Despite two decades of governments working to digitize permitting processes, most of them are not up to speed with what advanced technology could do for them. Understandably, what’s holding them back is trust. Digital and AI-assisted tools are powerful enough now to transform permitting, but municipalities do not begin on square one with full trust in the technology.
The Archistar Digital AI Permitting Transformation (ADAPT) Framework explains the six-level progression in which cities or counties build trust in AI tools for permitting: from fully manual review to calibrated, auditable automation.
Delegating decision authority to AI tools does not relinquish the responsibility of human oversight. Instead, it couples technological automation with professional judgment. That’s the direction many fields are taking today, such as medicine, law, aviation, and others. Cities that follow the ADAPT Framework will not take an outlandish risk, but rather will align with the emerging global consensus on how AI should be governed.
