AboutWhy we built guardbook
The RICS standard on responsible use of AI became mandatory on 9 March 2026.
Most firms we spoke to had the same answer when asked how they were meeting it. A policy document, written once, sitting in a shared drive.
A policy on its own doesn’t show what your firm does with AI day to day. If a client or an insurer asks, you need the record behind it: which tools you use, what they’re used for, who checked the output and what they decided.
We couldn’t find anything built for that. So we built it.
How we got here
The standard has been mandatory for 245 days.
How we got here
The standard has been mandatory for 245 days.
- March 2025: RICS consults on its draft AI standard
- September 2025: The standard is published
- 9 March 2026: The standard becomes mandatory
- 17 May 2026: We start building guardbook
- 24 November 2026: 30-day free trials open
Where guardbook comes from
The RICS standard
Sets out what a firm must do when it uses AI.
The GUARD™ framework
Sorts those requirements into five pillars: Governance, Use, Accountability, Risk and Documentation.
guardbook
Turns each pillar into records your firm can keep and show.
Who we are
Nina Young FCA, co‑founder
Nina is a Chartered Accountant (FCA) who spent a decade in audit, risk and assurance in regulated financial services and law. She founded Surveyors UK, the independent network for the UK surveying profession, and created the GUARD framework, the method guardbook is built on. Her mission is to build insight and awareness of how AI is affecting surveying, and tools and training that help manage AI risk.
“Surveyors are good at judgement. The standard asks for that judgement to be written down, by a named person, at the time. I wanted that to take minutes, not a compliance team.”
Chris Brady, co‑founder
Chris spent 18 years in estimating and contract management, mostly in residential construction, and ran his own estimating and bid-writing business. Since 2024 he has helped built environment firms adopt AI, much of it with surveyors. He runs Metrix and leads the product side of guardbook.
“What a dashcam is to motor insurance, guardbook is to professional indemnity. It won’t drive the car for you, and it doesn’t take away your responsibility. But when something goes wrong, you can show what happened.”
What we stand for
The standard is the authority.
We’ll never tell you you’re compliant.
Small firms get the full product.
A sole practitioner has the same obligations as a firm of thirty.
The record has to be believable.
Timestamped, append-only, and your records stored in the UK.
We’re independent.
Not part of RICS and not endorsed by it.
Where we are now
We’ve been building since May 2026, and a small group of testers has already shaped the product. From 24 November, any RICS‑regulated firm of up to 30 people can start a 30-day free trial.
Start free trialA product of Vertas AI Ltd. Questions? Email hello@guardbook.ai