Continuing the AI Revolution

AI expert Suraj Rajdev has recently become well known to many ASHI home inspectors, having led an engaging keynote at this year’s InspectionWorld as well as translating that keynote into a followup virtual class he led in May. Called “The AI Revolution: The Next Frontier of Digital Transformation,” the course remains available for interested ASHI Members by accessing it on ASHI Edge. υ

“I’ve been working in AI since before it was called AI; this is back when we called this type of work ‘big data’ and ‘analytics,’” Rajdev said. Since then his work has evolved from working with big data to machine learning and GenAI at Google and now also as a professor teaching the world of AI to students at Northwestern University. “The pace of change is only accelerating, which I find continuously fascinating and a fun intellectual challenge,” he said. 

Rajdev has spent more than a decade at Google and currently leads the data/AI, marketing analytics and consumer insights team for the home and consumer services industries there. He’s excited about working with home inspectors, as he said his instruction aims to bridge the “fear gap by showing inspectors that AI isn’t scary and not here to replace their judgment, but here to eliminate their grunt work to allow them to focus on things that matter most. It’s about teaching them how to transform AI into a junior inspector and back-office assistant they don’t have to hire.”

Below are more insights in a brief Q&A with Rajdev. 

ASHI Reporter: How could AI improve the home inspection industry?

Suraj Rajdev: AI can fundamentally elevate the profession by shifting it toward vertical, domain-native AI built on the industry’s already structured foundation (codes, ASHI standards, etc). Specifically, it improves the industry through:

Real-time field intelligence: Acting as an on-the-job research assistant that surfaces codes, manufacturer specs, and recall histories the moment an unfamiliar component is encountered.

Citation-grounded drafting: Automatically drafting findings that are explicitly tied to standard operating procedures, codes, and specific photo measurements.

Modern deliverables: Turning a dense, 40-page PDF into a structured, multi-reader format that a homeowner—and a homeowner’s own AI tools—can actually digest and understand safely.

The bottom line is AI can help increase productivity in an inspection while also enabling a home inspector to walk away with more confidence that nothing was missed.

AR: Do you see any risks or dangers of using AI in the home inspection industry?

SR: The primary danger is the proliferation of “surface-level AI”—tools that are just transcription and prose-polish wrapped over a static template, which leads to underwhelming results and potential issues of inaccuracy.

From a liability perspective, the biggest risk is inspectors treating AI as an automated author rather than a drafting assistant. 

AR: What do you want home inspectors to know about the opportunities or impact AI could have on their business?

SR: AI will redefine business defensibility and operational efficiency, but you must maintain complete ownership of the output (also known as Human-in-the-Loop). Inspectors need to know that whatever the AI authored is what your name ends up on.

The opportunity isn’t about letting an app write your reports; it’s about using an assistant to document more thoroughly, cite sources correctly, and protect your business against E&O claims. For solo inspectors, it gives you the institutional defense of a massive firm. For large firms, it drastically accelerates new inspector onboarding while protecting your brand’s standards.

AR: How did you personally get interested in AI for home inspectors?

SR: The spark that came from the inspection industry was uniquely, beautifully positioned for the current wave of vertical AI, yet it was being under-served by basic tech wrappers. While other industries like law and medicine were winning with AI because they built data foundations first, home inspection was lagging simply because nobody had rebuilt the core data model. 

Seeing tools like Hank (www.hihank.com) actually rebuild that structural foundation from the ground up—matching IRC codes and ASHI standards directly to field data—showed exactly how the profession could be elevated without losing the inspector’s vital human judgment.

Rajdev is scheduled to lead another virtual class for ASHI home inspectors in September 2026, tentatively called “AI Tools for Home Inspection.”

This course will further dig into how artificial intelligence is transforming the home inspection business as part of a three-part series designed for home inspectors who want to put AI to work in their businesses now. Each session builds on the last, taking inspectors from writing better prompts to deploying their own automated AI assistant. 

ASHI Virtual Classes are designed to be engaging and participatory—not long, passive webinars. Each session will be an interactive experience with real-world scenarios, practical questions, and in-depth examples. A small-group format fosters active learning, with dynamic visual presentations, rich photo content, and practical applications tailored for aspiring and practicing inspectors alike. Open dialogue is encouraged throughout the session to ensure concepts are clearly understood and applicable in the field. 

What You Will Learn 

As part of this three-part interactive series, inspectors will participate in: 

Part 1: Prompting Masterclass

Learn the simple techniques to stop getting generic advice and start getting high-quality, professional-grade answers that work for your business. Master prompt engineering and take control of the AI tools inspectors use every day. 

Part 2: The AI Home Inspector Expert Vault

The true unlock of AI is allowing it to understand the context of an inspector’s business and past work. Learn how to securely connect decades of expertise and past reports to a digital assistant that instantly finds the specific codes, notes, and photos needed to answer client questions with certainty. 

Part 3: Your Home Inspector AI Helper 

Agents sound complex, but they can be one of the biggest efficiency unlocks for an inspector’s business, freeing up time so you can focus on growth. Join this session to learn what AI agents are, how they work, and the simple steps to deploy them today. 

This three-part course is designed for licensed home inspectors looking to increase efficiency, improve client communication, and grow their business using AI tools as well as new home inspectors who want to build smart, scalable habits and workflows from day one.  

Mark Your Calendars

Three one-hour sessions are scheduled to take place

Part 1: Monday, September 7, 2026 at 6pm CST

Part 2: Monday, September 14, 2026 at 6pm CST

Part 3: Monday, September 28, 2026 at 6pm CST

Please note: The virtual class has a final exam, which must be completed for CE credit. This exam can be completed at the end of the class or any time after. 

Pennsylvania & Iowa Notice: Pennsylvania and Iowa do not approve continuing education for home inspectors. PA & IA inspectors must meet the CE requirements of their national association. This virtual class is approved for ASHI Continuing Education (CE) credit 

Log in for member pricing of $149. Non-member price $179