Here’s why Planning Teams are turning to AI in planning workflows
As Planning departments prepare for upcoming Local Plan reforms, the demand for more efficient, digital first workflows is increasing at top speed. Planning Teams are handling more information than ever before, dealing with long evidence documents, complex consultation responses, site submissions and assessments, all of which will be under tighter scrutiny and pressure from the Local Plan 2026 reforms.
Tools like PlanAI developed by the University of Liverpool and integrated into OpusConsult are being adopted to help Planning teams manage evidence, consultations and Local Plan workloads more efficiently.
AI cannot replace professional judgement, but it can significantly support officers in navigating the growing workload. With the right digital planning tools, teams can speed up understanding, improve evidence management and work more confidently within the new 30 month Local Plan system.
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How PlanAI helps Planning Officers in their day to day work
Across the sector Planners face increasing pressures around the following
● Large and growing volumes of evidence
● Demand for transparency and auditability
● Greater expectations around digital first planning
● The need for structured accessible planning data
● Tight timelines that limit manual review
PlanAI makes a real impact, it helps officers to work a whole lot smarter rather than drudgingly harder, supporting
● Planning evidence analysis
● Planning workflow automation
● Consultations analysis
● Planning document summarisation
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What is and who are PlanAI?
PlanAI is a large language model based tool, created by University of Liverpool academics and delivered by JDI Solutions Ltd, to help local authorities summarise and analyse public representations received during planning consultations.
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Exactly what does PlanAI do and how does it help officers?
- Document summarisation
Quick summaries of lengthy reports, this helps officers reach clarity much faster and saves on hours of reading and summarising - Theme extraction
PlanAI automatically identifies themes from evidence and consultation datasets, supporting policy development and early decision making - Supports complex workloads
The tool supports transparency, suitability and consistency across the evidence base - What PlanAI doesn’t do is, replace professional judgement. Instead, it helps officers reach clarity faster, allowing them to focus on decision making rather than document digging
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Is PlanAI the answer to the 2026 Planning Reforms?
The Local Plan 2026 reforms introduce stricter, tighter timelines, requiring teams to complete plan making in just 30 months, to meet these expectations, Planning Authorities need systems in place which can support accuracy, clarity and speed, and PlanAI provides just that.
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PlanAI proven results
This real world example shows how AI planning tools can significantly reduce consultation analysis time for local planning authorities.
When used by Greater Cambridge Shared Planning, PlanAI transformed their process:
● Manual summarisation: 18 hours by a planning officer
● PlanAI: 16 minutes to deliver both reports
Read the Local Government Association case study to see the full results.
You can also watch the recent webinar, where Greater Cambridge Shared Planning share their experience of integrating AI into their consultation workflow using OpusConsult and Plan AI.
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Are you 2026 ready?
The planning system is evolving and so are the tools that support it. PlanAI isn’t here to replace the experience or judgement of officers, it’s here to enhance it by helping teams work more efficiently and with greater clarity.
Which is why as Local Plan reform accelerates, JDi will continue to develop tools which support councils through change and help Planners do what they do best, shape great places with confidence.
If your team is beginning to plan for the 2026 Reform or are simply looking for ways to manage evidence more efficiently, we’re happy to show you how PlanAI can streamline your workflow.
If you are you looking for an opportunity to improve and enhance your Planning Teams performance and meet KPI’s, then get in touch for a short demonstration to see how PlanAI will be the one change in 2026 you’ll be glad you made.