Clark is a complimentary resource trained on AISC’s Steel Construction Manual, Seismic Design Manual, standards and design guides. It cites authoritative sources for specific information and operates as a closed system, ensuring it does not adopt inaccurate practices or user biases, according to the AISC news release.

Clark Opens Up Possibilities for Steel Conversions

Can artificial intelligence help engineers rethink a building’s framing system? That’s a possibility.

At NASCC 2025: The Steel Conference in April 2025, AISC leadership answered questions posed by BuildSteel.org Editor Marco Johnson, confirming that Clark could be used to kick-start engineering challenges, such as converting a wood-framed structure to steel framing.

Clark is AISC’s first outward-facing AI tool and a culmination of a multi-year effort to make its deep knowledge base more accessible. The tool responds to natural-language questions and references only AISC’s vetted publications — not the broader internet.

“We intentionally have made the data that is feeding this limited, because we want to make sure that we have good quality information for the users,” said Christopher Raebel, SE, PE, PhD, AISC’s vice president of engineering and research. “It’s not just going out to the internet, finding anything anywhere that could be nonsense or not. This gives real data based off of what we have from our publications, our archives, and it will answer questions.”

Can Clark Assist With Wood-to-Steel Conversions?

At NASCC 2025, Johnson asked about an engineer seeking to convert a two-story wood-framed hotel or a three-story multifamily wood-framed apartment building to steel framing. Might Clark provided guidance?

“At this point, it does not do design for you,” Raebel said. “It helps give you resources based off of our specifications manuals.”

That’s precisely the intent. Clark won’t draw the plans, but it will point engineers in the right direction — toward technical information, member sizes and layout preferences that could form the basis for a conversion strategy. In other words, Clark could get the engineer on the right path.

“If their overall question is, I want to convert a building to a steel building? Yes,” Raebel explained. “And they could ask, what are the member sizes? What is the preferred layout?”

Currently, Clark can assist engineers with converting wood-framed structures to structural steel, but not yet to cold-formed steel, according to Don Allen, executive director of the Steel Framing Industry Association (SFIA). Allen tested the chatbot with CFS-specific prompts and found, at the time of publication, it offered minimal CFS guidance.

But that is expected to change. “It eventually will help somewhat with cold-formed steel, once AISC incorporates CFS into its standards,” Allen said.

Clark Supports Engineers — Doesn’t Replace Them

Charlie Carter, SE, PE, PhD, AISC president, emphasized that Clark is about enhancing — not replacing — human judgment.

“It’s never going to replace the person. The person is still doing the thinking and using the information,” Carter said. “It’s just bringing more information to you quicker.”

With Clark, engineers gain a streamlined way to identify relevant design principles, material properties and construction details — and a way to access that foundational knowledge.

“We think that’s going to help the people we serve do their jobs easier, faster more profitably,” Carter said.

If anything, Clark will help engineers become better informed by prompting them to explore content they might not have thought to check.

Clark Cites its Sources, Every Time

Importantly, Clark also shows its work. Every answer comes with source references and links to the original AISC documents.

“You’ll see that it gives references. It takes screenshots, if you will, of where it’s getting its information,” Raebel said. “Sometimes that comes with a technical reference, like a paper, but it’s all AISC knowledge.”