Use of artificial intelligence in planning processes
08 September 2025
The Department is exploring the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to create efficiencies across the NSW Planning system. Safeguards to prevent misuse will be implemented, and any solution will have a strong audit trail to ensure transparency and accountability.
What could AI be used for?
AI could be used in the NSW Planning Portal (the Portal) to support administrative and quality assurance tasks, including:
- Extracting information from planning documents to reduce manual data entry
- Checking file naming conventions have been applied to uploaded documents to ensure submissions meet council or departmental requirements
- Providing quality assurance prompts to help applicants identify missing or non-compliant elements of their site plan
- Suggesting potential application pathways based on data
- Supporting pre-submission quality checks to reduce assessment delays and reduce requests for information.
What AI will not be used for
AI will not be used to make planning decisions, replace planning professionals or certifiers, nor be used to conduct adequacy tests or determine application outcomes.
All planning decisions will continue to be reviewed and made by qualified professionals. Any AI tools will be used to reduce the assessment times through pre-submission quality and administrative support.
Opportunities to become involved
The Department published a Request for Proposal on 1 September 2025 for an AI solution for State Significant Development. This opportunity closes at 3pm on 25 September 2025.
The Department welcomes feedback from industry and encourages those with interest or expertise in AI to engage in further discussions. Register your interest.