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SIA 102 & 103: Why Service Descriptions Cannot Rely on Generic AI

Generic AI models invent non-existent SIA clauses and blend project phases. What Swiss architects and structural engineers must watch out for.

Terence La
Terence LaVerifiziert
Head of AI @ Flughafen Zürich · Gründer Leistera
2026-08-16·100% nDSG
KEY TAKEAWAY AT A GLANCE

Bills of quantities under NPK and SIA 102/103 demand exact cross-references. Legal liability for specification errors always rests on the signing engineering practice.

Table of contents:
  • §1Phase Separation: Preliminary Design vs. Construction Design
  • §2Grounded AI vs. LLM Hallucination

ChatGPT generates convincing prose for scopes of work. But under Swiss construction law, legal precision is paramount: an invented norm clause or a misallocated phase in a specification creates severe uninsurable liability.

Phase Separation: Preliminary Design vs. Construction Design

Generic models cannot distinguish between Phase 31 (Vorprojekt), Phase 32 (Bauprojekt), and Phase 41 (Ausschreibung). Misallocated services cannot be legally billed under standard SIA fee schedules.

  • SIA 102 (Architecture) and SIA 103 (Structural Engineering) define distinct scopes and liabilities.
  • Every service item must reference the exact wording of the governing norm edition.
  • Uncited metrics must never enter a binding public offer without page-level verification.

Grounded AI vs. LLM Hallucination

Leistera operates read-only on official Swiss SIA editions. Every sentence carries exact page citations. If a passage does not exist, it flags 'not found' rather than hallucinating.

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SIA 102 & 103: Why Service Descriptions Cannot Rely on Generic AI · Leistera | Leistera