Session Description
As artificial intelligence rapidly reshapes professional practice across sectors, impact assessment stands at a crossroads: how can practitioners leverage AI while preserving the discipline's core values of rigor, transparency, and public trust? This session explores how AI is transforming the technical foundations of IA practice—from data analysis and baseline monitoring to predictive impact modelling and automated reporting. Presenters will share experiences integrating AI-powered tools into environmental and social impact assessments, including machine learning models for predicting cumulative and long-term impacts, natural language processing for streamlining literature reviews and stakeholder submissions, and AI-assisted decision-support systems for regulators. The session will also critically examine the risks of over-reliance on AI, including concerns about transparency, accountability, bias, and the potential marginalisation of professional judgment and Indigenous and local knowledge systems. Reflecting the conference's theme of looking to the past to inform the future, presenters are encouraged to consider what enduring principles of good IA practice—rigor, community engagement, precaution—must be preserved even as tools evolve. Participants will leave with practical insights on selecting and implementing AI tools responsibly, while safeguarding the integrity, credibility, and human-centred values that underpin impact assessment. This session is particularly relevant to practitioners, regulators, and researchers seeking to modernise their practice without losing sight of the discipline's core purpose: informed, equitable, and trustworthy decision-making.
Session Summary
This session examines how AI is transforming impact assessment practice—from predictive modelling to automated reporting while exploring how to balance innovation with the enduring principles of rigor, trust, and community-centred practice.
Session Chair
Clara U
Hong Kong Institute of Environmental Impact Assessment
China
Session Co-chair
Raymond Wong
Hong Kong Institute of Environmental Impact Assessment
China