University of Liverpool

Plan Ai at the University of Liverpool delivers digital planning solutions to the world of planning practice. Hosted by the world's first university department of urban and environmental planning, Plan Ai combines world leading planning research with the latest technological innovations, particularly machine learning and artificial intelligence, to develop new ways of delivering on the goals we all share as planners - delivering the right dwellings in the rights places, engaging communities in the planning process and, ultimately, achieving social and environmental justice.

We work across the full spectrum of urban and environmental planning but have developed particular expertise in the use of digital technology in two specific domain areas.

Firstly, we have delivered one of the first uses of AI to manage the process by which public submissions to the plan making process are interpreted. Working with Greater Cambridge Shared Planning we successfully developed a Large Language Model approach to analysing and summarising public submissions to three Supplementary Planning Documents.

Secondly, our approach to modelling housing need has resulted in us working both with local authorities and winning funding to work with central government on refining how we might understand the location, type and tenure of new dwellings that are required.

In addition to this existing work we are working on developing AI application to support the goal of incorporating digital technologies, wherever appropriate, for the planning profession.