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21 April 2026
Dr Marzia Bolpagni bridges the gap between information management and AI standards
21 April 2026
Dr Marzia Bolpagni, associate director and head of BIM international at Mace Consult and experienced standards author, has been appointed to bridge the gap between information management standards and AI standards.
Dr Bolpagni has been nominated as liaison officer between the ISO’s BIM/information management standards committee and its AI standards committee.
She told DC+: “With the fast pace of change in technology and increased adoption of AI in the built environment, there is urgency to link information management/BIM standards to AI ones. Some AI standards can be easily integrated into our processes; others require us to rethink the way we operate. Our domain-specific knowledge is key to publishing AI standards that consider the needs of the built environment.
“As liaison officer, my role is to bring two worlds together. I am honoured to work alongside Professor Angelo Ciribini [from the University of Brescia and fellow ISO liaison officer – ed] as his futuristic mind has inspired my career. Watch this space!”
In 2017, the ISO and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) established a joint technical committee on AI with 55 countries involved (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42). The group has published 40 standards and a further 50 are under development. The first standards were related to information technology and big data, while more recently the focus has been on data quality for analytics and machine learning and wider AI.
In 2021, CEN and CENELEC, the main EU standardisation bodies, established a joint technical committee (JTC 21) to develop EU standards on AI, including harmonised standards in support of the EU AI Act. They have published 17 standards, while more than 30 are under development. They cover a variety of topics, including AI trustworthiness framework, AI risk management, AI quality management system, AI conformity assessment and cybersecurity specifications for AI systems.
‘We need to carefully apply AI standards’
“There is a strong collaboration between the two groups to develop standards together and join their efforts,” Bolpagni said. “We need to carefully apply AI standards to use technology for the public good. For example, ISO/IEC 23894 on AI risk management can provide a wider range of risks that can emerge when information management workflows use AI applications as algorithmic biases in decision-making or black-box optimisation.
“In addition, the BIM/information management standards historically assume stable and deterministic use of information, while AI standards can support in distinguishing between information ‘fit for exchange’ from information ‘fit for automated reasoning’.
“On the other hand, as built environment experts, we can explain the peculiarities and needs of our sector, and contribute to the development of upcoming AI standards. As shown in PAS 1958, several data and information standards can be used together to create a trusted foundation layer of AI-enabled workflows in the built environment.”
The appointment is in addition to her leadership of the development of the level of information need standards. Two new standards are expected this year: ISO/TS 7817-2 is a guidance for the application of level of information need on projects and programmes; and ISO 7817-3 is a data model and schema to support the software implementation of the level of information need.
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