Where the time goes
Most of the time in a snagging or condition report is not the inspection. It is sorting photos, matching them to items, typing up notes and laying out the document. That is the part a recording and a draft can take on. The inspection, the judgement about each defect, and the signature cannot.
The steps
| Step | Who does it | What comes out |
|---|---|---|
| Walk and talk | The surveyor | A recording with numbered items, photos at their moments, sizes |
| Draft | Software | Items worded from what was said, photos numbered to items, a summary |
| Check | The surveyor | Every item read against its recording line and photo, corrected |
| Sign off | The named, competent person | The report, issued and dated |
Keep the evidence attached
A draft is only as good as your ability to check it. The useful test for any reporting tool is whether you can go from each line of the report back to what was said and the photo it came from. A line you cannot trace is a line you have to verify from memory.
RICS's professional standard on the responsible use of AI in surveying practice, in effect since March 2026, sets out what RICS expects of members and firms that use AI in their work, including keeping professional judgement with the surveyor. Firms should read it directly.
Note Metric and Report Metric
The two products split the job.
- Note Metric records the walk-round in Survey mode: items flagged as you say them, photos with their moment and place, sizes estimated or checked. It exports the draft as PDF, a plain Word file, a zip with the photos and Measurements.csv, or Send to Report Metric in one file.
- Report Metric turns that file, or typed notes and photos, into the firm's own snagging or condition report. Every item cites the note, recording or photo it came from, anything it cannot find in the evidence is flagged rather than guessed, and nothing is issued until a named person signs it off. Unsigned copies are marked DRAFT.
Report Metric is in early access, set up for each firm by AI Metric.
Questions
Can AI decide what is a defect?
No. Software can organise, draft and assemble, but deciding what is a defect, how serious it is and what should be done is professional judgement, made and signed by a competent person.
Will the report be in our format?
It should be, or you have moved the work rather than removed it. Report Metric produces each firm's own wording, layout and branding.
What happens to photos that were not used?
They stay with the job as evidence. Only the photos on items go into the report.
Sources
- RICS, Responsible use of artificial intelligence in surveying practice (PDF): the RICS professional standard on AI use, effective 9 March 2026
- RICS, Building surveying standards and guidance: the professional standards for building surveying reports
- ICO, Guidance on AI and data protection: data protection when personal data in notes or photos goes through an AI system
Our summaries of these documents are not their wording: read the source before relying on it. This guide is general information, not legal advice for a particular case. Note Metric and AI Metric Ltd are not affiliated with or endorsed by any body named here.