Every decade or so, it feels as though someone announces that a new technology is coming to sweep away half the jobs in the built environment. The latest contender for this role is artificial intelligence (AI). It is a huge change-maker, true, but are the claims of it delivering job-loss Armageddon, at least in the short term, exaggerated?

UK unemployment hit a near five-year high last month and, since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, unemployment has ticked up across much of the industrialised world. A chorus of commentators has been quick to blame AI and Kristalina Georgieva, head of the IMF, even warned of a “tsunami” of technology‑driven job destruction. 

It is a compelling narrative. It is also – at least for the built environment – far too simplistic.