Comment
Extract: How AI is building the data infrastructure for planning's digital future
In early June the Government unveiled ‘Extract ’, a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool designed to digitise the planning system and speed up the process. Developed by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology's Incubator for Artificial Intelligence, the initiative is part of a co-ordinated approach to planning modernisation and digitalisation.
What Extract really represents
The significance of Extract lies not in technical innovation but in its application to a sector where significant elements of its data and information is still paper-based. Whilst AI document processing already exists elsewhere, its application to the planning sector gives us the ability to unlock its institutional memory – the decades of planning decisions, heritage records, data and documentation locked in legacy formats – and this represents genuine strategic value.
Legacy planning records, environmental baseline data, and policy decisions currently sit in filing cabinets and microfiche archives, effectively invisible to contemporary practice. This digitisation agenda creates opportunities that extend far beyond process efficiency. By converting historical planning decisions into searchable, comparable datasets, Extract enables evidence-based analysis of planning outcomes over time. Such capabilities could transform how we understand site history, assess cumulative impacts and understand policy effectiveness. The adoption of data processing technology will also help relieve some pressure on local authority capacity, given the current resource constraints many departments have.
The strategic opportunity
Planning practice currently operates with fragmented information systems that require manual synthesis and interpretation. Extract addresses these constraints whilst creating the foundation for integrated professional workflows. The API capabilities (‘application programming interface’, protocols that enable communication between software applications) – allowing Extract to connect and share data with other platforms – represents perhaps its most strategic benefit, enabling seamless data exchange between planning, environmental assessment, and development tools.
However, realising this potential requires confronting the challenge of data standardisation across the entire planning system. Current inconsistencies across Local Planning Authorities in how planning information is recorded, categorised, and stored limits the true integration and digitisation of the system.
The profession must engage seriously with questions about data governance, quality assurance, and professional standards in an increasingly digital environment.
This technological shift demands professional evolution beyond simply adopting new tools. Planning practitioners face a changing landscape where public engagement increasingly involves AI-generated submissions, some containing inaccurate legal references or technical assertions, or allowing ‘bad actors’ to flood planning authorities with hundreds if not thousands of anonymous AI-generated representations. Similar technologies are already being used by the profession to stress-test our own arguments, using the analytical power of AI to undertake review representations, helping developers and local authorities alike understand and respond to feedback on development and tailor design to reflect common or key themes or respond positively to issues of concern. Such tools can also support developers identifying potential weaknesses before submission and enhance the robustness of planning cases.
While we should be mindful of the use of technology in this way, the use of the right technology, at the right time and in the right manner, presents an opportunity to enhance services through faster constraint analysis, more comprehensive due diligence, and predictive insights based on historical planning patterns. However, this requires practitioners who understand both traditional planning expertise and emerging digital capabilities.
The road ahead
Extract serves as one of several technological advances being adopted for broader planning system modernisation, but success depends on addressing implementation challenges that extend beyond technology deployment. The planning profession's response will determine whether digital transformation enhances professional practice or simply accelerates existing inefficiencies.
Critical considerations include ensuring transparency and explainability in AI-assisted decision-making, particularly as legal frameworks increasingly expect public authorities to demonstrate how algorithmic tools influence planning judgements. Professional development must encompass both technical literacy and understanding of legal obligations around AI use in public sector contexts.
Building confidence in these technologies requires demonstrating value through improved outcomes rather than just faster processes. This includes training junior practitioners to operate effectively in AI-enabled environments whilst maintaining the professional judgement and local knowledge that remain central to effective planning practice.
Extract represents infrastructure investment that creates the foundation for future innovation across planning and environmental assessment. The planning profession now faces a choice about how to engage with this digital evolution. Those who actively shape this transformation through strategic adoption, professional development, and thought leadership will be better positioned to deliver enhanced services and drive positive planning outcomes. The alternative is allowing technological change to reshape professional practice without meaningful input from those who understand planning's complexities and responsibilities.
Notably, some authorities have, however, already questioned the cost implications of storing vast amounts of data – an issue that does not appear to have been considered. Although Extract is undoubtedly a helpful tool, it is by its nature backwards-facing, and its use in determining planning applications and creating efficiency and its role in speeding up decision-making is yet to be demonstrated. Will it result in better quality, faster planning decisions? We shall see.
For more information on the future of digitising the planning system, please contact Michael Browne or Tim Burden.
3 July 2025
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