Christopher Parsons, Founder and CEO, Knowledge Architecture

Talk Description
AEC firms are rethinking how they create, capture, and steward firmwide knowledge as AI-powered search and agents expand the scope and effectiveness of knowledge management.

The next frontier of AI is agents — systems that execute tasks on our behalf using knowledge, tools, reasoning, and context. These agents, such as Synthesis AI Search, retrieve information, answer questions, and assist humans in real time, creating new opportunities for firms to scale expertise, onboard staff faster, and make knowledge more accessible at the moment of need.

The workforce of the future will be increasingly hybrid, comprising both humans and agents working together to design projects, upskill employees, and pursue new work. The learning organization of the future will invest in developing both humans and agents with learning plans, high-quality knowledge, clear language, captured expertise, and context that supports human learners and agent learners alike.

Learning & development approaches will continue shifting from scheduled, one-size-fits-all training to more dynamic, bite-sized, on-demand, and just-in-time models that better support how people and agents learn. The work of knowledge management and learning & development is converging into a single, integrated practice that will power the learning organizations of the future.

Speaker Bio
As Founder and CEO of Knowledge Architecture, Christopher is responsible for product development, marketing, and organizational health. He is also the executive producer of KA Connect, our annual knowledge management conference for the AEC Industry. Christopher has been a technology leader in the AEC industry since 2002, including serving as the Chief Information Officer for Steinberg Architects and the Information Technology Director for SMWM (now Perkins+Will).

Christopher Parsons of Knowledge Architecture answers audience questions at KA Connect 2025.

Q+A Timeline

00:00 Will Synthesis AI be able to write with individual voices?
02:02 Skill necessary for basic search vs AI agents?
05:10 Will good agents encourage users to adopt AI search?
06:51 How do you feel about anthropomorphizing AI tools?
09:53 Can you make an agent to update pages?
11:21 Is there any talk about MCP servers?
13:19 At what point do agents just become automation?
14:55 If AI stops improving, what will 2030 look like?
16:03 Will increased efficiency risk employee burnout?
20:02 The journey towards getting over the fear of AI.
22:05 AI can take high energy cognitive tasks off the table.
23:57 Can you develop content quality management tools??
25:42 Will the data be good enough for AI agents?
27:31 Will this inspire leadership to invest more in KM?
29:28 Data expectations and the hedonic treadmill.
33:41 Can AI shift toward human creativity and content??
38:20 Can you build more play into the platform?
42:49 Can you explain the drop in engagement with AI generated posts?
46:52 Can KM 4.0 make knowledge management human again?
49:52 How do you feel about an AI agent job interview?
51:34 Can we have a discussion about slowing down?
55:26 Steve Jobs, Apple, and waiting for the right wave.