Part I | The Condition Observed
1.1 Existing Conditions
AI has entered the ordinary work of architectural practice. Large language models (LLMs) draft specification sections from a firm’s master, summarize code provisions, screen submittals, and prepare responses to requests for information. They also draft the design narratives and construction-phase correspondence that may later become important in a dispute. Practitioners have taken up these tools task by task, often under the same deadline pressure that governs the rest of their work. Professional institutions have had to respond while that adoption was already under way.
AIA has issued professional guidance and a firm toolkit. NCARB has published an architectural regulatory position and model provisions; ICOR has issued cross-profession regulatory principles; and the NSPE Board of Ethical Review has addressed AI in an advisory engineering ethics opinion. Despite their different legal effect and professional scope, they share a
