Posts by Nancy Balois

Pond Stars: Turning unwanted fishing equipment into a new revenue stream with ChatGPT, Codex, and practical automation. Inside the AI Lab: From Experiment to Execution In the first article of this series, I introduced an experiment that began in January 2026 at Sweeney’s Sports, a 56-year-old fishing tackle store in Napa, California. The premise was…

How AI is helping a 56-year-old retail business reverse years of decline—and fundamentally change how its people work. By Alex Osenenko | ArchIT Future of Work Series — Episode 1 For the past ten months, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the lab. As Co-Founder and Head of AI Labs at ArchIT, I’ve…

“How much PTO do I have?” “Can I expense parking at the client site?” “Can I work remotely next Friday?” “What’s our policy on using ChatGPT?” None of these are bad questions. Employees need answers. The problem is who has to answer them. In a 10-, 25-, or 50-person architecture firm, questions like these frequently…

Artificial intelligence is becoming part of everyday architectural practice, supporting research, correspondence, proposals, design exploration, documentation, and firm operations. As these tools become more capable, firms must also consider security, confidentiality, professional responsibility, and client trust. These topics were discussed during AI in Architectural Practice: Adoption, Responsibility, and Risk, an AIASF Small Firms program held…

From Three Workflows to One Complete Submittal Lifecycle Submittals are essential to construction administration, but managing them can consume a significant amount of an architecture firm’s time. Each package must be received, logged, compared against project requirements, reviewed, returned, tracked, and sometimes processed again as a resubmittal. The work demands professional judgment, yet it also…

AI Closes the Loop on the Architectural Submittal Process Submittal review does not end when an architect returns a package marked “revise and resubmit.” Someone still has to track the open item, receive the next revision, compare it with the original submission, confirm whether every comment was addressed, update the project record, and prepare the…

How AI can organize the evidence while the architect keeps the decision Submittal review is not difficult because of one isolated comparison. The burden comes from repeatedly moving between specifications, drawings, schedules, product data, review templates, prior decisions, and correspondence – often under tight deadlines and within a fee-compressed phase of the project. In Part…

A single submittal is usually manageable. It arrives, someone checks it, logs it, routes it to the appropriate reviewer and returns the response to the contractor.  The challenge appears when that process is multiplied across dozens, or potentially hundreds of submittals and resubmittals on multiple active projects.  What looks like a straightforward workflow quickly becomes a significant administrative…

“A workflow that costs $10 but saves a principal two hours may produce an excellent return. A recurring agent that costs hundreds of dollars but creates little measurable value should be redesigned or discontinued.” AI adoption in architecture firms usually begins quietly. A few employees open personal ChatGPT accounts. Someone uses Copilot to summarize meeting…

Data organization. In this episode of Design Under Influence, Alex sits down with Liz, Megan, and special guest Basil to talk about the foundation work that must happen before AI can deliver real value. From folder structures to workflow discipline, the conversation makes one thing clear: AI is only as powerful as the data you…