Building the AI standards landscape – PAS 1958 now open for public comment
Helping organisations prepare for more effective use of artificial intelligence (AI), a draft standard that provides guidance on how current built environment and digital standards fit together is now available for public comment. PAS 1958: 2026, Built environment – Data and information standards landscape – Guide draws together the core tenets (principles, concepts, domains, etc) of existing standards and establishes a framework they can be set against.
As part of its BridgeAI project to accelerate SME activity around AI, Innovate UK held workshops with construction sector professionals. These concluded no new standards were needed, but recommended clarification of relationships between the built environment data and digital standards – for example, between the built environment focused ISO 16739-1 (on IFC) and ISO 19650 series (BIM) and standards relating to AI (ISO 42001 on AI management systems. A BSI steering group – with nima vice chair Emma Hooper as the technical author and including several other nima volunteers – was established to scope out the draft standard and its contents.
The group met several times in early 2025 – as Emma and BSI’s Dan Rossiter described in a presentation at Digital Construction Week in London in June (read PAS 1958: joining the dots in Digital Construction Plus, 1 July 2025). They envisaged PAS 1958 will support in several ways:
For those who do information management, it creates an overall view of the key concepts relating to data and information, as well as how these standards work as a cohesive portfolio of good practice. It will help them to select the most appropriate standards to fulfil their duties and move understanding away from information management being a tick-box exercise.
For those who provide services relating to information management (eg, training and certification providers), PAS 1958 may help in structuring their content to improve usability: for example, a training course could focus on concepts instead of standards.
For nima, PAS 1958 may help restructure the content of the IMI Framework and its guidance, improving usability.
For BSI, PAS 1958 may provide invaluable feedback to allow future revisions of these standards to remove some of the frictions and conflicts identified.
The public comment period is now open until Friday 10 October 2025, and nima encourages anyone interested to review, comment upon and share the draft – available for download at https://standardsdevelopment.bsigroup.com/projects/2024-03552. Once consultation ends, the steering group will review the feedback ahead of publication of the final standard expected in early 2026.
Update (24 September 2025)
As part of the public consultation for PAS 1958, BSI is hosting a webinar on 1 October 2025. The event is part of the Innovate UK BridgeAI programme and is an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of PAS 1958, how it can benefit you and why it’s important for you to have your say.
Join the webinar to:
- hear from sector experts who are involved in developing the standard;
- explore existing built environment standards and how they can be leveraged to tackle challenges within the sector;
- find out more about the BridgeAI programme and other opportunities available;
- ask any questions you may have about the standard and how to provide your feedback through the public consultation.
Agenda
12:00 – 12:10: Introduction to BridgeAI and BSI’s role in the programme by Dan Rossiter, Built Environment Sector Lead, BSI.
12:10 – 12:20: Gain an overview of BridgeAI and the opportunities available to you from Emmanuel Ewah, Innovation Lead, Innovate UK.
12:20 – 12:40: Explore PAS 1958, its benefits, impact on the sector, and understand more about the public consultation with Emma Hooper, Head of Information Management Strategy, RLB Digital.
12:40 – 12:55: Q&A
12:55 – 13:00: Wrap up and thank you.
