Home › AI Governance
RICS AI Standard readiness
Since 9 March 2026, every firm regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) that is using AI has had to govern it to a published standard.
We have read that standard end to end and mapped everything it asks of your firm into one place - so you can see what it involves and take a clear first step.
The RICS AI Standard supports the use of AI. It does not ask you to stop using it - it asks you to govern it.
The work is real, but it is finite, it is organisable and it is all laid out below.First edition
Professional Standard effective from
Who it applies to
The Standard turns on "materiality" - whether an AI output could influence how you deliver a service. Everyday tools like Copilot or ChatGPT, used on client work, can be in scope. The Standard asks you to make and record that judgement, not to guess.
For example, a surveyor using Copilot to research comparables and local area information, where some of the outputs feed the final client report, could trigger the materiality test.
The shape of it
The Standard runs across five areas, from what every AI user must understand to what firms that build their own AI must record. Here is the whole picture before we go deep.
Before anything else: a recorded judgement on whether each AI use is material, and any conflict with local law reported to RICS. This decides what else applies.
Everyone using AI understands how it works, its limits and the risks of error, bias and data exposure.
Data governance, a register of your AI systems, a Responsible AI Use Policy and a quarterly-reviewed risk register.
Due diligence before you buy, a signed reliability decision on every material output, client disclosure and explainability.
Extra records on data, permissions, sustainability and testing - only if your firm builds its own AI.
Across all of it, the Standard cares most about evidence you can produce on demand. "We are careful" is not an answer.
Everything you have to do
More than 30 obligations across 10 areas, each with implications for your firm.
| Area | Clause | What it asks of your firm |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline knowledge | s.2 | Everyone using AI understands how it works, its limits and the risks of error, bias and data exposure. |
| Data governance | s.3.1 | Data used with AI stored securely and access-controlled; annual privacy training; no confidential data into public tools without consent and a risk check. |
| System governance | s.3.2 | An appropriateness assessment, a register of your material AI systems and a Responsible AI Use Policy setting roles, human oversight and training. |
| Risk management | s.3.3 | An AI risk register covering bias, erroneous output, limited information and use of inputted data - reviewed at least quarterly. |
| Procurement and due diligence | s.4.1 | Written due diligence on seven areas before buying a material AI tool; gaps recorded as risks. |
| Outputs and reliance | s.4.2 | A written reliability decision on every material AI output, signed by a named, qualified surveyor who accepts responsibility. |
| Terms of engagement | s.4.3 | AI use disclosed in writing, before use, covering six points including PI cover, how to contest, redress and opt-out. |
| Explainability | s.4.4 | A written explanation of how AI was used, available to a client on request. |
| Materiality and conflicts | s.1.2 | A recorded judgement on whether each AI use is material; conflicts with local law recorded and reported to RICS. |
| Development (if you build AI) | s.5 | Extra records on data, permissions, sustainability and testing - only if your firm develops its own AI. |
RICS holds copyright in the Standard. This page maps its structure and meaning; it does not reproduce the text.
We have done the mapping for you. Our two free guides lay out the whole picture and what good looks like, and the AI Governance Register turns it into one living, evidenced record, with the checklist and a readiness dashboard built in. The RICS AI Standard is one of the most thorough AI standards any profession has published, so getting it right is governance you can stand behind and carry across everything the firm does with AI.
What good looks like
Read as a system it is straightforward: a handful of policies that set your position and a set of living records that prove you follow them. These are the concrete artefacts.
Where to start
You do not have to do all of this at once or alone. Start where it helps most.
Two free guides
Two guides: what the Standard actually asks of you and a checklist of what your firm must have in place.
The Standard, explained → The readiness checklist →AI Governance Register · £149
A ready-to-use working register, built for the RICS AI Standard - every record in one place, the checklist built in, a live readiness dashboard and worked examples.
Get the register →Readiness Diagnostic · from £2,500
We map your firm's position against the Standard, show you where the gaps are and agree the shortest route to close them.
Book a diagnostic →The AI Governance Register
A spreadsheet-based register that turns the whole picture into one evidenced record, with the checklist and a readiness dashboard built in.
Choose the edition that fits your business.
Built for the RICS AI Standard and mapped to its clauses, with worked examples for a RICS-regulated surveying firm. Every record the Standard expects, in one place.
The same register for any business, aligned to ISO/IEC 42001 and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
Available to UK buyers for now. Outside the UK? Email axi@axiomaiinsights.co.uk with your request.
See it before you buy
Eleven working tabs, pre-set formulas and a live readiness dashboard. Yours to customise to fit how your firm works - only the core tabs are locked, so the calculations always hold.
Click through what you get, or download the free sample and try the structure yourself.
Beyond the Standard
Getting the Standard right means taking a proper look at how your firm already uses AI, and that review usually shows where AI could save real time or win more work. When you want to go wider than compliance, our AXI products take a broader view of your business and where AI fits, starting with the free AXI Quick Scan.