Meet the Aventa IM Assistant – Practical Help for Clients & Designers Navigating Information Management

Introducing the Aventa Advisory IM Assistant (Public Beta)

Over the last 12 months, I’ve watched the volume of AI-generated content explode across social media, including LinkedIn. It’s everywhere.

Some of it is genuinely useful. Some of it is almost right. And some of it is, frankly, utter nonsense – shared confidently by people who clearly haven’t checked it.

That last category isn’t just unhelpful. In a professional industry built on trust, accountability, and long-term asset decisions, it can be actively damaging.

AI isn’t the problem. The absence of governance around how people use it is.

AI doesn’t know when it’s wrong unless it is constrained, guided, tested, and challenged. And in an industry that has already had a turbulent relationship with Information Management, uncontrolled AI introduces risk rather than value.

So I decided to do something about it.

Aventa Advisory IM Assistant

I’m launching the Aventa IM Assistant as a free, public beta.

It is a practical, plain-language assistant designed to help clients, asset owners, and project teams make sense of Information Management in line with ISO 19650 as applied in UK practice, including the latest UK National Annex updates.

This tool did not appear overnight.

It has been meticulously built, iteratively tested, deliberately stress-tested, and repeatedly refined to reach a deployable state where it provides reliable, consistent, and defensible responses — within clearly defined boundaries.

This is not a generic chatbot.

It has been developed around:

• UK-specific application of ISO 19650

• industry knowledge and lived delivery experience

• professional judgement rather than literal or performative compliance

• explicit guardrails around what it can and cannot advise on

Built, Tested, and Fit for Use

Before being released publicly, the Aventa IM Assistant was:

• subjected to structured stress testing using real world scenarios, edge cases, and deliberately ambiguous questions

• challenged against common industry failure points, myths, and misinterpretations of ISO 19650

• iteratively amended where responses were incomplete, misleading, or insufficiently cautious

• reviewed against defined acceptance criteria focused on clarity, proportionality, and alignment with UK practice

Where the assistant cannot provide a reliable answer, it is designed to say so – and to explain why.

If it can’t answer confidently and responsibly, it won’t guess. That behaviour is intentional.

Governance Comes First

One of the biggest failures of AI in professional settings is the absence of governance.

Alongside the assistant, I’ve published a governance and use document that clearly defines:

• its scope and intended purpose

• its behavioural constraints

• its limitations, exclusions, and non-reliance boundaries

That governance is intentionally visible and will continue to evolve, informed directly by feedback from real users applying the tool in real contexts.

Transparency matters - especially when the outputs might influence real project decisions.

Why This Exists

I’ve seen Information Management genuinely help projects succeed.

I’ve also seen it become over-engineered, inaccessible, and reduced to box-ticking.

ISO 19650 is often part of that story – not because it is wrong, but because it is poorly explained, inconsistently applied, or wrapped in unnecessary complexity.

The outcomes are predictable:

• people disengage

• clients feel intimidated

• teams over-specify

• Information Management becomes something to “get through” rather than something that supports better decisions

When Information Management becomes theatre, everyone loses — the client first.

This tool exists to challenge that trajectory.

The Aim Is Deliberately Simple

This is not about replacing consultants. It is not automation for its own sake. And it is not compliance theatre.

The aim is simple:

• help people ask better questions, earlier

• cut through jargon and over-specification

• make Information Management useful, proportionate, and grounded in reality

• level the playing field

Useful, proportionate, grounded. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Who It’s For

The Aventa IM Assistant supports:

• people entering the industry who want to upskill in Information Management

• clients and asset owners who are curious but unsure where to start

• project and delivery teams trying to keep IM practical and outcome-focused

It also deliberately takes a whole-life asset view.

Early information decisions affect operation, maintenance, and eventual decommissioning. This tool keeps that reality front and centre.

What you decide at the start echoes for the whole life of the asset.

Helping People Use AI Properly

To support meaningful use, I’ve also shared:

• a governance and use document explaining what the assistant is for – and what it is not

• sector-specific prompt examples showing how to structure questions to get clear, reliable outputs

These prompts exist to encourage better thinking, not clever phrasing.

Good outputs start with good questions.

This Is a Learning Exercise

This is a public beta. It will continue to evolve.

If you are:

• a client being told “you need ISO 19650”

• an architect, engineer, or project manager navigating Information Management requirements

• part of a delivery team trying to keep things proportionate and value-led

I would genuinely welcome your feedback – supportive, critical, or uncomfortable.

If you think it’s wrong, tell me. If you think it’s missing something, tell me. If you think it’s useful, tell others.

Aventa IM Assistant

If this avoids even a small amount of confusion, over-engineering, or wasted effort on live projects, it will have done its job.