Nirva Fereshetian
Chief Information Officer
CBT Architects
Nirva Fereshetian brings a rare blend of expertise in both architecture and computer science to her role as Chief Information Officer at CBT Architects. Throughout her career, she has dedicated herself to implementing AEC technologies in creative and forward-thinking environments. With a deep understanding of both design and digital innovation, Nirva stands at the forefront of the industry’s technological transformation. Her unique background positions her as a key voice in the evolving conversation around AI integration in architecture, offering insight into both its vast potential and its practical constraints. At a time of significant change and opportunity in the AEC sector, she remains optimistic about the industry’s future and the role of collective innovation in shaping it.
Introduction
The architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry stands at a pivotal moment in its technological evolution. As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms professional practices across sectors, architectural firms grapple with understanding, implementing, and leveraging these powerful new tools. The conversation around AI integration in architecture requires voices that bridge both technical expertise and design sensibility—professionals who can navigate the complex intersection of creativity and computation.
At CBT Architects, this intersection finds its embodiment in Nirva Fereshetian, whose unique perspective offers valuable insights into how the industry can thoughtfully embrace AI while maintaining its essential human elements. Her experience reveals both the tremendous potential and practical realities of AI implementation in contemporary architectural practice.
Beyond the Buzzword: Understanding AI’s Real Impact
When discussing AI’s impact on project delivery over the past year, Fereshetian immediately addresses the confusion surrounding the term itself. “The word ‘AI’ is being thrown around with many meanings,” she explains. “Companies that used to do automation are now calling themselves AI companies. The term can be misleading.”
In the AEC industry, image generation has emerged as the most visible use case so far, with tools like MidJourney leading the charge. However, Fereshetian points out that “the gap between what we think we’re using and what AI actually is, is quite large.”
This technological shift represents something fundamentally different from previous industry transitions. Unlike the move from CAD to BIM, which was more compartmentalized, AI creates both an industry and a lifestyle change. The transformation has become so pervasive that even family members who previously didn’t understand her work now ask, “Do you use AI?” It has become part of everyone’s ecosystem.
At CBT Architects, Fereshetian focuses the approach on exploring and educating the firm, putting tools in everyone’s hands so they can define use cases. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all situation,” she notes. “There are thousands of tools out there, many overlapping. So for us, it’s important to ensure everyone has at least touched AI so we can collectively define where it’s useful and what problems it solves.”
Strategic Applications: Balancing Creative Ambitions with Practical Constraints
Looking toward AI’s greatest potential impact, particularly when balancing creative ambitions with practical constraints like budget, code compliance, and long-term performance, Fereshetian sees transformative possibilities across the entire architectural process. “AI has the potential to impact every part of our process—from idea generation to compliance checks to building performance studies,” she explains.
CBT already uses tools for shadow studies, acoustic analysis, and carbon footprint evaluation. “All of those things are really really essential tools,” Fereshetian emphasizes.
However, the challenge isn’t resistance—it’s capacity. “We’re busy,” she admits. “Learning new tools while meeting deadlines is hard. Sometimes, I worry that we’re teaching tools more than the profession itself.” Many tools also aren’t fully ready. There’s initial excitement, but then users realize they still need to do a lot manually.
CBT positions itself as big proponents of contributing to the development of these tools. They test, give feedback, and work with developers to move things forward. Fereshetian loves the quote someone mentioned: “Let AI do my laundry and dishes—leave the writing to me.” She wants AI to handle the mundane so they can focus on creativity, but acknowledges it takes effort to train it to do so.
Implementation Strategies: Custom Tools vs. Existing Solutions
When addressing the choice between building custom tools and adapting existing ones, and how this impacts client and regulatory expectations, Fereshetian explains that custom tools depend on company size and goals. Building a full application represents a big commitment—you also need to maintain it.
Instead, she sees a lot of value in AI agents—small automations for repetitive tasks, often voice-activated or built into existing tools like Microsoft Copilot. They’re not full applications, but they can really help.
Rather than focusing on the tool itself, Fereshetian wants CBT to focus on their value proposition as a firm. “If AI automates the basics, what makes our firm different? That’s a good exercise,” she reflects.
One major need involves fixing their datasets. Machine learning depends on high-quality data, and a lot of CBT’s older data isn’t valid. They’re working on cleaning and standardizing it—starting with their detail library. But that’s a team-wide effort.
Understanding AI Agents and Their Applications
To explain “AI agents” for those who might not be familiar, Fereshetian provides a concrete example. Microsoft 365 Copilot, which CBT is rolling out across their office, summarizes emails, meeting notes, and offers task suggestions.
Inside that system, you can create simple “agents”—automated sequences for tasks you repeat often. More advanced AI agents also exist across platforms, and Fereshetian thinks these will help firms automate without needing to build full custom apps.
She explains that the concept of AI agents represents a more accessible entry point for most firms compared to developing custom AI applications. By leveraging existing platforms like Microsoft 365, firms can begin to experience AI benefits without significant technical investment or expertise.
Future Visions: Predictions and Possibilities
When asked where she sees AI going in the next five years, Fereshetian responds cautiously: “Predicting the future right now is dangerous—things are moving too fast.”
What she hopes to see is fundamental change in the industry to support this technology. That means changes in contracts, collaboration, workflows. Right now, even with CAD and BIM, their deliverables haven’t drastically changed—they’re still giving PDFs. “We’re digitized, but not necessarily thinking digitally,” she observes.
Fereshetian hopes AI pushes the industry to truly shift. Every project phase starts over from scratch; nothing flows downstream smoothly. The industry is still seen as inefficient. “That’s what I want to change,” she states.
Technical Implementation: Training and Personalization
Addressing how much teaching and training an AI would need to perform well on a project with respect to things like local codes, weather conditions, and budget constraints, and whether the goal is eventually to have one universal AI program or if every professional will develop their own tools, Fereshetian explains her perspective clearly.
“I don’t believe there’ll be just one AI tool for everyone,” she states. “Every platform we already use — Photoshop, finance software, even our image asset manager — has some AI component baked in. It’s becoming ubiquitous.”
The issue now is personalization. Prompts are personal. How people use the tools is personal. “So training people on AI is nothing like training someone on Revit — it’s not about where the button is, it’s about learning how to think with the tool,” she explains.
CBT encourages staff to look past what a tool can do today and instead focus on its roadmap. “If we only judge based on current results, we’ll miss the point,” Fereshetian emphasizes.
She explains that the personalization aspect of AI tools represents a fundamental shift in how architectural technology works. Traditional CAD and BIM software has standardized interfaces and workflows, making training relatively straightforward. AI tools, with their reliance on natural language prompts and contextual understanding, require a more individualized approach to mastery.
Leading Through Transformation
Nirva Fereshetian’s approach at CBT Architects offers a balanced perspective on AI integration. Her emphasis on collective exploration, practical implementation, and long-term industry evolution provides a roadmap for firms navigating these changing waters. Rather than becoming overwhelmed by the pace of change, she advocates for thoughtful engagement with emerging technologies while maintaining focus on the fundamental value architects bring to the built environment.
Through her unique position bridging architecture and computer science, Fereshetian continues to serve as a key voice in the evolving conversation around AI integration in architecture, offering insight into both its vast potential and its practical constraints while remaining optimistic about the industry’s collective ability to innovate and adapt.
Conclusion:
Fereshetian’s insights reveal an industry in transition, where the challenge lies not in the technology itself but in how firms adapt their processes, educate their teams, and redefine their value propositions. Her approach at CBT Architects demonstrates that successful AI integration requires careful balance—embracing innovation while maintaining professional judgment, automating routine tasks while preserving creativity, and adopting new tools while strengthening core competencies.
The path forward, as Fereshetian articulates, demands both individual experimentation and collective learning. As AI capabilities continue to evolve rapidly, the firms that will thrive are those that, like CBT, commit to continuous exploration while keeping sight of what makes architectural practice fundamentally valuable. Her vision of an industry that moves beyond mere digitization to true digital thinking offers a compelling framework for how architecture can harness AI to serve both professional excellence and human needs.
The transformation Fereshetian describes requires patience, persistence, and strategic thinking. Yet her optimism about the industry’s capacity for positive change, grounded in practical experience with both the possibilities and limitations of current AI tools, provides a realistic roadmap for firms ready to embrace this technological evolution thoughtfully and effectively.ImproveExplain/isolated-segment.html
