EWJ August 62 2025 web - Journal - Page 60
Shaping the Role of the Quantum
Expert in Construction Disputes with
Evolving Artificial Intelligence (AI)
by Damith Gayanga, BSc (Hons), LLM, MRICS FCIArb, RICS Registered Expert Witness
Associate Director, Quantum
findings are inferred to the broader data set.
However, even with such measures, expert fees can
remain high, and the overall process remains
time-consuming.
Background
An expert witness is a person with specialised knowledge, skill, or experience who provides opinion evidence to a court or tribunal on technical matters that
fall outside the decision-maker’s expertise. In New
Zealand, similar to other common law jurisdictions,
the expert’s overriding duty is to assist the tribunal by
providing an independent and impartial opinion on
the instructed matters within his/her expertise by setting out all underlying assumptions, reasoning, and
data supporting the opinion, rather than acting as an
advocate for the instructing party. 1
In this context, the recent advancement of AI,
particularly in the automation of some quantity surveying tasks such as quantification, estimation, correspondence generation, and reporting, has raised a
broader question: Will AI eventually replace a
quantum expert?
This article examines how AI advancements are
reshaping the role of quantum experts in the construction industry, focusing on current tools, their
benefits and limitations, the admissibility of AI-generated analysis and reports in formal proceedings, and
the importance of expert professional judgment.
In construction disputes, quantum experts (typically
experienced quantity surveyors or cost consultants)
are appointed by parties or the tribunal/court to evaluate the financial impacts of claims pursued in the dispute. Their core function is to provide the tribunal
with independent valuations of each party’s position,
enabling a clear assessment of the monetary consequences under various liability scenarios. This generally involves reviewing project documentation
and assessing the costs, damages, or overruns arising
from variations, prolongation, disruption, or other
project changes, grounded in objective evidence and
professional judgement.
Prevailing Tools that can assist Quantum Analysis
There is no doubt that integrating AI into the
quantum analysis field would offer substantial benefits
in speed, accuracy, analytical depth, and cost-efficiency, as AI is capable of processing vast amounts of
project data and providing summaries much faster
than manual methods. Its consistency and tirelessness
further help eliminate human error, while machine
learning uncovers patterns and correlations that may
be missed otherwise. AI enables the execution of datadriven scenarios, such as predictive “what-if ” analyses, which would be impractical to do manually. All
these factors, including automating routine tasks,
would allow a quantum expert to deliver deeper insight into the quantum matters and provide opinion
evidence more efficiently.
Quantum experts typically use structured cost models
prepared especially for the dispute, usually in Microsoft Excel, to conduct their assessments. In preparing these cost models, the quantum experts generally
analyse information from contemporaneous project
records such as cost ledgers, timesheets, drawings, invoices, payment certificates, etc. These records assist
the quantum expert in forming an opinion on the
claimed costs and determining whether the claimed
costs that relate to the alleged issues were actually incurred and are reasonable. Once the analysis is completed, the quantum expert's findings are then
formally presented in a written expert report, alongside appendices containing detailed calculations and
supporting documentation, including the expert’s
own valuation.
Given the uniqueness of a dispute and the different
types of analysis required before forming an opinion,
no single AI platform can generate a complete quantum expert report by setting out all the data supporting the opinion. However, there are various tools that
a quantum expert can use to assist in finalising some
parts of a quantum expert report. Certain tasks a
quantum expert can request AI assistance with, including a few advanced AI-enabled software tools that
can be used, are discussed below.
Due to the requirement for analysis of an enormous
volume of data and the depth of analysis required, the
traditional role of a quantum expert is resource-intensive and often results in substantial costs. Experts
have traditionally relied on sampling techniques to
manage these expenses and adhere to tribunal-imposed or agreed-upon timetables, wherein representative data subsets are thoroughly reviewed, and their
EXPERT WITNESS JOURNAL
1.Drawing Comparison and Change Detection
There are numerous AI-driven software tools such as
CostX,2 CubiCost Tas3, and Bluebeam Revu4 available
in the market to compare drawings and automatically
detect changes between versions. These can help to
quickly identify additions, deletions, and modifications
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