treats AI-assisted work, or arrange new cover. No fee for a quote. Or call 0117 325 0027.
Start a PI quote Request a callbackApex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales, company number 07014570. This page is general information about how AI is used in the profession and how insurance may respond. It is not legal, regulatory or insurance advice on your circumstances, and it does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.
