Senior Implementation Consultant

City of Toronto launches AI Pre-Check with Clariti to speed up housing approvals. Aug 31, 2026, 07:30 ET Toronto is the latest city to pilot Clariti's Guided AI plan Review, which cut time to permit decision 55% for residential permits in Honolulu in the first quarter of 2026 VANCOUVER, BC, Aug. 31, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - The City of Toronto today launched Building Permit Application Pre-Check, leveraging CivCheck, Clariti's Guided AI Plan Review platform to improve the speed, clarity, and consistency of its building permitting process. Starting with residential projects, applicants will now receive real-time feedback on missing documents, incomplete information, and certain zoning and Ontario Building Code issues within the pilot's scope, with a citation to the requirement behind each finding, so they can address or explain flagged items and submit stronger applications. Toronto is working to meet or exceed a provincial target of 285,000 new homes by 2031, alongside approving 65,000 rent-controlled homes by 2030 through the HousingTO Action Plan. Permitting is one of the few levers a city controls directly on that timeline. Incomplete applications are among the most common causes of delay, and every round of corrections adds weeks that projects and applicants absorb. The CivCheck pilot is part of the City's broader effort to speed up development and permitting approvals to meet that commitment. "Toronto is tackling a housing affordability crisis head-on, and permitting is one of the levers cities can pull right now," said Cyrus Symoom, CEO of Clariti. "CivCheck shows applicants where their application stands before they ever submit. That means fewer correction cycles, faster reviews, and staff who can focus their expertise where it matters most. Cleaner applications are how a city turns a housing target into homes." CivCheck flags missing documents, incomplete information, and code and zoning issues, then explains what to address and points to the requirement behind it. Applicants can resolve or explain those items before they submit, entering the queue review-ready, reducing correction cycles and resubmissions. City staff make every decision on building permit applications and CivCheck generates the guidance. City reviewers continue to review every application, validating or overriding findings as part of their normal review. CivCheck does not approve, refuse, or delay any permit. Use of the tool is voluntary and does not change the City's formal application or review requirements. The pilot aligns with the City's Digital Infrastructure Strategic Framework and its commitment to using AI responsibly and transparently to improve public services. Toronto's pilot adds to a growing wave of cities using AI to speed up permitting. In Honolulu, applicants using CivCheck have saved more than 40 days per permit on average, with residential permits reaching decisions 55% faster than non-CivCheck applications. Denver recently selected Clariti's Guided AI Plan Review solution to improve its own permitting process, and the company also launched AI Studio, which gives local government teams direct access to Clariti's expertise in applying AI across permitting workflows. Clariti was also recognized by the Center for Public Sector AI's AI 50 program as a leading company driving AI innovation across the public sector. Applicants can learn more about eligibility and access the Building Permit Application Pre-Check at toronto.ca/PreCheck. About Clariti Clariti is a leading provider of community development solutions that help local governments modernize permitting operations, simplify staff workflows, strengthen compliance, and deliver faster, more consistent permit outcomes. CivCheck is Clariti's Guided AI Plan Review(TM) solution, designed to streamline plan review. It helps applicants submit more complete applications and equips city reviewers with structured, rule-based compliance checks, improving efficiency while preserving professional oversight and final decision authority. SOURCE Clariti

AI Studio offers local govt. Guidance to modernize permits. As cities and counties turn to AI to ease permitting, one company is offering a new, free program through which officials can learn about the technology's potential to solve agency-specific problems. May 21, 2026 - Permitting solution provider Clariti launched an AI Studio for local government on Thursday, intended to help teams understand the technology's role in permitting. The company bought CivCheck last year to integrate more AI into permitting plan review and code compliance. The city of Honolulu is using the CivCheck Guided AI Plan Review software tool to speed up permitting for new development. The company's new free program, known as the Clariti AI Studio, will offer one-on-one workshops to cities and counties, led by subject matter experts and lasting 45 to 60 minutes. The sessions will address challenges specific to different government agencies' unique workflows, identifying where delays occur and what role AI can play in addressing them. Clariti will provide teams with a structured assessment and reference materials that officials can use to evaluate AI solutions. Local government officials are grappling with questions about what AI can actually do for their operations. The AI Studio was created to educate and answer those questions, Julia Richman, Clariti's vice president of government relations, said. Richman's public-sector experience in IT leadership roles for the state of Colorado and the city of Boulder, Colo., shaped her perspective on the unique challenges governments face regarding AI adoption. "Different cities are certainly in different places along their AI journeys," Richman said. "As somebody who's trying to sell into that market, I will say the variability across cities is pretty deep." Government problems are often related to business processes or people, she said, and automating a bad process with technology will typically not solve an issue as intended. A majority of AI deployments are failing, she said, and the AI Studio aims to help governments assess specific challenges and what is causing them before implementing solutions. Within permitting specifically, a significant barrier limiting efficiency is information asymmetry between government and the public - and permit requirements can regularly change with code updates. The Guided AI Plan Review software was designed to help permit applicants and city permit review staff complete the process efficiently and in compliance with applicable codes. Honolulu cut its review times by 70 percent with this tool. The city's Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) took on a transformation initiative after facing numerous federal indictments in 2021 related to bribery. The department also faced systematic permitting problems, such as a software system that was around 30 years old and paper-based processes. "It's truly just overhauling and modernizing of the whole system," DPP Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna said, underlining a goal of making processes faster to serve small- and large-scale development needs better. Assessing and improving existing processes was a "huge part" of this endeavor, Apuna said. The department did not have written documentation for standard operating procedures, and hired a consultant in this area. Rewriting processes helped ensure alignment across new systems. One of the greatest challenges that city officials face in modernizing permitting, Apuna said, is the people side of it. It requires a "cultural change" as staff are required to maintain their daily processing of permits while also working to develop and implement a new system: "That can be challenging, because you're asking a lot of staff." One of Honolulu's big successes was to be able to get to a point where staff could see the improvements in their workflows from modernization. It was key to involve the staff in the process, Apuna said, starting with giving them a voice in deciding which new system to select, then getting them comfortable with it. Ultimately, the goal is to improve the permitting process for new development and redevelopment, after disasters like the recent Kona-low storms. For Honolulu, Clariti's tool is one piece of the larger puzzle, Apuna said: "How can we further use AI or technology to better service the public?" The CivCheck team worked closely with city officials and did research to help identify potential bottlenecks and tailor the system to community-specific needs, Apuna said. The AI Studio is designed to help teams on both the Clariti and government sides understand and address these varying community needs, Richman said. And while some needs differ, cities have a shared goal, Apuna said: "Other jurisdictions are going through the same exact thing... everyone is upgrading their systems - looking at AI." The Clariti AI Studio is designed to support agencies interested in exploring how AI can be used in permitting and community development; local government agencies can request access to participate on Clariti's website. Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct a reference to the CivCheck Guided AI Plan Review software tool.