The company bought CivCheck last year to integrate more AI into permitting plan review and code compliance. Cities including Santa Ana, Calif., and Honolulu are using the CivCheck Guided AI Plan Review software tool to speed up permitting for new development.
The company’s new free program, known as the Clariti AI Studio, will offer one-on-one workshops to cities and counties, led by subject matter experts and lasting 45 to 60 minutes. The sessions will address challenges specific to different government agencies’ unique workflows, identifying where delays occur and what role AI can play in addressing them. Clariti will provide teams with a structured assessment and reference materials that officials can use to evaluate AI solutions.
Local government officials are grappling with questions about what AI can actually do for their operations. The AI Studio was created to educate and answer those questions, Julia Richman, Clariti’s vice president of government relations, said. Richman’s public-sector experience in IT leadership roles for the state of Colorado and the city of Boulder, Colo., shaped her perspective on the unique challenges governments face regarding AI adoption.
“Different cities are certainly in different places along their AI journeys,” Richman said. “As somebody who’s trying to sell into that market, I will say the variability across cities is pretty deep.”
Government problems are often related to business processes or people, she said, and automating a bad process with technology will typically not solve an issue as intended. A majority of AI deployments are failing, she said, and the AI Studio aims to help governments assess specific challenges and what is causing them before implementing solutions.
Within permitting specifically, a significant barrier limiting efficiency is information asymmetry between government and the public — and permit requirements can regularly change with code updates. The Guided AI Plan Review software was designed to help permit applicants and city permit review staff complete the process efficiently and in compliance with applicable codes.
Honolulu cut its review times by 70 percent with this tool.
The city’s Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) took on a transformation initiative after facing numerous federal indictments in 2021 related to bribery. The department also faced systematic permitting problems, such as a software system that was around 30 years old and paper-based processes.
“It’s truly just overhauling and modernizing of the whole system,” DPP Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna said, underlining a goal of making processes faster to serve small- and large-scale development needs better.
Assessing and improving existing processes was a “huge part” of this endeavor, Apuna said. The department did not have written documentation for standard operating procedures, and hired a consultant in this area. Rewriting processes helped ensure alignment across new systems.
One of the greatest challenges that city officials face in modernizing permitting, Apuna said, is the people side of it. It requires a “cultural change” as staff are required to maintain their daily processing of permits while also working to develop and implement a new system: “That can be challenging, because you’re asking a lot of staff.”
One of Honolulu’s big successes was to be able to get to a point where staff could see the improvements in their workflows from modernization. It was key to involve the staff in the process, Apuna said, starting with giving them a voice in deciding which new system to select, then getting them comfortable with it.
Ultimately, the goal is to improve the permitting process for new development and redevelopment, after disasters like the recent Kona-low storms.
For Honolulu, Clariti’s tool is one piece of the larger puzzle, Apuna said: “How can we further use AI or technology to better service the public?”
The CivCheck team worked closely with city officials and did research to help identify potential bottlenecks and tailor the system to community-specific needs, Apuna said. The AI Studio is designed to help teams on both the Clariti and government sides understand and address these varying community needs, Richman said.
And while some needs differ, cities have a shared goal, Apuna said: “Other jurisdictions are going through the same exact thing … everyone is upgrading their systems — looking at AI.”
The Clariti AI Studio is designed to support agencies interested in exploring how AI can be used in permitting and community development; local government agencies can request access to participate on Clariti's website.
