The question facing us all today is: How do we as a profession thrive in an era of digital transformation, shifting workplace expectations, and rapid change? What is very clear is that as the workplace continues to evolve, so must our approach to leadership and staff development. This article explores why in an environment of artificial intelligence (AI), soft skills and mindsets are now, more than ever before, critical for long-term people development, career and business success.
Current industry landscape
Quantity Surveying is not a government regulated profession in Singapore despite years of institutional advocacy. Instead, we have established a self-regulation framework called the Accredited Professional Quantity Surveyor (APQS). Developed collaboratively by the Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers (SISV) and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) under the national SkillsFuture initiative, APQS serves as a structured path for professional recognition. As the current President of the QS Division at SISV, I continue to champion APQS as a necessary step towards elevating standards and strengthening trust in our profession.
As its name suggests, the required “skills of the future” have been defined and the levels of competency required for each, have been identified for accreditation. APQS Tier 3 represents the entry-level, traditional institutional Assessment of Professional Competency (APC) level of expectation.
This accreditation framework was in response to, and sits in an environment in Singapore, where we have a severe shortage of Quantity Surveyors. In a global “War for talent”, students are not drawn to this oft-perceived unglamorous profession. Student numbers have fallen to a trickle, insufficient to meet current and future industry demands. Generational expectations are now focused on: Purpose, Impact, and Innovation first, and Mentorship, Career Advancement, and Salary second. I suppose this is a challenge shared across global markets, though the scale and severity may vary.
Skills that will endure the test of time
Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT currently struggle with numbers. AI models are rapidly advancing toward integrated language and numerical reasoning capabilities, which will eventually automate traditional quantification tasks. But we are not there yet, and we must empower our staff with the full potential of the tools they have at their disposal.
AI is a powerful enabler for comparison, analysis and generation of strategic recommendations, given enough data for learning and formalised standard operating procedures. The ability to harness traditionally disparate and unstructured data will enable us to work quickly, more accurately and be better advisors who are able to seek value-add and “value for money” solutions. This shift will allow us to focus more on high-value advisory services, moving from technical quantification to strategic problem-solving.
The question is whether AI adoption is the panacea for our woes. To answer this, we have deep-dived into the APQS Tier 3 framework and asked the question: Can AI Replace or Enhance the defined task and future skills required?
| Category | Task/Skill | Can AI Replace? | AI is great at this / will be able to do this soon | AI supports but human experience & interaction still required | Human interaction & evaluation are essential | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core Skills and Key Tasks of a Quantity Surveyor | Measurement & Tender Documentation | Measurement, contract bills, schedules, reviewing measurements | Yes | ✓ | ||
| Drafting documents and reviewing specifications | Yes | ✓ | ||||
| Cost Planning & Control | Cost estimates, cost plans, cost analysis, life-cycle costing, cash flows | Yes | ✓ | |||
| Design evaluation | Enable | ✓ | ||||
| Tender & Procurement | Pre-qualification | Enable | ✓ | |||
| Preparation of tender documents | Yes/No | ✓ Legal text may need human oversight | ||||
| Tender returns analysis, benchmarking | Yes | ✓ | ||||
| Post-Contract Administration | Payment valuations, variation claims review and response | Enable | ||||
| Final accounts | Yes | ✓ | ||||
| Attend meetings | No | ✓ | ||||
| Technical | Technical Skills & Competencies – Mandatory | Construction technology, contract administration | No/Enable | ✓ | ||
| Ethics | No | ✓ | ||||
| Measurement | Yes | ✓ | ||||
| Procurement and policy development, cost management | Enable | ✓ | ||||
| Technical Skills & Competencies – Elective | BIM, data analysis, life-cycle analysis, feasibility studies | Yes | ✓ | |||
| Dispute resolution | No/Enable | ✓ AI cannot manage conflicts or negotiations | ||||
| Risk management | Enable | ✓ | ||||
| Stakeholder management | No | ✓ | ||||
| Generic | Generic Skills & Competencies | Teamwork, communication, interpersonal skills, problem-solving, creative thinking | No | ✓ |
Future-proofing the quantity surveying profession
Analysis of the task and required future skills shows that the soft skills of Teamwork, Communication, Interpersonal skills, being Creative, and Problem solving, have been repeated often in the technical skills section. AI will greatly Enable, if not replace, the technical elements – but not the human aspect. The soft human skills are more important today, more so than ever before in our profession.
We need to become better at being Human. We need to have greater Awareness of situations, have greater Understanding and Discernment and Empathy to proactively propose solutions based on our experience. The question therefore is: Is it the responsibility of the company to develop these skills? This is given that those who are naturally good at these things will be the ones we naturally reward and promote. Do we need these skills from everyone in the company?
My proposition is yes. We as a profession are moving away from being technical “numbers people”, and staff who rely solely on technical competencies may risk becoming less relevant in a landscape that increasingly values soft skills.
How? Apart from outside training, there is no better way to teach and train staff in these skillsets than to model them by Leaders who “walk the talk”. In an age of AI, our strength lies in our humanity – and this is our competitive advantage that cannot be replaced.
I firmly believe that we will be able to safeguard our future relevance and key differentiator as a company, only if we at RLB are able to truly embody our values of Truth, Trust, Together and Tomorrow, and exhibit this in our behaviour to staff and wider project teams.
What new value can we deliver in a digital future?
Whilst we have discussed how we might evolve internally (staff, training, leadership), we need to more importantly consider how we remain externally valuable (client impact, relevance, positioning):
- From technician to advisor: As AI handles more technical tasks, we become strategic advisors—offering insights on value-for-money, sustainability trade-offs, lifecycle risk, and client-centric delivery models.
- Integration into multidisciplinary teams: The modern QS must speak the language of engineers, planners, data scientists, and sustainability consultants — embracing and adopting a “translator” role.
- Driving value-based outcomes: Take the lead in setting project performance metrics beyond cost, such as carbon value, productivity yield, and adaptability score.
This will require:
- Leaders to embrace digital disruption, adapt to evolving hybrid work models and proactively respond to changing client expectations
- Investment for continuous upskilling
- Buy-in from team leaders to support and provide peer learning, mentoring and coaching
- Future leaders and staff to be adaptable, collaborative and skilled communicators
- Personal action planning in performance reviews, for staff career development and upskilling
- Everyone to build a mindset of lifelong learning
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