NCARB’s Issues Statement on the Use of AI in Architecture

The NCARB Board of Directors has adopted the following statement establishing NCARB's position on the use of AI in architectural practice and its impact on regulation.

Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and computational design are providing architects with new labor-saving tools and transforming many of the tasks associated with project delivery. The proliferation of AI use in practice is raising legitimate questions about how the responsibility and accountability of the architect might be altered by this technological wave.

At NCARB’s June 2024 Annual Business Meeting (ABM), 150 licensing board members from around the country took part in a workshop on artificial intelligence and regulation. Prior to this workshop, NCARB’s regional leaders hosted an AI presentation at the March 2024 Regional Summit; a wide-ranging exploration of AI was also featured at NCARB’s inaugural Futures Symposium in December 2023.  

Although the ABM participants’ opinions were divided on how regulators should engage with AI, NCARB and its regulatory community approached consensus on several points: 

• Regulators should not limit the use of technological advances that support the profession’s ability to improve the health, safety, and welfare of the public.     
  • It falls outside of NCARB’s mission and expertise to evaluate or provide opinion on specific AI tools and their application, nor is there precedence for enforcing limitations on a tool’s use.
      
• Any proposed regulation that addresses AI usage in practice must ensure the licensed practitioner remains in responsible control and continues to be accountable for all technical submissions under their seal.
   
• AI is a tool—it is not a replacement for professional judgement. Regardless of AI tools used, it remains the architect’s responsibility to provide services in conformance with the standard of care.
   
• NCARB is committed to staying apace with the profession and to ensuring that licensure requirements consider both current practice methods and the overarching responsibility that rests with the architect.

In evaluating perspectives from the regulatory community, NCARB plans to work with its licensing board members to further explore two areas regarding guidance and best practices for the architect’s use of AI: 

• Reassessment of responsible control parameters to determine whether they appropriately address the use of AI tools.
   
• Identification of best practices for ethical AI usage, including determining whether, when, and how the use of AI and its supporting datasets should be declared.

Going forward, NCARB will continue to monitor the expanding use of AI across practice and its potential interface with the regulatory mission of NCARB and its members. NCARB remains committed to collaborating with its licensing board members to ensure the best interests of the public are served through the effective and reasonable regulation of architectural practice.