Inside Shive-Hattery’s Plus One Program: How a Simple Practice Engages Employees and Builds Future Leaders

The idea behind Shive-Hattery’s Plus One program is disarmingly simple: when you’re heading into a client meeting, proposal interview, or project kickoff, don’t go alone. Bring someone with you. Someone earlier in their career. Someone who wouldn’t normally be in the room. Have them observe. Encourage them to ask questions. Invite them to lead a small part of the meeting.

That’s it.

But inside that simple idea lives something incredibly powerful.

Shive-Hattery is a 600-person architecture and engineering consulting firm based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with roots dating back to 1895.

Plus One is both a knowledge strategy and an employee engagement strategy. It helps the firm transfer wisdom from senior staff, build client continuity, and develop future leaders in real time. At the same time, it helps early-career professionals feel seen, valued, and included in the real work of the firm, years before they might otherwise have had the chance.

It’s one of those rare practices that builds both business resilience and human connection.

In fact, I’d argue that’s part of why it works so well. It sits at the intersection of what firms need and what people want. Firms need succession planning, leadership development, and client coverage. People want mentorship, growth, and visibility. Plus One delivers both, and it’s exactly the kind of habit that helps a firm become a learning organization.

And because it’s lightweight, repeatable, and aligned with the natural rhythms of project work, it scales easily. 

From Informal Practice to a Formal Program

Shive-Hattery launched the formal Plus One program in 2013, but it was an informal practice long before that. 

For years, seasoned team members would tap someone more junior to tag along to a client meeting, a kickoff call, a proposal interview. 

Greg Kanz, the firm’s longtime Marketing Director, remembers being pulled into meetings early in his career, before he felt ready. One moment stands out.

“I had some branding ideas,” he recalled. “Guy Patten, marketing director at the time, invited me to co-present strategies to company leadership.”

“I thought I was there to add color commentary with Guy taking the lead,” he recalled. “He had me sit in the front of the room, lead the presentation, and answer questions with his support.”

Greg was stunned. “I was a baby bird kicked out of the nest—but I did fly after the initial surprise. And I’ve never forgotten it.”

In the early 2010s, as Shive-Hattery began preparing for a major generational transition, it felt like a perfect time to make this informal practice formal. The firm had a wave of retirements on the horizon and they wanted to make sure their deep client relationships were transitioned successfully to the next generation.

That’s when Greg started to connect the dots.

He remembered what it felt like to be pulled into meetings early in his career. He knew how much those moments shaped him. And he started wondering: What if we stopped treating this as an exception? What if we made it a habit?

He brought the idea to Jennifer Van Ausdall, the firm’s Communications Director, and together they decided to give it a name.

They called it Plus One.

“It started as a joke, honestly,” Greg said. We realized it’s like when you’re going to a wedding or event and ask, ‘Who’s your ‘plus one’ this weekend?’ And that was it. We had a name.”

They printed keychains with the Plus One logo. Put Plus One reminders on exit doors. Shared Plus One stories at staff meetings. 

The question became part of the firm’s language: Where’s your Plus One?

And just like that, a long-time cultural practice became a formal leadership program.

What Plus One Actually Looks Like

So what does Plus One look like in the real world?

Sometimes it’s a senior architect inviting a designer to a client kickoff meeting. Sometimes it’s a project manager bringing a marketing coordinator to a proposal interview. Sometimes it’s a leader in healthcare design telling a young engineer, “Come with me to this meeting at the hospital. You’ve got experience they should hear about.” 

The Plus One doesn’t have to have a speaking role. But sometimes they do. They might answer a question. Take notes. Share a perspective. Ask a follow-up.

The point isn’t to be polished. The point is to be present.

“It’s not about having all the answers,” Greg said. “It’s about learning through exposure—and creating space for people to grow.”

At Shive-Hattery, Plus One has become a lightweight but high-leverage way to develop emerging leaders in real time. It gives staff early glimpses into how the business works—how relationships are built, how trust is earned, how nuance plays out in a room.

It also sends a strong cultural signal: we see you, we trust you, and we want you here.

A Plus One story Jim Lee, Shive-Hattery’s then CEO told during he and Greg’s KA Connect 2019 talk, “Delivering on the ‘One Firm’ Promise”, stuck with me. A young electrical engineer—he called her Ethel—was invited to a routine marketing call with a major hospital client. She wasn’t the obvious pick. But she showed up, spoke up, and made an impression.

“I learned more about Ethel on that one call than I had in the previous year,” Jim said. “And more importantly, the client did too, and they formed an instant connection.”

This is the power of Plus One. It creates moments that wouldn’t otherwise happen. Moments that accelerate growth, build confidence, and deepen relationships, internally and externally.

And because it’s tied to the natural cadence of client work, it scales without needing formal infrastructure. It just becomes how things are done.

“You don’t need a budget line or a new software system,” Greg said. “You just need a mindset—and a little bit of intentionality.”

Creating Zipper Relationships

Client relationships are always stronger when more than one person from your firm is involved. It not only deepens client development, but also improves knowledge continuity and supports long-term succession planning.

At Shive-Hattery, Plus One became a way to reduce risk—one meeting at a time.

By routinely inviting newer team members into client interactions, the firm began building multiple points of connection on both sides of the table.

This is generally referred to as a zipper relationship in the AEC industry—a metaphor for overlapping relationships that span generations and roles.

Instead of a single thread connecting client to firm, you build overlapping relationships across levels, roles, and time. The more interlocking teeth in the zipper, the stronger the connection.

“It’s about making sure no one person is the only person a client knows or trusts,” Greg explained.

That’s relationship resilience. And it’s also good business. Clients feel more supported. Team members feel more connected. And the firm becomes far less vulnerable to turnover or transition.

Plus One doesn’t solve the whole problem. But it’s one of the simplest, most durable ways to start.

Desirable Difficulty and Learning Before You’re Ready

There’s a principle in learning science called desirable difficulty. The idea is simple: people learn best when they’re stretched—when they’re pushed just past what they already know, into unfamiliar territory where they have to adapt, think, and grow.

It’s the same logic behind weight training or language immersion. You get stronger by doing something hard, just not so hard it puts you or the client relationship at risk.

That’s exactly where Plus One lives.

That moment—equal parts challenging and transformative—is the beating heart of the Plus One experience.

You’re not being thrown in the deep end alone. But you are being asked to swim.

It’s a low-risk, high-value setting for growth. You’re not leading the meeting. But you are in the meeting. And when someone hands you the mic, even for a minute, it changes how you see yourself.

“We were very intentional about putting people into situations before they felt fully ready,” Greg said. “Not recklessly—but regularly.”

That’s how confidence is built. That’s how future leaders are formed. Not in the abstract, but in the flow of work.

And because Plus One is embedded in the rhythm of actual client life, it doesn’t feel like a simulation. It feels like trust.

Turning Goals Into Growth

One of the reasons Plus One has taken root so deeply at Shive-Hattery is that it aligns beautifully with how the firm approaches development.

Rather than relying solely on top-down career paths, Shive-Hattery encourages employees to define their own growth goals—whether that’s building confidence in client conversations, exploring a new market sector, or gaining experience outside their discipline.

Plus One turns those aspirations into action.

“If someone says in a review, ‘I want to get better at business development,’ Plus One gives us a way to make that real,” Greg said. “We’re not just talking about development. We’re doing it.”

That action might be an invite to join a proposal interview. Or to shadow a project kickoff. Or to attend a meeting with a longtime healthcare client. Whatever the scenario, the structure is the same: come along, contribute where you can, and learn in the room, not in theory.

This alignment with employee-led goals is part of what makes Plus One feel so organic. 

It also makes the program more resilient. Because it isn’t owned by a single department or gatekept by a formal system, it can happen anywhere. In any office. On any team. Wherever a leader sees an opportunity, or a learner raises their hand.

“That’s where the best development happens,” Greg told me. “Not just when it’s assigned, but when people identify what they want to work on. We help create space for it.”

In that sense, Plus One isn’t just a strategy for knowledge transfer. It’s a signal of trust. An invitation to grow. And a tangible way to connect career development with the everyday life of the firm. It’s the kind of continuous, people-centric program that defines a true learning organization.

Please Take This Idea and Make It Yours

One of my favorite parts of being in the KA community is watching good ideas travel.

After Shive-Hattery shared the Plus One program at KA Connect 2019, firms across the network began adapting the concept in ways that fit their own cultures and contexts. One of my favorite examples comes from Turner Fleischer, a mid-sized architecture firm based in Toronto.

At Turner Fleischer, the idea evolved into something they called Jeremy+1.

It started in construction administration. Jeremy Pope, a Principal and Practice Advisor, began inviting junior team members—often those who had never set foot on a job site—to join him for site walks. The idea was simple: come along, observe how buildings actually come together, ask questions, and start to connect the dots between drawings and reality.

After each visit, participants were encouraged to reflect on what they’d seen and share those stories on the company intranet. These reflections didn’t just reinforce the learning, they also created visibility across the firm, sparking conversations and curiosity among peers.

But Turner Fleischer didn’t stop there.

They’ve recently created a second Plus One program: Site Visits with Kojo. What began as informal walkthroughs led by Kojo La-Anyane—Practice Advisor and Director—has evolved into a formal learning program. Each quarter, a cohort of four eligible studio members is selected to join a series of guided site visits tied to active projects. The program is linked to each participant’s developmental goals, helping them understand how design decisions translate on site and how to strengthen their work as a result. At the end of the program, each participant shares their learning through a presentation to their own team—reinforcing individual growth and supporting collective knowledge across the studio.

What I love about Turner Fleischer’s adaptations is that they didn’t just copy the idea. They made it their own. They looked at the core principle—bring someone with you—and applied it to a part of their business where learning through exposure was both needed and natural.

And that’s exactly how ideas like this should move: shared, reshaped, and strengthened through use.

So if you’re reading this and wondering how to start, here’s one idea:

Next time you’re heading to a meeting, pause at the door. Think of someone on your team who’s hungry to grow. And ask yourself, “Where’s my Plus One?”

Go Deeper

🎥 Watch the original talk. I’d suggest watching, Delivering on the “One Firm” Promise, Shive-Hattery’s KA Connect 2019 talk featuring Jim Lee and Greg Kanz. You’ll hear more about the origins of Plus One, but also explore several other strategies they’ve used to build a learning organization—one that thrives across offices, generations, and career stages.

Subscribe to the Smarter by Design Newsletter

Smarter by Design is a biweekly newsletter about how AEC firms are rethinking knowledge, learning, and leadership in an era of rapid change.

Drawing on 25 years in the industry, Christopher Parsons shares stories, insights, and practical strategies from firm leaders and knowledge champions who are scaling learning, growing expertise, and designing more resilient organizations.

This isn’t just about AI (though that’s part of the story). It’s about how firms become learning organizations—places where knowledge flows, people grow, and insights compound over time.

If you care about the future of knowledge and leadership in the AEC industry, this newsletter is for you.

CEO as Knowledge Architect | KM 3.0 Podcast Series - Episode 2

I’m excited to share the second episode in our Welcome to KM 3.0 podcast series, a collaboration between Knowledge Architecture and the TRXL Podcast.

This month’s guest is Ellen Bensky, CEO of Turner Fleischer Architects.

We titled this episode “CEO as Knowledge Architect” because that’s exactly what Ellen models in practice. Over the past decade, she’s helped Turner Fleischer grow from 60 to 250 people—not just by adding headcount, but by connecting people, process, technology, and culture in ways that support smarter, more sustainable growth.

In short, she’s doing the work of knowledge management—or KM—but from the CEO’s chair.

Ellen shares how KM became a strategic priority at Turner Fleischer, how her team embedded it into roles and workflows, and why AI is now playing a central role in simplifying and scaling the firm’s institutional knowledge. From employee onboarding to digital practice, project management to culture building, she shows how KM, done well, can become both an operational advantage and a leadership philosophy.

It’s one of the clearest, most thoughtful conversations on modern KM in AEC that I’ve ever been part of and we’re so happy to share it with you.

Enjoy!

Best,
Chris

▶ Watch or Listen:

📺  YouTube
🎧  Spotify
🎧  Apple Podcasts

Episode Highlights

Here are a few standout moments from the conversation:

13:12      Why your intranet should be a digital twin of your AEC firm
19:57      Why ‘Starting with why’ matters more than ever in AEC knowledge management
26:58      Using AI to write simpler, clearer AEC intranet pages for people and agents
45:36      Embedding knowledge management in roles: How Turner Fleischer baked KM into studio culture
1:07:24   Burnout, change fatigue, and the need for prioritization in AEC leadership
1:12:56   An AEC CEO’s advice on starting a knowledge management program from scratch 

Note: We strongly recommend the full episode. Ellen’s clarity, candor, and care for her people are evident throughout and there’s something valuable here for anyone building a learning culture and/or leading through change.

About the Welcome to KM 3.0 Series

Knowledge Management has always evolved alongside technology. Today, powered by AI, a new golden era of KM is emerging — KM 3.0.

In this limited series produced by Christopher Parsons, CEO and Founder of Knowledge Architecture and Evan Troxel, host of the TRXL Podcast, we’ll profile a range of firms—each with a distinct approach to knowledge management. From program structure to measurable impact, we’ll explore how AEC firms are using knowledge management to get smarter in an AI-driven world.

You’ll hear from a CEO, a marketing director, a technology leader, a sustainability expert, and a dedicated knowledge manager. Each will bring a different lens—showing us how knowledge leadership can emerge from different corners of an organization and take shape in distinct ways.

In every episode, we’ll aim to get to the heart of how AEC knowledge management functions in practice—what’s working, what’s changing, and what’s next.

About the TRXL Podcast

The TRXL podcast is a leading voice at the intersection of architecture and emerging technology, hosted by Evan Troxel. Each episode features thoughtful conversations with architects, technologists, and industry leaders who are shaping the future of the built environment. With a focus on innovation, practice, and the people behind the work, TRXL offers listeners an inside look at how architecture is evolving—one insight at a time.

In addition to the free weekly show, TRXL+ offers an extended experience with bonus content, early access, behind-the-scenes commentary for subscribers who want to go deeper, ad-free episodes, and the Leadership Edge newsletter. You can explore the full archive and learn more about TRXL+ at https://trxl.co.

Does everyone in your firm need to become an AI expert?

Over the past month, I’ve been researching how the role of the AEC knowledge manager is evolving in the age of AI. One theme has come up again and again in surveys and interviews: AI literacy is quickly becoming a core responsibility of KM teams. In many firms, knowledge managers are stepping into a new role as AI educators, guides, and shepherds.

They’re the ones helping colleagues understand the art of the possible. Teaching prompting techniques. Introducing good habits like verifying sources. Navigating the messy intersections of internal data, external tools, and firm-specific workflows.

But a question keeps tugging at me:

Do we need to elevate everyone to the same level of AI fluency? Or will the future of AI learning look more jagged, role-based, and use case specific?

A few weeks ago, I sat in on a session at PSMJ and saw an impressive collection of advanced AI prompts—some for Microsoft CoPilot, others for Synthesis AI Search. I had a split reaction. On one hand, the prompts were smart, useful, and creative. On the other hand, I thought: Does everyone in the firm really need to learn how to write prompts like this?

That thought reminded me of BIM.

When BIM first arrived, there was a push for broad literacy. Over time, firms developed layered models of BIM education. Designers learned the tools they needed to create. Project managers learned to review and coordinate. Principals understood just enough to ask the right questions. Meanwhile, specialists went deep by configuring standards, optimizing workflows, and pushing the envelope.

BIM literacy wasn’t one-size-fits-all. It was role-based and purpose-driven. I think AI literacy will follow a similar path.

There will likely be a shared baseline. Enough for everyone to understand what AI can do, how to use it responsibly, and how to apply it in their domain. But beyond that, I imagine deeper training will emerge along functional lines: project teams, marketing teams, HR, IT, design technology, project managers, and principals. Some people will become embedded “AI Specialists” in key departments or teams. Others will float across the organization as internal consultants or R&D catalysts.

We’ll stop asking “How do we train everyone?” and start asking “What does good look like in this role, for this person, for this team, for this department, given their goals, strategy, and responsibilities?"

From an organizational design perspective, this shift matters. But it also matters from a technology design perspective. At Knowledge Architecture, we’ve tried to minimize the amount people need to learn in order to get good results with Synthesis AI Search. From the start, we’ve believed the tools should do more of the heavy lifting, not the user.

This is one reason we’re designing a new feature called Custom Search Agents. It allows a power user to wrap advanced prompts, filters, and configuration into a reusable agent that others in the firm can use without needing to understand how it all works under the hood. Think of it as operationalizing AI know-how in a repeatable, scalable way.

So here’s how I see it unfolding:

AI education in AEC firms won’t be a straight line. It’ll be layered, role-based, and use case specific. Some people will go deep. Others just need a solid baseline. And the best tools will meet people where they are—enabling more people to do more advanced things without requiring everyone to become a specialist.

But I’m curious…how are you approaching AI education in your firm? What’s your current strategy, and how do you imagine it will evolve over the next few years?

Subscribe to the Smarter by Design Newsletter

Smarter by Design is a biweekly newsletter about how AEC firms are rethinking knowledge, learning, and leadership in an era of rapid change.

Drawing on 25 years in the industry, Christopher Parsons shares stories, insights, and practical strategies from firm leaders and knowledge champions who are scaling learning, growing expertise, and designing more resilient organizations.

This isn’t just about AI (though that’s part of the story). It’s about how firms become learning organizations—places where knowledge flows, people grow, and insights compound over time.

If you care about the future of knowledge and leadership in the AEC industry, this newsletter is for you.

Why Epistemic Humility Might Be the Most Important Skill for the AI Era

Nine months ago we released Synthesis AI Search for AEC Firms to our client community. Since then, we’ve seen some remarkable things. 

Firms are surfacing knowledge that was previously buried across intranets and databases. They’re connecting employees with internal experts more easily, helping marketing teams find project precedents and draft communication, and using AI Search to support digital design practices, scale expert knowledge, upskill emerging professionals, and make onboarding more effective.

Our clients are making significant improvements to how their firms work and learn.

And yet, alongside all this momentum, I’ve also heard a growing concern:

“I’m worried that our employees are going to accept whatever AI tells them at face value and run with it.”

This concern isn’t new. We’ve long tried to teach people to question what they read online, to check sources, to verify claims. But something about this moment—maybe it’s the polish, maybe it’s the speed, maybe it’s the aura of intelligence that clings to anything branded AI—feels different.

Which brings me to a word I didn’t learn until later in my career, but which now feels central to this moment: epistemology, and its practical counterpart, epistemic humility.

What is Epistemology?

If you’ve never heard the word epistemology, you’re not alone. I didn’t encounter it until around 2017, when I met Larry Prusak, a mentor and pioneer in the knowledge management field. 

Epistemology is the study of knowledge: how we know what we know, how knowledge is formed and validated, how it evolves or gets distorted over time. It’s a field that touches everything from philosophy to science to journalism, and increasingly, AI.

Larry introduced me to a related concept that’s stuck with me ever since: epistemic humility. The idea that we should be humble about what we know, cautious about what we claim, and curious enough to keep questioning even our most cherished assumptions as well as the assertions of others.

It’s one of those phrases that’s quietly shaped how I lead, how we build products at KA, and how I think about the future of knowledge work.

Life Lessons in Epistemic Humility (By Other Names)

Though I didn’t know the term at the time, I can now see that epistemic humility was deeply embedded in my training as a history major. In college, I took a senior honors seminar on objectivity, a dense but fascinating exploration of how historical “facts” are shaped by power, perspective, and the biases of those who record them. It was, at its core, a course in skepticism as much as storytelling.

The cliché that “history is written by the winners” turns out to be not just a provocative line, but a methodological truth. One of the most valuable lessons I took from that class was how to interrogate knowledge itself. Who is telling the story? What are they leaving out? What kind of evidence are they citing, and what evidence might be missing entirely? How else might this narrative have gone if someone else had written it?

That impulse to question what I thought I knew didn’t only come from academia. My grandfather, who was a physicist and engineer, had a way of instilling it in me from a young age. Whenever I made a claim—something I’d heard, something I believed—he would pause, look me in the eye, and ask, “Christopher, how do you know that?”

It used to drive me crazy. I’d say, “I just do!” But over time, I realized what he was doing. He wasn’t dismissing what I said, he was inviting me to think more deeply about where my knowledge came from. He was nudging me toward greater clarity, and toward a habit of substantiating my thoughts before presenting them as facts.

My favorite English teacher in high school did something similar. In the margins of every essay, he would write “nail it down”, his way of saying, “prove it.” Don’t just assert an idea; go back to the source, find the passage, make your case. He was teaching us to read closely, to cite carefully, and to build arguments with integrity.

These habits—questioning assumptions, checking sources, qualifying what we think we know—have served me well over time. In the early years of my career, I sometimes jumped to conclusions based on intuition or assumptions that later turned out to be wrong. I can remember a few particularly confident, maybe even self-righteous, emails that I ended up needing to retract. Eventually, I adopted a quiet mantra to help prevent those missteps: First, get the facts.

Over time, that principle became second nature. Now, whether I’m reading a document, designing a product, or engaging in a debate, I find myself instinctively asking: Do I really know this is true? What’s the evidence? What’s my source? Am I overstating it?

These are simple questions, but they’re deceptively powerful. In an era of AI, where the answers are fast and the language is fluent, they might be more important than ever.

Building Epistemic Humility into AI Search

That mindset—questioning claims, requiring proof, acknowledging uncertainty—is exactly what we’ve tried to build into Synthesis AI Search.

From the beginning, we designed the system with epistemic humility in mind. We wanted it to reflect not just what’s known, but how it’s known, and how confident the system can reasonably be. 

That’s why Synthesis AI Search is designed to:

• Cite its sources.

• Reveal conflicting answers when they exist.

• Say “I don’t know” when it’s unsure.

We made those choices deliberately. We believe overconfidence is a liability. Especially when people are using AI to make decisions that affect projects, clients, and careers.

Epistemic Humility Is Just Curiosity with Discipline

I believe epistemic humility is quietly connected to something we value deeply in AEC firms: curiosity.

The best architects and engineers I know are insatiably curious. They’re constantly asking questions, not because they doubt everything, but because they care about getting it right. They want to see the drawing, double-check the measurements, run the scenario one more time—not out of perfectionism, but out of respect for the complexity of their work.

Epistemic humility is just curiosity with discipline. It’s the mental habit of pausing before accepting something as true—whether it’s a spreadsheet, a project schedule, or an AI-generated answer.

It’s not about hesitation or paralysis. It’s about knowing when to qualify, when to cite, and when to say, “I’m not sure—but here’s what I do know.”

And in a time of accelerating complexity, I think it’s a skill worth cultivating.

Perhaps the Most Important Skill for the AI Era

AI is not just changing how we retrieve information—it’s reshaping how we learn, how we make decisions, and how we collaborate. With every release, the tools become more fluent, more confident, and more seamlessly integrated into our daily work. They’re getting better at sounding human, and synthesizing our knowledge.

And that’s a good thing. Across AEC firms, we’re already seeing real benefits. AI is helping surface buried knowledge, connect people across silos, accelerate research, and strengthen onboarding. It’s scaling expertise in ways that were previously unimaginable. And the possibilities ahead, especially for learning and development, are even more exciting.

But to fully realize those benefits, we need a parallel discipline. Not a technical one, but a cognitive one. We need to become more discerning consumers of AI-generated content. We need to read with more care, question with more rigor, and get more comfortable saying, “I don’t know.”

That’s where epistemic humility comes in.

It invites us to pause before accepting something as true. To ask, “Where did this information come from?” “Is there conflicting evidence?” “What don’t I have access to which might contain relevant facts?”

We’ve built Synthesis AI Search to support this mindset—to cite its sources, surface disagreements, and say “I don’t know” when it needs to. But the skill of thinking critically and holding space for nuance is something we all have to cultivate, because AI is only as accurate as the information it is provided.

In a world where the answers will only get faster, smoother, and more convincing, epistemic humility may turn out to be more than a virtue, it may be the most important skill for the AI era.

Or to put it in my grandfather’s words, “AI, how do you know that?”

Go Deeper

📝 Larry Prusak Tribute: What I Learned About Generosity, Playfulness, and Epistemic Humility from Larry Prusak

Subscribe to the Smarter by Design Newsletter

Smarter by Design is a biweekly newsletter about how AEC firms are rethinking knowledge, learning, and leadership in an era of rapid change.

Drawing on 25 years in the industry, Christopher Parsons shares stories, insights, and practical strategies from firm leaders and knowledge champions who are scaling learning, growing expertise, and designing more resilient organizations.

This isn’t just about AI (though that’s part of the story). It’s about how firms become learning organizations—places where knowledge flows, people grow, and insights compound over time.

If you care about the future of knowledge and leadership in the AEC industry, this newsletter is for you.

AI + KM = Smarter AEC Firms | KM 3.0 Podcast Series - Episode 1

We’re excited to announce a new limited podcast series, Welcome to KM 3.0, a partnership between Knowledge Architecture and Evan Troxel of the TRXL Podcast. 

Knowledge Management has always evolved alongside technology and today, powered by AI, a new golden era of KM is emerging — KM 3.0. 

In this series we’ll profile a range of firms—each with a distinct approach to knowledge management. From program structure to measurable impact, we’ll explore how AEC firms are using knowledge management to get smarter in an AI-driven world.

You’ll hear from a CEO, a marketing director, a technology leader, a sustainability expert, and a dedicated knowledge manager. Each will bring a different lens—showing us how knowledge leadership can emerge from different corners of an organization and take shape in distinct ways.

In every episode, we’ll aim to get to the heart of how AEC knowledge management functions in practice—what’s working, what’s changing, and what others can learn.

The series kicked off with a conversation between Christopher Parsons, our Founder and CEO, and Evan, where they talked about his journey into knowledge management, what knowledge management looks like in an AEC practice, how it’s evolved, and why AI is poised to reshape what is possible.

We hope you’ll join us as we explore.

🎧 Welcome to KM 3.0

In this episode of the TRXL Podcast, Christopher Parsons, Founder and CEO, Knowledge Architecture, joins host Evan Troxel to explore the evolution of knowledge management in AEC—from the early days of digitizing and capturing firm knowledge (KM 1.0), through the rise of collaboration and social intranets (KM 2.0), to today’s emerging era of AI-powered answers delivered in the flow of work (KM 3.0).

Christopher shares how leading AEC firms are preparing for this shift by operationalizing knowledge in practical, high-impact ways—such as upskilling emerging professionals, scaling expert knowledge, driving technology adoption, and improving onboarding effectiveness. These firms are beginning to unlock the full value of the knowledge they already have by leveraging AI-powered knowledge management approaches that make content more accessible, discoverable, and actionable across the firm.

Later in the episode, Christopher explains how this KM 3.0 transformation is made possible through new technologies like retrieval augmented generation (RAG), semantic search, domain-specific AI tuning, and intelligent search agents that know how to route queries to the right sources using tools and reasoning. But more importantly, he emphasizes that AI alone isn’t the solution—people, process, and culture, working alongside AI, are what truly unlock value.

This transition to KM 3.0 is helping AEC firms connect their people to the knowledge and expertise they need—right in the flow of work.

If you're leading innovation, knowledge management, or AI initiatives in your firm, or just trying to make your people smarter, this episode is for you.

▶ Watch or Listen:

📺  YouTube
🎧  Spotify
🎧  Apple Podcasts

About the TRXL Podcast

The TRXL podcast is a leading voice at the intersection of architecture and emerging technology, hosted by Evan Troxel. Each episode features thoughtful conversations with architects, technologists, and industry leaders who are shaping the future of the built environment. With a focus on innovation, practice, and the people behind the work, TRXL offers listeners an inside look at how architecture is evolving—one insight at a time.

In addition to the free weekly show, TRXL+ offers an extended experience with bonus content, early access, behind-the-scenes commentary for subscribers who want to go deeper, ad-free episodes, and the Leadership Edge newsletter. You can explore the full archive and learn more about TRXL+ at https://trxl.co.

What I Learned About Designing Smarter Firms from Ed Friedrichs

If you didn’t have the good fortune of meeting Ed Friedrichs before his passing in 2021, here are a few high-level facts: Ed was a visionary architect and firm leader. He played a pivotal role in shaping Gensler into the global design practice it is today. He joined the firm in 1969, founded the Los Angeles office in 1976, and served as Gensler’s President and CEO from 1995 to 2003. Under his leadership, the firm grew significantly in scale, sophistication, and ambition—while also codifying many of the cultural principles that still define it.

But for me, Ed’s legacy began long before I launched Knowledge Architecture—before I even knew what knowledge management was.

I first met Ed in 2005 at a conference called Firm of the Future, hosted by ZweigWhite. The conference brought together forward-thinking leaders to explore where the AEC industry was headed in the next 10, 15, 20 years. It was a fantastic premise, and it launched me on the path I’ve been walking ever since.

That event introduced me to firms that were being intentional about how they managed knowledge. These firms were investing in research, building systems for innovation, sharing what they learned internally, and connecting people across offices and disciplines. No one at the conference was using the term “knowledge management”—at least not that I can recall—but that’s exactly what they were doing. They were trying to make better use of what they knew.

Ed was one of the speakers at that conference. I attended his talk, then stayed afterward to ask questions. I later found him at a meal and sat next to him, eager to learn more. He was generous with his time—patient, encouraging, and deeply thoughtful.

What I didn’t fully realize until recently—when I went back and reviewed the old conference program—is that Ed didn’t just speak at the event. He chaired and designed it. He was the one who brought those people together. He shaped the experience that set me on this path.

Looking back, it all makes sense. The connecting thread running through the entire conference—the idea that architects and engineers shouldn’t only design buildings and infrastructure, but should also design their firms to be smarter—was Ed’s idea. His point of view gave the event its energy, its distinctiveness, and its sense of possibility.

That conference was the moment I first began to see knowledge management as a tool you could use to design a better business.

A few years later, I encountered Ed again when he facilitated a leadership retreat for the architecture firm I worked for. By that point, he had left Gensler and was consulting. Once again, he made a big impression—both in how he facilitated the retreat and how he took the time afterward to offer support and encouragement to me personally.

When I founded Knowledge Architecture in 2009, Ed was one of the first people I called. I wanted his advice on how to build a company that served architecture and engineering firms. I wanted to go deeper on his ideas around connecting people and knowledge. And I wanted to hear how he thought about product design and positioning for this industry.

He was all in. He offered support, ideas, and introductions. He wrote one of the first blog posts on our website. He spoke at our second KA Connect conference in 2011. And he kept showing up—not just as a speaker, but as a presence. A regular lunch companion. A mentor. A friend.

Two Degrees of Separation

At KA Connect 2011, Ed introduced a concept that has stayed with me ever since: two degrees of separation. The idea is simple but powerful. In a firm of any size, employees should never be more than two connections away from the knowledge or expertise they need.

(Not six degrees, like Kevin Bacon.)

Two degrees. You can easily find the person who can help you, or find the person who knows the person who can help you. 

Once you see it that way, you start to see all the places in your organization where the connections are broken, where knowledge is stuck in silos, or where people don’t know who to ask.

“Two Degrees” became a kind of north star for us. It helped us see our work not just as software development, but as network and community design—a way to democratize knowledge. And it gave us a practical, measurable goal for what a connected AEC firm, or a “Connected Practice,” as we called them at the time, might actually look like.

The Half-Life of Knowledge

Another idea from that same talk still echoes in my head, and in many ways, it was even more foundational. Ed told a story from the early days of Gensler, when a business professor visited their office and told them something that changed how they thought about expertise: the half-life of knowledge is ten years.

In other words, half of what you know today will be irrelevant—or wrong—within a decade. And the punchline: you don’t know which half.

That was in 1971. By 2011, Ed figured the half-life of knowledge was closer to three years. And in 2025, I think it’s even shorter.

And we’re not just dealing with shorter half-lives—we’re also creating and consuming more knowledge than ever. So there’s more and more knowledge and the half-life is shrinking.

That insight reframes the entire premise of knowledge management. If the half-life of knowledge is shrinking, then KM isn’t about archiving static content—it’s about creating living systems that support ongoing dialogue, continual learning (and unlearning), and quick access to what’s current. The goal isn’t just to capture knowledge. It’s to keep it alive and relevant.

Put a Name on It

One of the most specific—and practical—pieces of advice I ever got from Ed was this: every piece of knowledge should have someone’s name on it.

That stuck with me. It’s such a simple idea, but it’s rarely done. So when we were designing Synthesis 6, we made sure every page included a contact block by default. We introduced employee blocks and made it easy for editors to associate people with content. And we also decided to display the name of the person who last edited the page—and when they edited it—right at the top. 

This was a design decision rooted in Ed’s belief that knowledge without attribution is incomplete. When you know who’s behind a piece of knowledge, it becomes more trustworthy. More actionable. More human. 

Adding employee names to pages also supports the principle of two degrees of separation—it gives you a direct line to someone who knows. And the edit date helps you manage the half-life of knowledge by signaling whether the information is still current. These small details are part of a much bigger system: one designed to keep knowledge alive, connected, and credible.

How Ed Influenced Our Approach to AI Search

When we launched Synthesis AI Search in 2024, three years after Ed passed away, his influence took on a new form and became even more impactful.

AI Search doesn’t just return answers to your questions—it tries to understand the people connected to the knowledge. It looks at structured data from the employee directory—but it also scans the intranet for signals like contact blocks, page location, and contextual mentions. That means when someone searches for “Revit families,” or “project management standards,” or “toxic chemical avoidance,” the system doesn’t just deliver information. It suggests the right people to talk to.

That feature traces directly back to Ed. In fact, as I was leading the design on Advanced Employee Search, Ed’s advice was ever-present.

It’s one thing to remember a mentor’s words. It’s another to realize that their ideas are living on in your software and that their voice is still shaping product decisions more than a decade later.

Ed believed that systems should bring people closer together. That knowledge should lead to connection. I think he’d be pleased to know his fingerprints are still on the work we’re doing today.

Context Is Everything

One of Ed’s core beliefs—and one that has stuck with me—is that delivering knowledge isn’t enough. You have to deliver context.

Context means going beyond the what and explaining the why. It’s not enough to say, “Use a 30–50% window-to-wall ratio.” That’s just a number. What people really need to understand is why that ratio is recommended. When should it be closer to 30%? When should it push toward 50%? What trade-offs are we managing? What conditions change the answer? How do we know this works?

And just as important: Who can someone talk to if the situation isn’t straightforward?

That’s the kind of knowledge that moves a firm forward—not just rules, but reasoning. Not just information, but explanation. Ed believed that’s where real learning lives.

It turns out, that’s also the kind of knowledge that AI is hungry for. AI thrives on context. The richer and more nuanced the material, the more accurate, helpful, and relevant the AI becomes.

Whether it’s for a human or a machine, the goal is the same: deliver knowledge with depth. The kind that supports understanding, not just recall. The kind that can be used with confidence.

Getting Smarter Together

In preparing to write this piece, I went back through all my old emails with Ed—and I found something I had completely forgotten.

In his presentation at Firm of the Future, the conference in 2005 I mentioned earlier, Ed talked about the importance of having a shared reading list. A curated set of books that everyone in the firm could read together—not just to learn, but to align around a shared vocabulary.

That idea stuck with me so deeply, I didn't even remember that I had learned it from Ed.

Over the years, we’ve carried it forward at Knowledge Architecture. We’ve held book clubs inside the company and hosted them within the broader KA community. 

Our company values and approach to organizational health were born out of shared reading experiences. So was our Client Success program. Our embrace of Blue Ocean Strategy. Our decision to remain a bootstrapped “small giant.” Even our approach to product development was shaped by Competing Against Luck and the Jobs to Be Done framework, which helped us focus on the real problems our clients are trying to solve.

Ed understood that firms don’t grow wiser when employees learn in isolation. Real transformation happens when learning becomes collective—when firms get smarter together.

Smarter by Design

Ed was a designer. Not just of buildings—but of organizations.

He probably wouldn’t have used the term, but Ed was also a knowledge manager. He understood how ideas moved through a firm. He understood how culture shaped behavior. He understood how structure created clarity—or confusion. And most of all, he understood that a well-designed business could learn, adapt, and grow with purpose.

When I look back, I think Ed was the mentor who set me on the path that led to knowledge management in AEC—and ultimately, to founding Knowledge Architecture.

The spark he lit in me at Firm of the Future, nearly twenty years ago, was the simple but radical idea that a business could be designed to be smarter.

That the most intelligent, innovative, agile firms don’t get there by accident. They get there because they’re built that way.

They’re structured to move information quickly. To create new knowledge. To turn that knowledge into better services, better projects, better decisions, and better cultures.

Smarter firms have better continuing education programs. Better mentorship. Better internal communication. Better reward systems. And yes, better intranets.

Ed’s legacy, at least for me, is the idea that business and work and knowledge are all design problems. And if we’re thoughtful and collaborative and willing to challenge assumptions, we can make our firms smarter.

Not just by effort or luck.

But by design.

Go Deeper

You can watch Ed’s KA Connect 2011 talk, Two Degrees of Separation, where he introduces the idea of two degrees of separation and reflects on what it takes to build a culture of connected expertise. It’s thoughtful, funny, and full of practical wisdom.

And if you’d like to go even deeper into his thinking, I highly recommend Ed’s book, Long-Cycle Strategies for a Short-Cycle World. It’s written for AEC leaders navigating a fast-moving world, and it’s packed with timeless lessons on how to design a resilient business.

Part Four of the book—“Nurture Networks”—is especially relevant to this conversation. It includes three chapters that are deeply rooted in the principles of knowledge management:

• Build “real-time” connectedness

• Nurture “two degrees of separation”

• Commit to continual learning

The whole book is worth reading, but if you’re looking for a practical framework for building a smarter, more connected firm, that section is a great place to start.

Subscribe to the Smarter by Design Newsletter

Smarter by Design is a biweekly newsletter about how AEC firms are rethinking knowledge, learning, and leadership in an era of rapid change.

Drawing on 25 years in the industry, Christopher Parsons shares stories, insights, and practical strategies from firm leaders and knowledge champions who are scaling learning, growing expertise, and designing more resilient organizations.

This isn’t just about AI (though that’s part of the story). It’s about how firms become learning organizations—places where knowledge flows, people grow, and insights compound over time.

If you care about the future of knowledge and leadership in the AEC industry, this newsletter is for you.

Introducing Advanced Employee Search

Finding the right person with the right expertise at the right time is one of the most persistent challenges in AEC firms. 

That’s why we built Advanced Employee Search—a powerful new AI search feature in our Synthesis intranet platform that helps employees find the experts they need, when they need them, whether they’re searching by role, skills, certifications, committees, or experience.

Advanced Employee Search combines structured employee data from integrations with AEC software like Deltek, Unanet, aec360, and OpenAsset, with unstructured employee data from intranet pages, documents, videos, and posts. The result: AI-powered answers that connect your team directly to the experts they need.

In this short video, you’ll see how Synthesis can answer questions like:

• Who are our registered architects in California?

• Who’s on the sustainability committee?

• Who can help me plan a flexible wet lab?

• Who is our mass timber expert?

• Who can I ask about reclaimed structural steel? 

You’ll also get a behind-the-scenes look at how Advanced Employee Search uses Agentic RAG (retrieval augmented generation with reasoning and tools), and a preview of the next Synthesis AI Search feature we’re working on: Advanced Project Search.

If your firm is curious about how Synthesis can support knowledge sharing, expertise discovery, and intranet search, we’d love to show you how it works.

KM 3.0 CASE STUDY | Improving Onboarding Effectiveness @ Shepley Bulfinch

Shepley Bulfinch is a 200-person architecture, planning, and interior design firm with offices in Boston, Hartford, Houston, and Phoenix. Like every AEC firm, they face the same universal challenge:

How do you give new hires the right amount of information—without overwhelming them or leaving them stranded?

The tension is familiar. Too much information, too early, and it becomes a blur. Too little, too late, and new employees are left guessing. But Shepley has found a way to strike a better balance—one that goes beyond orientation and delivers support when it’s needed most.

In this 8-minute clip from my “KM 3.0” webinar, I share how Shepley is reimagining onboarding not as a one-time event, but as an ongoing knowledge experience.

They’ve built a rich onboarding ecosystem within Finch, their Synthesis intranet, including:

• An “I’m New Here” page that puts all key resources in one place: office groups, firm standards, tech setup, and more.

• A Benefits Guide and Shepley Standards manual that go beyond policies to explain the thinking and philosophy behind how the firm works.

• A Ropes Course Guide—a seven-part series of discussion prompts introducing new hires to Shepley’s approach to design, project phases, client engagement, and team roles.

• A Working Groups directory so employees can join voluntary communities around Revit, interiors, sustainability, and more.

• A course catalog for BirdFeeder, their internal learning and development program covering project management, technical skills, professional development, and more.

All of this forms a powerful foundation. But Shepley didn’t stop there.

They’ve paired great onboarding content with intelligent AI Search—so employees can find the right answers not just in week one, but in week twenty or week fifty.

Need to know if gym memberships are covered? Just ask.
Wondering about the work-from-home policy after a life change? Ask.
First time submitting expenses? Ask.
Trying to understand how project assignments work—or who decides them? Ask.

Even more impressive, AI Search surfaces precise responses, citing the source and often pointing directly to relevant documents, videos, or even the person responsible. For example:

• “Who’s on the staffing responsible body?” returns the current roster, filtered from the employee directory.

• “Who knows Affinity Photo in Houston?” surfaces a colleague you can reach out to directly for help.

This is where KM 3.0 shines.

Shepley isn’t just onboarding people more thoughtfully—they’re extending the learning journey into daily work. They’ve built a system where the right information (or the right person) is always within reach, long after the orientation ends.

It’s onboarding designed not just for day one, but for year one.

KM 3.0 CASE STUDY | Driving Technology Adoption at Scale @ Turner Fleischer

Turner Fleischer is a 250-person architecture firm based in Toronto with a long-standing commitment to design technology. Over the past decade, they’ve not only adopted new tools—they’ve built them, structured a robust DT department, and established themselves as leaders in technical innovation.

But as anyone in change management knows, building great tools is one thing. Getting people across the firm to actually use them—that’s the real challenge.

Turner Fleischer’s approach to driving tech adoption is layered, thoughtful, and grounded in a progression from KM 1.0 to KM 2.0 and now KM 3.0.

In this 8-minute clip from my “KM 3.0” webinar, I walk through how they’ve built a solid knowledge foundation and then used AI to scale learning and support at the moment of need.

They’ve created:

• A deep, well-structured intranet (named Newton) with curated documentation, from Revit standards to computational design guides—complete with subject matter experts listed on every page.

• A series of monthly Tech Talks that spotlight emerging tools, trends, and internal innovations—recorded and posted to the intranet so learning becomes part of the firm’s knowledge fabric.

• A microlearning video library called eTutor, with over 370 short videos (most under 10 minutes), each laser-focused on specific tools or tasks—from Bluebeam to Autodesk Construction Cloud.

• A formal L&D program called TF Academy offering cohort-based courses to deepen team expertise.

This multi-pronged strategy meets people where they are—whether they want to skim a summary, attend a course, or watch a short video before jumping into a task.

But what makes this KM 3.0 is how it all comes together at the moment of need.

Let’s say you’re new to the firm and keep hearing about “BXP”—but aren’t quite sure what it means. Rather than asking around, you simply search “What is BXP?” and instantly get a clear answer: it’s a BIM Execution Plan, here’s how we use it at Turner Fleischer, and if you want to learn more, go talk to Brent Mauti.

Or maybe you need to create a door schedule. A quick search pulls up a structured page plus a relevant microlearning video from the eTutor library.

Need to request a laser scan? Search the question, get the steps, and click directly to the form.

Curious who knows Grasshopper or how to operate the laser cutter? Search the tool name and Synthesis points you to the right people instantly.

This is the heart of KM 3.0.

Turner Fleischer isn’t just educating their team—they’re delivering knowledge in the flow of work. They’ve moved from “just in case” training to “just in time” answers. From centralized expertise to distributed access.

The result? A more empowered, more confident, and more capable team—ready to adopt and apply new technology when it matters most.

KM 3.0 CASE STUDY: Scaling Expert Knowledge @ Boulder Associates

Boulder Associates is a 250-person architecture, interior design, and consulting firm based in Boulder, Colorado. The business challenge they’ve taken on with knowledge management is a big one:

How do you scale expert knowledge across a firm of 250, when your subject matter experts are busy, billable, and deeply embedded in project work?

In this 8-minute clip from my “KM 3.0” webinar, I share how Boulder Associates is doing just that—starting with one of their top experts in healthcare design, Darci Hernandez, and a looming deadline that’s reshaping hospital planning in California.

Darci has deep experience navigating SB 1953, a seismic safety mandate requiring California hospitals to meet compliance standards by 2030. While the legislation itself is public, Darci’s knowledge goes beyond the text—into the messy reality of how health systems are actually responding, what trade-offs they’re making, and how architects can help clients manage risk and make informed decisions.

So how do you capture all that insight without asking Darci to write a white paper she doesn’t have time to write?

Todd Henderson, Boulder’s Director of Practice Improvement, sat down with her for a recorded interview. Then he used Synthesis to automatically transcribe the video, ran it through AI tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT to generate takeaways and summaries, and published the resulting page to their intranet—where it’s now indexed by AI Search and easy to retrieve when teammates have questions like:

• “What is SB 1953 and how are our clients responding to it?”

• “How can I help a hospital client weigh their retrofit options?”

• “Who at Boulder can help me go deeper on this topic?”

The same playbook was used with Emily Nightingale, a Bluebeam expert at Boulder, to answer questions like:

• “When should I use Bluebeam Sessions vs. Projects?”

• “What’s the best way to do redlining in Bluebeam for project workflows?”

This approach—record, transcribe, summarize, publish, index—delivers on the promise of KM 3.0.

It’s efficient for experts. It respects their time. And it turns deep, tacit knowledge into accessible, actionable assets that scale—without sacrificing nuance.

And when AI Search surfaces an answer from one of these interviews, it doesn’t just give you information—it links directly to the expert who said it, so you know where it came from and who to follow up with if you need more.

This is KM 3.0 in action.

Not just storing knowledge—but helping people find it, trust it, and use it in the flow of work.

KM 3.0 CASE STUDY | Upskilling Emerging Professionals @ BWBR

BWBR is a 200-person architecture firm based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Last year, they hired 70 new employees, many of whom were placed on healthcare projects.

Healthcare, as anyone in AEC knows, is an especially complex building type. The regulations are intense. The jargon is endless. The user types are specialized. You’ve got equipment standards, room layout logic, infection control procedures—plus a sea of acronyms that only make sense once you’re fluent. It’s a steep learning curve, even for experienced professionals, let alone those new to the industry.

So BWBR asked a timely and important question:

How do we get 70 people up to speed—quickly and effectively—using knowledge management, including the latest advances in AI-powered tools?

In this 8-minute clip from my recent webinar "KM 3.0: Connecting People to Knowledge and Expertise in the Flow of Work", I share how BWBR:

• Built a healthcare community of practice on their intranet (BHIVE), including 18 curated training modules

• Documented best practices, subject matter experts, and go-to resources for complex topics

• Layered on AI Search so new hires can ask real questions—“What’s an onstage/offstage layout?” or “What’s important in an imaging suite?”—and instantly surface the most relevant answers from training videos, expert-authored pages, and internal documentation

This is what KM 3.0 looks like in practice.

Not just capturing and sharing knowledge, but delivering it in the flow of work.

KM 3.0 CASE STUDY | Scaling Expert Knowledge @ Bora

What if you could teach AI to provide expert guidance on demand—while at the same time freeing up your human experts to spend more time on design, mentorship, and innovation?

At Bora Architecture & Interiors, a 70-person architecture firm in Portland, that’s exactly what they’re experimenting with. They call it RoboCorey—a digital twin of their Director of Sustainability, Corey Squire, AIA.

Corey is a nationally recognized leader in sustainable design and the author of People Planet Design. Like many experts, he wants to spend less time repeating the basics and more time pushing the work forward. So Bora built a system that captures his 101- and 201-level knowledge—from material choices to indoor air quality strategies—and makes it searchable, accessible, and actionable through their Synthesis intranet. (Corey even uploaded his book to Synthesis. 💡)

What makes the RoboCorey approach so compelling is that it’s not about replacing experts. It’s about scaling their insight—while freeing them up to focus on client challenges, mentor others, and drive deeper innovation.

It’s also a powerful way to make values real. At Bora, sustainability is centered on values and ideals—but also providing the knowledge and information people need to deliver sustainable solutions. RoboCorey turns knowledge into something anyone at the firm can access in real time, regardless of whether or not experts are available.

This is KM 3.0 in action.

Watch our full KM 3.0 webinar for more examples of how AEC firms are driving new business value with AI-powered Knowledge Management approaches.

DEEP DIVE | KM 3.0: Connecting People to Knowledge and Expertise in the Flow of Work

Featured Guests

Christopher Parsons, Founder and CEO of Knowledge Architecture

Webinar Summary

AEC firms have spent decades building intranets, capturing knowledge, and encouraging collaboration. Now, with the rise of AI, that foundation is paying off in powerful new ways. Welcome to KM 3.0—an era where knowledge isn’t just captured and shared, but delivered in the flow of work.

In this webinar, Christopher Parsons, Founder and CEO of Knowledge Architecture, shares five in-depth case studies that show how Synthesis AI Search is helping firms unlock the full value of their knowledge.

Each case study shows how foundational KM investments—standards, best practices, on-demand learning, expert interviews, and onboarding guides—are now amplified through AI search to deliver just-in-time answers and connect people to expertise when it matters most:

• BWBR created a healthcare practice upskilling series with 18 learning modules, best practice guides, and expert-curated content. AI search makes it all accessible to new hires in the flow of work so they can quickly get answers to questions such as “What’s an onstage/offstage layout?” or “What’s important in an imaging suite?”

• Turner Fleischer combined structured standards, #TechTalk videos, a searchable eTutor library, and a full internal learning academy to build a robust KM foundation. AI search delivers just-in-time answers that support technology adoption at scale—from BIM workflows to laser scanning and Grasshopper questions.

• Boulder Associates uses expert interviews to capture deep, tacit knowledge, such as seismic compliance strategies and Bluebeam project workflows. AI search then transcribes, summarizes, and surfaces this expertise so project teams can get answers or connect directly with in-house experts as needed.

• Bora Architecture & Interiors built a digital twin of their sustainability lead, Corey Squire, by integrating his best practices, project reflections, and even his book into their intranet. AI search (aka “Robo Corey”) now helps employees find standards, strategies, and subject matter experts for sustainable design decisions on demand.

• Shepley Bulfinch created one of the most comprehensive onboarding knowledge ecosystems in our client base, answering questions such as “How do I get staffed on projects?” or “Who knows Affinity Photo in Houston?” in the flow of work. AI search allows their employees to get answers to their questions long after orientation. 

Join us as we explore these real-world examples of cultural and process shifts that have helped AEC firms fully realize the promise of KM 3.0.

Enjoy!

Webinar Timeline

Introduction
00:00 Overview
01:26 Knowledge Architecture + Synthesis
03:18 What is Knowledge Management?
04:07 The Golden Era of KM in AEC
05:27 Presentation Outline

PART I: Three Eras of KM Technology in AEC
06:00 Overview
07:01 KM 1.0: Knowledge Capture
07:39 KM 2.0: Knowledge Sharing
09:25 KM 3.0: AI Powered Knowledge Management

PART II: How KM + AI Search Unlocks New Business Value
10:14 Introduction to Case Studies

BWBR
10:45 Business Goal: Upskilling Emerging Professionals
11:40 Healthcare Community of Practice
12:55 Healthcare Practice Hub: Best Practices
13:24 AI Search Query: What’s an onstage/offstage layout?
14:35 AI Search Query: What is FGI…?
15:00 AI Search Query: What’s important in an imaging suite?
15:50 KM 3.0 vs The Old Days of Search
17:00 Connecting to People + Expertise
17:30 AI Search Query: Who can I talk to about…?
18:20 KM 3.0 vs The Old Days of Connecting to Experts

Turner Fleischer
19:07 Business Goal: Driving Technology Adoption at Scale
19:56 Digital Practice Community
20:40 #TechTalks Posts + eTutor Video Library
21:50 TF Academy
22:35 AI Search Query: What’s a BXP?
23:16 AI Search Query: What’s the process for…?
23:58 “Just in Time” Knowledge

Boulder Associates
25:15 Business Goal: Scaling Expert Knowledge
25:40 Knowledge Expert Interviews: AI Transcription, Summary, and Search
28:57 AI Search Queries: SB 1953 + Bluebeam

Bora
30:08 Business Goal: Scaling Expert Knowledge
31:40 KM 1.0: Project Outcomes Pages
33:02 KM 2.0: Corey’s Stream Activity
33:27 Creating a Digital Twin: “Robo Corey”
34:34 AI Search Queries: Standards, Strategies, Experts

Shepley Bulfinch
35:38 Business Goal: Improving Onboarding Effectiveness
36:36 KM 1.0: I’m New Here and Other Onboarding Resources
39:20 AI Search Queries: Benefits, Policies, Project Assignment, Experts

PART 3: What KM 3.0 Wants from AEC Firms
41:55 Changes to People, Process, and Culture
42:22 Curate High Quality Firmwide Knowledge
43:12 Move Beyond the What
44:30 Drive Continuous Improvement
46:12 Prioritize Strategically
47:02 Play Like an Orchestra

PART 4: What’s Next?
47:38 AI Search Beta
48:08 How the Technology Works: RAG Overview
48:50 Orchestration Layer + Query Tree Overview
50:15 Advanced Project Search Examples
51:25 Learning Management System

Q+A
53:20 How will the Knowledge Manager’s role change in the shift to KM 3.0?
54:56 Is this Search Tool built around an existing LLM or is it proprietary?
55:23 How do KA client firms manage information that is out of date?
57:07 How long does it generally take between implementation of Synthesis and normalization?
58:00 How long is the KA portion of the implementation?
58:25 Does Robo Corey know when to suggest making a real connection with an expert?
59:12 Does the system serve needs for procurement and proposal preparation?
1:00:40 Does the system interact with Microsoft products like CoPilot?
1:02:20 Any plans to use AI agents to do the work?

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Behind the Scenes of ELEVATE: KTGY’s Professional Development Program

When Tricia Esser, KTGY’s CEO, initially brought up the idea of building a leadership development program from scratch, John Robison, COO, was skeptical.

John was already deep in the research process for leadership development programs. He had lined up a shortlist of external options: Stanford executive education, Korn Ferry programs, Vistage coaching networks. These were proven, respected, turnkey solutions. Why reinvent the wheel?

But when Tricia had a memorable conversation with a client who had built their own leadership development program in-house, everything changed.

She asked the client, "Isn’t building your own program a huge time commitment?"

The client answered: "Yes. Can you tell me something more important you're working on?"

That question landed hard.

Tricia and John realized they couldn’t entrust something this important to a third party.

That was the moment ELEVATE began.

The Challenge: Preparing the Next Generation

KTGY is a 400-person national architecture and design firm with multiple offices and diverse practice areas. It was founded in 1991 with a long view. Its founders didn’t just want to build a successful architecture firm—they wanted to build one that would outlast them. What they called "generation to generation leadership" wasn’t a marketing slogan. It was a deeply held belief. But beliefs require infrastructure to be realized.

Flash forward a couple decades. Long-time shareholders began to step away from daily leadership roles, and the gaps in their leadership development infrastructure became visible. There was no clear path for emerging leaders to grow into strategic roles. No unifying framework for what it meant to lead at KTGY. No shared language around goals, culture, or team dynamics.

The firm had talent, but that wasn’t enough. John and Tricia needed to clarify how they were going to make "generation to generation leadership" a reality.

Why KTGY Built ELEVATE In-House

John is, by his own description, a skeptic. He values evidence, structure, and efficiency. At first, building something bespoke sounded impractical. He was worried about energy drain, resource costs, and the potential lack of measurable ROI. Tricia, on the other hand, was exploring the idea with curiosity and vision. She began interviewing Vistage peers, clients, and leadership coaches to understand what was possible.

John and Tricia agreed not to start with a curriculum. They started with a question: what do we want our future leaders to understand, embody, and be capable of?

Together they realized that the most valuable aspects of KTGY leadership—strategic fluency, cultural fluency, firm-wide relationships, and personal growth—weren’t things you could outsource.

So they committed to building KTGY's leadership development program themselves.

How KTGY Designed ELEVATE

The program they created is called ELEVATE Leadership. It’s a year-long, cohort-based experience for high-potential leaders across the firm. Participation is by invitation, and the expectations are clear from the start: this will be intense. It will be uncomfortable. And it will be transformational.

Each cohort includes 10–12 participants. The structure includes:

• Monthly virtual meetings focused on assigned readings, personal updates, and live discussions

• Three week-long in-person intensives, held throughout the year

• Executive coaching via a third-party partner

• Peer-group projects and small-team issue processing

• Personal writing assignments and reflection reports

• Mentorship from KTGY shareholders

The curriculum is grounded in four learning domains:

1. Understanding the Business: strategy, risk, operations, decision-making

2. Personal Development: self-awareness, executive presence, clarity of purpose

3. Team Management: communication, goal setting, productive confrontation

4. Leadership Communication: public speaking, leading meetings, shaping dialogue

Crucially, the program is co-led by Tricia and John. Yes, KTGY’s CEO and COO. They write the assignments. They show up to the meetings. They facilitate discussions. They sit shoulder to shoulder with participants.

"We’re in it with them. That’s what makes it work."

The Implementation: Launching and Learning

ELEVATE launched in 2016. That first cohort became a proving ground not just for the content, but for the delivery model. Tricia and John quickly learned that their presence mattered. The program didn’t just transmit knowledge—it built trust, surfaced vulnerability, and created firm-wide relationships.

Participants were asked to bring their full selves to the table. One monthly assignment required a written reflection not only on professional updates, but on what was happening personally. People were hesitant at first. But over time, they opened up.

"We start by saying: Be OK with being uncomfortable. That’s the work."

Participants engage in “issue processing" discussions, where real problems from their work life are dissected by the group. It’s intense. It requires honesty. And it builds resilience.

Each in-person intensive is packed. Strategic planning sessions, communication training, role-playing, case studies, and collaborative problem-solving fill the schedule. There are few breaks. The goal isn’t to overwhelm—it’s to create shared experience and deep focus.

"After one of those weeks, you can’t un-know what you’ve learned. You carry it with you."

Tangible Results

Since launching, ELEVATE has graduated four cohorts and 38 leaders.

• 11 became Shareholders

• 7 have been promoted to Associate Principal

• 4 have served on (or are currently on) the Board of Directors

But those are just the formal milestones. Studio Leaders report deeper conversations, more proactive leadership, and better team management. One-on-ones have improved in both structure and impact. Managers are using shared language and frameworks.

"We all speak the same language now about goals. That alone has changed how we lead."

The cultural shift is noticeable. Cross-office relationships have flourished. People who may never have collaborated before now pick up the phone or ping each other for feedback, advice, or support. Formerly siloed parts of the business are now more connected.

Participants continue to meet long after their cohort ends. Some have kept their mentoring relationships going, voluntarily. The bonds are real.

And beyond the culture shift, specific business changes have emerged directly from the program. For example, two major policy changes—the introduction of KTGY’s alternative workweek schedule and a new on-ramp system for returning from parental leave—originated from cohort-led pitches. These ideas weren’t top-down. They came from participants who had grown the confidence and skill to push for change.

"Those changes wouldn’t have happened without ELEVATE. That’s not an exaggeration."

The Unexpected Outcome

For John Robison, one of the biggest surprises was how much the program changed him.

He didn’t expect to be transformed by the work. He thought he was doing it to help others grow. But over time, it reshaped how he thinks, how he leads, and how he connects.

"It changed them. But it also changed me. I’m a better leader. I’m totally fulfilled by doing this work. I would never have guessed that going in."

And the same was true for participants. Donovan Helminiak, KTGY’s Director of Knowledge Management and an ELEVATE graduate, described it this way:

"It was grueling. It was a tough year. But I’d never replace it. I became a better leader, for my team and for myself. And I left with friendships and tools I still use every day."

What’s Next?

ELEVATE is no longer a standalone initiative. It has become a foundation.

KTGY has expanded the program into two additional tiers:

• ELEVATE Essentials: a modular series for early-career professionals, covering key operational and cultural knowledge across the firm.

• ELEVATE Talent Management: a six-month cohort-based experience for mid-level managers who are leading teams for the first time. Larger in size but still immersive.

Each version is adapted to its audience but rooted in the same philosophy of self-awareness, shared language, and cultural stewardship.

The ELEVATE team continues to refine the content, experiment with formats, and strengthen facilitation. The Essentials program is transitioning to an on-demand model, improving accessibility and ensuring consistent delivery despite time constraints of subject matter experts.

Each version is adapted to its audience but rooted in the same philosophy of self-awareness, shared language, and cultural stewardship.

The team continues to refine the content, experiment with formats, and strengthen facilitation. The Essentials program is transitioning to an on-demand model, improving accessibility and ensuring consistent delivery despite time constraints of subject matter experts.

The firm has also begun exploring new content areas—like managing up and practicing productive confrontation with senior leadership. The appetite for deeper leadership skill building is growing.

And perhaps most meaningfully, ELEVATE has become a driver of broader organizational learning. It’s shaping policy, connecting people, and creating a ripple effect that extends beyond each cohort.

"We now understand professional development as part of who we are. It’s not an extra. It’s essential."

There are open questions, too. How will the program scale? How will it evolve when Tricia and John eventually pass the baton?

"We have terrific alumni. People who’ve been through ELEVATE could absolutely carry it forward. But whoever leads it has to want to. It only works when you’re all in."

For now, Tricia and John are all in.

Go Deeper

Watch John Robison, COO, KTGY speak at KA Connect 2024 about ELEVATE Leadership

If you’d like to hear the full story directly from John Robison—including how ELEVATE was built, what it looks like behind the scenes, and what it’s meant to him and the firm—you can watch his KA Connect 2024 talk, Behind the Scenes of ELEVATE: KTGY’s Professional Development Program. The talk is followed by a candid Q&A with John and ELEVATE graduate Donovan Helminiak that goes even deeper.

Subscribe to the Smarter by Design Newsletter

Smarter by Design is a biweekly newsletter about how AEC firms are rethinking knowledge, learning, and leadership in an era of rapid change.

Drawing on 25 years in the industry, Christopher Parsons shares stories, insights, and practical strategies from firm leaders and knowledge champions who are scaling learning, growing expertise, and designing more resilient organizations.

This isn’t just about AI (though that’s part of the story). It’s about how firms become learning organizations—places where knowledge flows, people grow, and insights compound over time.

If you care about the future of knowledge and leadership in the AEC industry, this newsletter is for you.

Introducing the Smarter by Design Newsletter

Having spent nearly 25 years in the AEC industry helping firms manage their knowledge more strategically and effectively, I believe we’re in a moment of real change. Not just in technology, but in how architecture and engineering firms think about learning, growth, and the role of knowledge in their work.

AI is part of the story, of course. But so are generational shifts, new business models, and a growing recognition that firms can’t just work harder, they have to learn smarter and faster. 

To thrive in the decades ahead, I believe firms need to become learning organizations: places where knowledge flows, expertise grows, and insights compound over time. That kind of transformation doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by design. Smarter design.

That’s the spirit behind this newsletter.

Every other week, I’ll share stories, patterns, and lessons from across the AEC industry drawn from my conversations with firm leaders, knowledge managers, and others who are quietly (and sometimes boldly) rethinking how their firms manage information, share knowledge, and build cultures of learning.

Sometimes I’ll zoom in on specific use cases — like improving onboarding, upskilling emerging professionals, or scaling expert knowledge. Other times I’ll step back to explore broader patterns: what’s changing in knowledge management, what remains foundational, and what new business value is being unlocked by firms embracing new technologies, practices, and cultural mindsets.

If you’re interested in how firms are scaling learning, supporting growth through intentional organizational design, and building resilience, this newsletter is for you.

And while I’ll be writing from my own experience, I hope this becomes a conversation.

As I wrote recently, I’ve found throughout my career that in times of change, community is the killer app. Community helps us navigate faster, more successfully, and with more ease, joy, and grace. None of us have all of the answers, but I believe we’ll get further, faster if we explore together. 

I hope you join me on the journey.

Christopher Parsons
Founder and CEO, Knowledge Architecture

KA CONNECT 2025 | Speakers + Program

We’re thrilled to announce the speakers and full program for KA Connect 2025, taking place August 12–15 at the incredible Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah.

This year’s theme—Unlocking the Promise of Knowledge Management with AI—reflects a transformative moment for AEC firms. As artificial intelligence becomes more accessible and practical, it’s reshaping how we share expertise, accelerate learning, and solve complex problems.

Over two mornings of general sessions, you’ll hear real-world case studies and actionable insights, from forward-thinking practitioners who are applying AI to amplify the value of knowledge management inside their firms:

Connecting the Dots: How LS3P Aligns Knowledge Management, Marketing, and AI
Katie Robinson, Chief Marketing Officer, LS3P

Upskilling the Next Generation: A Targeted Knowledge Management Strategy
Kari Shonblom, Knowledge Manager, BWBR

Rethinking KM Teams: When Your Newest Teammate Is AI
Todd Henderson, Director of Practice Improvement, Boulder Associates

What KM 3.0 Wants: How AEC Firms Can Thrive in the AI-Powered Era of Knowledge Management
Christopher Parsons, Founder and CEO, Knowledge Architecture

Debating the Future: How Will AI Change the Way We Learn, Teach, and Work?
Kate Grimes, Director of Knowledge, Snøhetta
Chad Carpenter, Senior Project Leader, Snøhetta

How Video Became a KM Superpower at Shepley Bulfinch
Jess Purcell, Design Technology Manager, Shepley Bulfinch

Focusing on What Matters Most: Preparing for Synthesis LMS at RIOS
Gillian Hutchison, Project Operations Director, RIOS

Low-Code, High-Impact: Solving Real Business Problems with Custom AI Apps
Ron Heims, Director of Practice Innovation, RDG Planning & Design

More Than Just Talks

In addition to general sessions, our afternoon "choose your own adventure" format includes roundtables, hangouts, an intranet café, nature activities, and unstructured time to connect and reflect with your fellow KA Community members—all set against the inspiring backdrop of Sundance Mountain Resort.

Early Bird Registration Ends May 24th

Take advantage of early registration pricing through May 24th!

INTRANET TOUR | Launching Synthesis @ Snøhetta

Featured Guests

Kate Grimes, Director of Knowledge

Webinar Summary

We are pleased to share this inside look at the Guide, Snøhetta’s Synthesis intranet. Our tour guide is Kate Grimes, Director at Snøhetta.

When Snøhetta set out to transform its knowledge management approach, the team leveraged Synthesis to build a dynamic and visually rich knowledge hub. The result is an intranet that balances structured information with creative flexibility—bringing together critical resources like:

• visually compelling design standards

• a model library showcasing design evolution + precedent examples

• a proposal archive to enable distributed business development efforts and

• a vibrant discussion forum about design, technology, and project updates

Whether an employee is referencing design standards, exploring past projects for inspiration, or engaging in firmwide discussions, the Guide ensures that Snøhetta’s collective knowledge remains dynamic, discoverable, and deeply embedded in the firm’s culture.

In this Intranet Tour, Kate shares:

• The evolution of the Guide from print to Squarespace to Synthesis

• How Snøhetta uses Synthesis to organize key knowledge areas like project and proposal archives, design standards, and mentorship programs

• Lessons learned from balancing firmwide consistency with creative autonomy

• The role of AI-powered search in unlocking knowledge across the firm

Enjoy!

Webinar Timeline

Introduction
00:00 KA Introduction

Evolution of the Guide
01:45 Introduction to Snøhetta and Kate
03:10 The Beginning: No Intranet (2012)
05:45 Printed Booklet: The Snøhetta Guide (2015)
07:39 Squarespace Digital Mockup: SnUS Guide (2018)
08:36 Increased Need for an Intranet (2020)
09:10 Why Synthesis?
10:15 Synthesis Implementation (2023)
11:39 Launching the Guide (2024)

Intranet Tour
12:00 Activity Stream: Firmwide Communication
13:40 Essential Content: Home, HR + Office, Technology
14:40 Employee Directory + Profiles
16:53 Project Directory + Profiles
18:12 Data Management
19:00 HR + Office Community
20:17 Technology Community
20:48 Learning Community + Mentorship Program
22:03 Licensed Employees Page
22:35 Projects + Practice: Models, Project Management, Standards + Codes
26:22 Marketing: Templates, Brand Assets, Proposal Archive

AI Search Live Demo
28:30 How do I charge time for…?
29:40 AI search + video transcription
30:35 Who should I talk to about…?
30:58 IT questions
31:48 Project questions
32:10 Improving search results

Q+A
33:12 How do you balance creativity and standardization?
35:09 What does the time commitment look like?
36:45 What were the business goals of the Executive Sponsors?
38:35 Relationship between Synthesis + OpenAsset?
41:17 How do you decide which meetings to record and post?
42:28 How is uploaded media formatted consistently?
44:18 How much time do you spend reviewing/improving AI Search results?
45:36 Would AI Search have changed your original approach to navigation?
49:02 How has the Guide changed the way the firm uses Slack and email?
52:00 How do you maintain quality control with multiple editors?
53:55 How did you roll out the Guide?
55:00 How do you onboard new employees?
57:00 What’s next for the Guide?

More Case Study Webinars

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AI SEARCH FORUM | Unlocking the Power of Synthesis AI Search

Featured Guests

Jim Martin, Vice President, CIO, Shepley Bulfinch
Jess Purcell, Design Technology Manager, Shepley Bulfinch
Kathy Schumann, Employee Experience and Communications Director, Mead & Hunt
Andy Knauf, Chief Information Officer, Mead & Hunt
Gillian Hutchison, Global Project Operations Director, RIOS

Webinar Summary

We’re excited to have brought together three leading AEC firms—Shepley Bulfinch, Mead & Hunt, and RIOS—for a deep dive into how they are leveraging Synthesis AI Search to transform knowledge discovery, streamline workflows, and drive firmwide adoption.

In this webinar, panelists share their hands-on experiences, lessons learned, and strategies for making AI Search a success in their firms. Whether you're in the beta program or exploring AI Search for your organization, this session provides valuable insights to accelerate your AI Search journey.

What You’ll Learn:

• Key Queries Showcase: Each firm will walk through 10-15 essential queries spanning different departments, demonstrating how AI Search delivers meaningful answers across a variety of business functions. 

• Content Preparation & Optimization: Learn how these firms have proactively curated, structured, and optimized their content to improve AI-driven search results, ensuring employees find the most relevant and up-to-date information.

• Rollout Phases & Testing: Get an inside look at their multi-phase rollout strategies, pilot programs, and testing methodologies, including how they refined search queries, gathered feedback, and adjusted their approach based on real-world use.

• Onboarding New Users: Discover the training strategies and onboarding techniques used to introduce employees to AI Search, from sample queries to interactive training sessions.

• Driving Adoption: Panelists will share the initiatives, incentives, and cultural shifts they’re considering to drive engagement and long-term adoption of AI Search within their firms.

• Live Q&A: The session concludes with an interactive Q&A, allowing attendees to engage directly with the panelists.

Find out how these AEC leaders are harnessing AI Search to elevate knowledge management, improve productivity, and empower employees with the answers they need.

Enjoy!

Webinar Timeline

AI Search Query Example: “🔎 ____ ”

00:00 KA + Synthesis AI Search (Beta 1.0)

01:54 Introduction to Shepley Bulfinch
03:18 🔎 Time Off Policy
04:38 🔎 Creating Project Plans
05:20 🔎 Hybrid Policy
05:50 🔎 AI Use Policy
06:15 🔎 Trellis
07:17 🔎 Mass Timber
07:50 🔎 Book Drop
08:11 🔎 Photoshop
08:35 🔎 InDesign
09:20 🔎 Black Flag
10:40 Referencing Specific Timestamps in Video Transcripts

11:18 Introduction to Mead & Hunt
13:34 🔎 What is our password policy?
14:25 🔎 How do I get Outlook on my new phone?
15:02 🔎 What is out Quality Assurance program?
15:57 Defined AI Policy + Training
17:25 🔎 How do I issue construction document changes? (Step by step)
18:18 🔎 Timeline of the ERP implementation (Search Filters)
19:19 🔎 Where can I find authorized contract signers?
19:54 🔎 What is Mead & Hunts corporate giving policy? (Rating Feedback)

20:50 Introduction to RIOS
22:10 🔎 How to send a revit model to a consultant?
22:29 🔎 How do I clean out disk space?
22:45 🔎 Global brand guidelines + Follow Up
23:16 🔎 Meta question: What is Loop?
23:32 🔎 Climate questions + Specific Follow Ups
24:34 Testing the wording of queries: “Onboarding”

26:04 Preparing Content for AI Search at RIOS
27:10 Uploading Native Videos
27:49 Migrating Documents into Pages and Guides
29:00 Increasing Clarity and Consistency of Nomenclature

30:58 Preparing Content for AI Search at Shepley Bulfinch
32:00 Using AI Feedback to Identify Issues
32:40 Migrating Videos from Teams to Synthesis
34:00 Reviewing the Transcripts

34:25 Preparing Content for AI Search at Mead & Hunt
34:45 Cleaning up Posts
35:45 Surfacing Hidden Resources
36:40 AI Search Feedback Engagement

37:08 Rollout Approach at Mead & Hunt
37:45 The Importance of Digital Hygiene
38:55 Rollout to Stakeholder Group + All Employees

40:25 Rollout Approach at Shepley Bulfinch: Alpha, Beta, Open Beta
41:16 Direct Requests for Feedback
42:10 Testing Video AI Search in a Private Community
43:13 AI Search vs Inventing New Content
44:50 A Little Content Goes a Long Way
45:33 Plan for Firmwide Rollout

46:56 Rollout Approach at RIOS

48:35 Q: Are you adding more Synonyms and Best Bets?
49:46 Q: What does SEO look like?
52:16 Q: Is searching within hierarchy an expected feature of AI Search?

53:05 Firmwide Onboarding at Shepley Bulfinch: Finch Guide
54:38 Search Feedback Examples + Data

56:42 Firmwide Onboarding at Mead & Hunt: STEP Approach

More Case Study Webinars

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A Single Search Box for Firmwide Knowledge

What if you could have a conversation with your firm’s knowledge?

Synthesis AI Search gives AEC firms a single search box for firmwide knowledge—helping you instantly find the answers you need across intranet content, project data, and industry software like Deltek, Unanet, aec360, OpenAsset, Newforma, and Zendesk.

Less time searching. More time doing the work you love.

In this video overview, we'll show you how Synthesis AI Search helps:

→ Design Technology Teams find expert guidance on BIM, Revit, and more.
→ Marketing Teams instantly pull vetted employees and project data for proposals and communications.
→ Practice Leaders surface best practices on sustainability, materials, and firm standards.
→ HR Teams provide quick, clear answers to employee questions.

It’s like having a research assistant embedded in your firm—so your team can spend less time searching and more time designing, building, and growing.

Introducing Page Sections + Anchor Links

We’re excited to announce the upcoming release of Page Sections + Anchor Links for Synthesis.

This new feature allows users to:

• Search for Page Sections – Search now surfaces specific page sections in suggestions and results, allowing users to navigate directly to the relevant content.

• Automatic Scroll & Expand – Clicking on a page section from search scrolls you to the correct page section and expands collapsible content when necessary.

• Anchor Links – Each section has a unique, shareable link that can be copied and used in emails, Teams, Slack, or Synthesis posts.

• New Linking Options – Users can link directly to specific page sections from text links in posts and pages, the content outliner, image blocks, navigation blocks, and Best Bets.

We’ll release this update after the close of business on Friday, February 14th to all Knowledge Architecture clients.

Enjoy!