We have some pretty exciting news to share, and we’ve been bursting to tell you!
PlanAI has been shortlisted for the Award for Use of Digital Technology in Planning at the Planning Awards!
PlanAI, an AI tool developed by the University of Liverpool, integrated with our OpusConsult system, helped revolutionise the way Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service handled their local plan consultations.
But before we get into what the nomination means, let's rewind a little.
So what is PlanAI?
Good question!
PlanAI is an ethical AI planning tool developed by the University of Liverpool, built specifically for planning policy teams and planning officers.
It's designed to do something that sounds simple but is anything but: process and summarise the thousands of consultation responses and evidence documents that land on planners' desks during local plan consultations.
Anyone who has ever worked on a planning consultation will know exactly what we're talking about. The responses come in thick and fast. They're long, they're complex, and they all need to be read, understood and taken into account.
For a planning team that's already stretched and (let's be honest, which planning team isn't right now?) it can feel completely overwhelming. PlanAI changes that.
What can PlanAI do?
We're glad you asked! Here's where it gets really exciting for anyone involved in planning.
PlanAI summarises long evidence documents and consultation reports, making the 30-month Local Plan deadline a whole lot more manageable in the process.
And those summaries? They're integrated into OpusConsult, our planning consultation software, so everything stays organised all in one place. No jumping between systems. No losing track of anything. Just a clean, organised workflow from start to finish.
But that's not all. PlanAI can also pull together a first draft of reports that you can share directly with stakeholders. You can also go in and make any changes you need; it's your report, PlanAI just does the heavy lifting to get you started.
Plus, if you've got a scanned document with multiple representations in it, PlanAI will pull out each individual representation and separate them automatically. Anyone who has spent hours manually working through a document like that will know exactly how much time that saves, especially in PDFs or physical scanned documents where you can’t copy-paste the text.
Planning officers can manage the entire process in one place, from the moment submissions arrive to the moment reports go out.
The stat that stopped us in our tracks
We're going to need you to sit down for this one.
A summarisation task that previously took the planning team 18.5 hours took just 16 minutes using PlanAI.
16 minutes for something that used to eat up the best part of two and a half working days!
For planning officers working under the pressure of the 30-month Local Plan deadline, that kind of time saving is a complete and total game-changer.
How JDi and Greater Cambridge Shared Planning worked together
When Greater Cambridge Shared Planning came to us, they wanted a smarter, more efficient way to manage their local plan consultations; something that was transparent, consistent, and built around the real needs of their planning officers.
Using OpusConsult and OpusMap alongside PlanAI, we helped them do exactly that.
Many consultation responses came in digitally through our planning consultation software, and PlanAI then got to work summarising, analysing and extracting key themes from thousands of comments in a fraction of the time it would have taken manually.
The result: a planning team that could focus their expertise where it actually mattered, rather than spending weeks buried in paperwork. We think that's pretty special.
Why this shortlisting matters
The Planning Awards celebrate the very best work happening across the planning sector, so to see a project we were part of shortlisted for Use of Digital Technology in Planning is an incredible feeling.
But beyond the award itself, what this shortlisting represents is proof that AI for planning, when it's designed properly, implemented thoughtfully, and used by the right people, can completely transform the way local councils and planning authorities work day-to-day.
That's been our mission at JDi for over 20 years.
What's next?
The Planning Awards ceremony takes place on 4th June at IET London, and we will absolutely be there!
We'll be sharing updates so watch this space…
In the meantime, if you'd like to find out more about how the Opus System and PlanAI could support your local plan consultations, we'd love to have a chat.
Find out more about PlanAI here or book your free demo here to see how much time PlanAI and the Opus System could save you.
TL;DR - The Quick Version
PlanAI has been shortlisted for the Award for Use of Digital Technology in Planning at the Planning Awards!
PlanAI, an AI tool developed by the University of Liverpool, integrated with our OpusConsult system, helped revolutionise the way Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service handled their local plan consultations.
It summarises evidence documents and consultation responses, pulls first draft reports for stakeholders, separates individual representations from scanned documents, and sends everything back into OpusConsult so nothing gets lost.
Oh, and it reduced an 18.5 hour summarisation task to just 16 minutes.
The ceremony is on 4th June and we genuinely cannot wait!
Find out more about PlanAI here or book your free demo here to see how much time PlanAI and the Opus System could save you.