AI for architects. The work beside the design.

In a planning practice the time does not go into the designs. It goes into everything attached to them: queries from the building authority, deadlines, variations, billing by work stage. Here is what can be handed over.

What eats the day in a planning practice

The planning itself is rarely the problem. The problem is the administration around it, and in a planning practice it has one particular quality: it arrives from outside, with a deadline attached.

• Queries from the building authority. Two missing documents, one letter, one deadline, and the application sits still until somebody responds.
• Post from authorities and professional chambers: contribution notices, proof of continuing education, decisions carrying a right of appeal.
• Billing by work stage. Which instalment has been invoiced, which has been paid, which stage is complete.
• Variations. The client wants something different, it gets discussed, it gets built, and nobody writes the variation agreement.
• Coordination with specialist engineers. Structural, building services, surveying, each with their own invoice and their own schedule.
• Client communication across four channels. The call from the site, the question by WhatsApp, the email with the drawing attached.

The deadline is the most expensive item

In no other trade does so much hang on dates that other people set. In Germany an appeal period runs for one month from the date of notification, and notification is deemed to occur on the fourth day after posting, not on the date printed on the letter.

Anyone who keeps such deadlines in their head will eventually get one wrong. Anyone who puts them in a calendar tends to enter them on the day the post arrived, and calculates from the wrong date. Both happen regularly, and in the worst case they cost the entire matter.

Automation here is not a convenience. It reads the date out of the letter, applies the rules and warns you in advance rather than on the day it falls due.

What separates a planning practice from a trade business

A tradesperson deals in materials, appointments and installation. A planning practice deals in documents, deadlines and liability.

That leads to a different order of priorities when automating. In the trades the quotation pays off first. In a planning practice it is the incoming post: it triggers almost everything, it often arrives on paper, and it carries the deadlines.

The second difference is the duty to archive. Documents relating to a building project are kept for many years, and in a dispute what counts is what was recorded. Filing that happens by itself is therefore worth more than filing you have to maintain.

Where to start

With the post. Scanned letters become searchable in full text, sender and subject are identified, the deadline is read out of the letter and reported with time to spare.

Then the receipts, because they cost the same hours every month. Then client communication, so that Tuesday's question does not sit unread in a channel nobody is watching.

The design stays with the human being. And every letter to an authority is prepared, never sent without being asked.

Common questions

Does this replace my office administrator?

No. It takes on the work that nobody is there to do in a practice of one to five people anyway: sorting, reminding, matching, preparing.

Can a machine read deadlines out of official post?

The text yes, the legal consequence no. It reads the date and the stated period and applies the rules, including weekends and the statutory notification presumption. Whether an appeal makes sense is decided by a person.

What about data protection for client information?

There are set-ups where everything stays on your own computer. Anyone using an AI service needs a record of processing activities under Article 30 GDPR for it, whatever the size of the practice.

Is it worth it with two members of staff?

Especially then. In a practice of two, the owner does the administration personally, and usually in the evening.