AI has our attention. But are we asking the right questions?

by Marie Grieve, Founder and Managing Director, Costello Palmer Communications & Global Vice Chair, Women in BIM

As humans, we are wired to be curious. We want to know what comes next, what might be possible and whether something new could make our lives or our work better.

But we are cautious too. We question what we do not fully understand, test the boundaries and look for the consequences before deciding whether something deserves our trust. AI seems to be challenging that balance.

The speed of development is extraordinary. New tools appear almost daily, capabilities that seemed improbable a year ago are becoming commonplace and the pressure to adopt is growing. There is a genuine sense that something significant is happening. But have many of us allowed our curiosity to push caution to one side?

I do not ask that because I am against AI, I use it and can see significant opportunities for the built environment. What interests me more is how we move beyond the fascination with what AI can do and start asking more difficult questions about what we actually want it to do.

Where does it genuinely create value? What problems are we trying to solve? What happens when it gets things wrong? Where does efficiency become over-reliance? And ultimately, how do we make AI work for us rather than allowing technology to determine how we work?

I have spent much of this year exploring those questions while curating the Women in BIM Conference London 2026: AI in Action.

Researching the issues, speaking to people working with the technology and developing the content for the conference has not turned me into an AI evangelist, it has made me better informed and I increasingly think that distinction matters.

Being informed about AI means understanding its limitations and risks as well as its possibilities.

That is particularly relevant when researchers within some of the world’s leading AI companies are themselves raising questions about increasingly powerful and potentially self improving systems.

Recent cybersecurity testing has also demonstrated AI models circumventing controls and gaining unauthorised access to external systems.

These developments should not stop us exploring AI. They should make us more curious about it, but perhaps more critically curious. This thinking has shaped AI in Action from the beginning.

I did not want to create another conference telling people that AI is transformational, there are already plenty of opportunities to hear that. Instead, I wanted to get closer to what is actually happening, where AI is delivering value, what people are learning from implementation, where the challenges lie and what questions we still need to ask.

It has also influenced how I have designed the conference experience. AI in Action deliberately moves away from a traditional day of presentations with an audience simply listening. Alongside quick fire talks and live demonstrations, we have built workshops into the programme where people can explore some of the more complex issues together, panel discussions that bring different perspectives into the room and an open mic that gives the audience an opportunity to become part of the conversation.

A great conference is measured by the conversations it creates.

For me, interaction matters. If AI is going to influence how we work across the built environment, the conversation cannot take place only among the people developing the technology. We need opportunities to question it, test ideas, share experiences and hear perspectives beyond our own.

So I encourage you to come curious, listen to people putting it into practice, see the technology being demonstrated and most importantly ask questions.

Challenge what you hear, talk to others about what they are experiencing, then make your own judgement about where AI can create value for you, your organisation and the wider industry.

Perhaps we do not need to choose between curiosity and caution at all. We need both. Because the question is no longer simply what AI can do, it is what we choose to do with it.

The future of AI is not written by algorithms. It is shaped by the conversations we have today.

Women in BIM Conference London 2026: AI in Action – Thursday 15 October.