AI in Building Permitting: How to Address the Root Cause of Delays

There’s no denying that red tape and outdated systems contribute to permitting delays. But the real blocker for building departments is actually a simple math problem: too many permit applications coming in and a lack of staff bandwidth to review them.

It’s the reason why backlogs form, review times lengthen, and resubmissions balloon.

So, what’s the solution?

Well, if you want to actually speed up permit approvals, you need to fix both of the “levers” that determine how fast or slow permitting will be:

• The Volume Lever: The number of applications flowing into your system, including all resubmissions triggered by incomplete or incorrect applications.
• The Capacity Lever: The ability for your staff to efficiently review applications.

Both can be addressed with support from AI – but it’s important to understand that there are distinctly different AI tools that help with distinctly different things in the permitting lifecycle. And most don’t actually address the root case of delays.

Types of AI tools and where they fit into the permitting process

Cities, architects, builders, and even software vendors often talk about “AI for permitting” as if it were a single technology. But in reality, there are five types of AI tools used in permitting, and understanding their differences is crucial if you want to adopt AI that truly speeds up your process.

1. Test Fit Solutions

Question answered: "What can I build on my land?"

Test Fit Solutions are early-stage planning tools that help owners, developers, and architects quickly understand what’s feasible on a parcel. They simulate building massing, setbacks, height limits, FAR, parking ratios, and other land-use regulations.

Strengths

• Provides instant results when using BIM/IFC models
• Great for new construction feasibility
• Automates complex massing calculations
• Helps extract the maximum development potential from a site

Limitations

• Requires clean GIS data
• PDFs don’t work well
• Struggles with additions, alterations, and grandfathered conditions

Does it speed up permit approvals?

Though Test Fit AI is extremely valuable, it only answers the earliest question in the process.

2. Permit Guides

Question answered: "What permits do I actually need?"

Permit Guides are rule-based tools that map a project’s scope to the permits required. This prevents costly delays caused by applicants missing a street-use permit, mechanical permit, MUP, grading permit, etc.

Strengths

• Prevent delays due to missing permit types
• Offer intuitive, step-by-step guidance
• Can integrate across any permitting system
• Help applicants understand fees and process steps

Limitations

• Only map project → required permits
• Do not perform plan review
• Do not reduce permitting timelines directly

Does it speed up permit approvals?

Permit Guides solve applicant confusion, but not overall delays.

3. Automated Code Compliance

Question answered: "Is my design code compliant?"

These tools analyze a design model (often inside Revit) to check for compliance with building codes. They work well during early design, especially for architects aiming to reduce liability and catch errors before CDs.

Strengths

• Useful for design-stage compliance checking
• Integrate directly into BIM workflows (Revit, IFC)
• Provide instant feedback for geometry-based checks

Limitations

• PDF accuracy is low (<90% in many cases)
• Support only a fixed set of rules (often 20–200 checks)
• Limited to major codes like IBC or state-specific residential codes
• Local amendments require expensive updates
• Most importantly: A compliant design is not the same as a permit-ready plan set

It’s worth emphasizing that last point, because it’s a common misconception that something being “code compliant” automatically means “permit ready”.

Why? Because Automated Code Compliance tools typically focus on the design model (checking if your building geometry meets code requirements), which is only helpful during design. And permitting is fundamentally based on what's shown in the submitted documents. 

So even if your design is perfectly compliant, your submission will be rejected if it's missing essential information: dimensions, calculations, annotations, structural details, or jurisdiction-specific administrative requirements.

The real drivers of permitting delays aren't usually design violations. They're incomplete submittals, missing documents, absent calculations, or local requirements that weren't met. 

Does it speed up permit approvals?

These tools are valuable for architects, but they don’t ensure documents will pass permit review.

4. AI Permit Preparation Software

Question answered: "Will my submission get approved?"

This is one of the most impactful and fastest-growing categories. AI Permit Preparation tools (like CivCheck) scan an applicant’s draft submission and check for everything a plan reviewer will evaluate — completeness, missing documents, code citations, and whether compliance is actually demonstrated.

Strengths

• Dramatically reduces resubmittals
• Provides real-time feedback on PDFs
• Ensures compliance is shown correctly, not just achieved
• Quickly adaptable to local codes and amendments
• Helps applicants get approved in one review cycle

Limitations

• Applicants must spend more time upfront improving their submission
• Doesn’t replace plan review, but it does ensure only complete and compliant plans reach staff for review

Does it speed up permit approvals?

Yes! Because AI permit preparation tools help applicants submit higher-quality plans, which means fewer resubmittals, less intake back and forth, and ultimately fewer applications you have to process. 

5. AI Plan Review

Question answered: "Should this project get a permit?"

AI Plan Review tools (like CivCheck) assist the plan reviewer directly by helping them analyze plans faster and more accurately. These tools either reduce the number of checks a reviewer must manually perform or reduce the time required to perform those checks.

Strengths

• Automates calculations (tables, equations, FAR, occupancy, etc.)
• Allows you to quickly find code references 
• Allows you to generate comments and markups
• Reduces total plan review time
• Increases reviewer capacity without increasing burnout

Limitations

• Reviewers still need to verify certain checks
• Quality varies widely depending on the vendor and model

Does it speed up permit approvals?

Yes! AI plan review solutions help reviewers complete more checks in less time, therefore increasing throughput with existing staff.

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Now that we’ve established that only AI permit preparation and plan review software has the ability to actually reduce permit approval times, let’s dig into the ethics of AI use in permitting and why a human-in-the-loop approach is non-negotiable when it comes to protecting public safety and trust.

Why ethical AI is essential in building permitting

Because permitting protects life and property, the standard for any AI tool must be that it works reliably and ethically.

But the problem is that not every solution does.

Fully automated systems (artificial intelligence) rely on multi-step reasoning that suffers from compounding errors. The result? Five steps that may individually be 90% accurate, but only 59% accurate overall. And when it comes to public safety, that's simply unacceptable.

That’s why a Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) approach to design is essential. Because AI systems that augment human experts rather than replace them ensure necessary "friction" where safety depends on human judgment.

Ethical AI solutions like CivCheck ensure multiple layers of protection against AI errors by:

• Allowing human experts to override AI at any moment
• Showing exactly what the AI did and the ‘why’ behind its assumptions
• Allowing corrections before any conclusions are drawn

Ultimately, if a system encourages the blind acceptance of what the AI says, it's a liability.

The bottom line

Think of it like air traffic control: You can have great tools for designing airplanes (Test Fit/Code Compliance) and great tools for buying tickets (Permit Guides), but if you don't have specialized tools to manage the planes waiting to take off (AI Permit Preparation) and speed up how fast the tower can handle them (AI Plan Review), the whole system stays congested.

If your community wants to reduce permitting times, the strategy is straightforward: Focus on solving the volume and capacity imbalance. Adopt AI Plan Review to help your staff work faster. Reduce resubmittals and intake back and forth with AI Permit Preparation.

Other AI tools are helpful, sure, but they won't help get permits approved faster.