From Prompt to Production: How AI and Next-Generation Survey123 are Changing Field Data Collection

For more than a decade, ArcGIS Survey123 has helped organisations collect reliable information from the field, supporting everything from inspections and asset inventories to environmental monitoring and public engagement. What began as a simple digital form solution has grown into a key component of many operational GIS workflows.

Today, Survey123 is entering its next phase of development, marked by the latest releases of Survey123 Studio and Survey123 Mobile. At the same time, Survey123 continues to evolve across the wider platform with new capabilities such as the Survey123 Assistant, the Translation Assistant, enhanced authoring experiences and deeper integration with the ArcGIS ecosystem.

Together, these developments are helping organisations move more quickly from an idea to a working field solution. Let's begin by exploring how artificial intelligence (AI ) is being introduced into Survey123 workflows before taking a closer look at Survey123 Studio and Survey123 Mobile.

AI continues to dominate technology discussions, but many organisations are still trying to understand where it delivers practical value. Survey123 provides a useful example of AI being applied to everyday data collection workflows.

I will briefly touch on three ways AI is being applied in the Survey123 Web Designer.

1.  AI-assisted survey design

The new Survey123 Assistant helps users move from a concept to a working survey more quickly. Instead of starting with a blank page, authors can describe their requirements in natural language and generate an initial survey design through a conversational workflow. This accelerates the early stages of development while keeping subject matter experts firmly in control of form design, business rules and data quality as the project takes shape.

2.   AI-assisted translation

AI is also helping organisations reach broader audiences through the Translation Assistant, which simplifies the creation and maintenance of multilingual surveys. For public engagement initiatives, environmental programmes, customer interactions, and international projects, multilingual support is increasingly becoming a requirement rather than a nice-to-have.

3.  AI-powered analysis

Beyond survey design, AI is beginning to support data interpretation. At the Esri Ireland Conference 2026, Dr Margaret Browne and Shane Carey demonstrated emerging capabilities including Image Analysis, Text Analysis, Audio Transcription, and Analysis Calculations, all currently available in beta and configurable through the Survey123 Web Designer for use in the Survey123 web app. These capabilities help organisations extract information from images, documents, and audio recordings while reducing manual processing effort.

To see these capabilities in action, watch the AI for Smarter Infrastructure session recorded at the Esri Ireland Conference 2026.

Together, these developments demonstrate how AI can support the full Survey123 workflow: helping users create surveys faster, reach broader audiences, and gain more value from the information they collect. To learn more about the technology, security, privacy commitments, and limitations of AI in Survey123, read more here. 

Whenever a major platform update is announced, existing users often ask the same question: "Will I need to rebuild everything?"

The answer is no.

One of the strongest messages behind the latest Survey123 developments is that this is an evolution rather than a reset. Existing XLSForms, established data models, and mature operational workflows remain highly relevant. Organisations can continue to leverage the investments they have already made while gradually adopting new capabilities as they become available.

This approach is particularly important for organisations that rely on Survey123 for business-critical operations. Many have spent years refining inspection workflows, compliance programmes, asset inventories, environmental monitoring initiatives, and field survey processes. Rather than requiring wholesale change, the next generation of Survey123 is designed to modernise the user experience while preserving the foundations that organisations already trust.

That said, while you may not need to rebuild your surveys, you should start considering your migration journey. Survey123 Studio and Survey123 Mobile are the future of the platform, with new capabilities continuing to arrive through regular releases. Existing applications remain fully supported today, but over time organisations should expect to transition to the next-generation experience as functionality reaches parity and the older applications approach retirement.

Wondering when that time might be? Start with the Survey123 functionality matrix. It provides a clear overview of available, in-development, and planned capabilities, helping you assess whether Survey123 Studio and Survey123 Mobile meet the needs of your organisation today.

A key part of the evolution of Survey123 is Survey123 Studio, Esri's next-generation desktop authoring environment and successor to Survey123 Connect.

For existing Survey123 users, Survey123 Studio builds on a familiar foundation, with XLSForms remaining central to advanced form design. The capabilities that organisations rely on today - including calculations, constraints, conditional logic, and repeat structures - remain at the heart of survey development.

Survey123 Studio introduces a modern interface, streamlined publishing and republishing workflows, improved accessibility, and a design approach that aligns more closely with the wider ArcGIS platform. Rather than replacing familiar workflows, it builds upon them, providing a more contemporary and intuitive experience for survey authors.

It is important to recognise, however, that the transition to Survey123 Studio is still an ongoing journey. New functionality is being added through regular releases, and feature parity with Survey123 Connect continues to increase over time. Organisations should therefore take the same approach recommended throughout the next-generation Survey123 rollout: evaluate your requirements, understand which capabilities are available today, and plan adoption at a pace that suits your operational needs.

Survey123 Studio includes a number of enhancements that improve day-to-day survey workflows, which you can explore here. Among these new capabilities, one particularly exciting feature is tabular repeats, which offers immediate practical benefits for field data collection.

If you have not explored Survey123 Studio yet, now is a good time to install it and experiment with some of your existing forms. Even if you are not ready to migrate production workflows, becoming familiar with the new authoring experience today will make future transitions much easier.

Creating a survey is only the first step. The real test is how efficiently data can be collected and managed in the field. This is where Survey123 Mobile comes in.

Survey123 Mobile has been rebuilt using the ArcGIS Maps SDK for .NET, bringing Survey123 onto the same modern mapping foundation used elsewhere across the ArcGIS platform. This provides improved performance, enhanced stability, and a richer mapping experience while creating the foundation for future innovation.

Users can now take advantage of enhanced mapping capabilities including local projection web maps, bookmarks, layer controls, and pop-ups directly within field workflows. Together, these capabilities create a more consistent ArcGIS experience while providing field teams with greater situational awareness and access to richer geographic context.

For organisations managing complex field operations, Survey123 Mobile offers a range of enhancements that will help streamline data collection while providing a more capable and consistent mobile experience. The addition of tabular repeats, enhanced mapping tools, and Quick CaptureQuick Capture integration demonstrates how Survey123 is continuing to evolve, building on familiar workflows while introducing capabilities that users have been asking for.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the recently announced enhancements to Survey123 is what they enable in the future. The move to modern ArcGIS mapping technology is about far more than performance improvements. It creates a platform capable of supporting future innovation across the Survey123 ecosystem.

Esri has already identified future opportunities including on-device coordinate transformations and AI-assisted data capture. While not every organisation will require these capabilities today, they highlight the direction of mobile GIS workflows over the coming years.

Much like the transition from paper forms to digital data collection transformed field operations a decade ago, the combination of AI, modern mobile architectures, and increasingly connected workflows is creating new opportunities for organisations to collect, manage, and act on information more effectively.

The common thread through these developments is the reduction of friction between an idea and a deployed solution. Whether through AI-assisted survey creation, modern authoring experiences, improved mobile workflows, or richer mapping capabilities, Survey123 is helping organisations move more quickly from business requirement to operational workflow.

As Survey123 enters its second decade, the platform is evolving beyond digital forms into a more intelligent, connected, and future-ready component of the ArcGIS ecosystem.

What makes this evolution particularly compelling is that it does not require organisations to start again. It builds upon existing forms, workflows, and expertise while opening the door to new capabilities and future innovation.

For organisations across the island of Ireland, the opportunity is not any single feature or release. It is the continued acceleration of the journey from an idea to a workflow, and into meaningful operational outcomes.

The message for existing Survey123 users is simple: there is no need to rush into migration, but now is the time to start exploring. Install Survey123 Studio, test some existing forms, try the new mobile experience, and understand how the next generation of Survey123 aligns with your organisation's future needs. The transition has already begun, and the sooner organisations familiarise themselves with the new tools, the easier that journey will be.