Improved municipal administration

Streamlining the building permit process with AI technology

The BRISE project shows how the city of Vienna improves municipal administration specifically for processing construction applications and permits. In March 2024, it was awarded a Good Practice Certificate in the "Innovation in Public Administration" category by the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA).

Construction applications and permits in Vienna are a complex and time-consuming process that often leads to frustration for both stakeholders and city employees. To streamline and improve this process, the project BRISE (Building Regulations Information for Submission Envolvement) by Cloudflight aims to bring AI (artificial intelligence) technology to the forefront.

Challenge

Transform construction permitting

The department of building regulations is responsible for reviewing submissions and ensuring they are complete and accurate. The staff makes sure that all submissions are complete, checking that all necessary documents are present, that they are in order both form- and content-wise. This manual process can be extremely time-consuming and missing documents or mistakes in the submissions lead to long backlogs. Using AI BRISE targets several use cases to support the digital submission process, improving submission quality and efficiency.

Solution

AI-powered document preprocessing and real-time text recognition

With the help of AI, BRISE offers the solution: At the beginning of the submission process, applicants upload the documents for the permit. The system then prepares the documents automatically, e.g. by increasing the font contrast, during preprocessing. On the one hand, BRISE classifies documents into pre-defined categories, thus helping to validate if all necessary files are included in the permit application.

In parallel, NER (Named-Entity Recognition) establishes connections between text and its meaning: addresses, names of people, and those of companies are recognized as such and categorized. The system then extracts key information using AI methods and suggests it as autocomplete input to the submitter. This makes the application process easier and quicker for the submitter while increasing the quality of submission for the city clerks and therewith saving them time and manual work.

In conclusion, BRISE offers a promising solution to the time-consuming and labor-intensive process of construction applications and permits in Vienna. By leveraging AI technology, the city of Vienna can streamline the submission process, reduce manual work, and improve service and usability, ultimately creating a better experience for all stakeholders involved.

Outlook

Versatile solutions for document management and processing

The AI component developed by Cloudflight is not limited to the specific use case described above but can be applied to multiple solutions. Among its uses is the digital archiving of documents by classifying them, extracting metadata, and thus streamlining the storage and retrieval process of important information. In addition, the AI component is able to process unstructured documents such as notifications, emails, letters, and requests. Companies can thus manage large amounts of information more easily and in a more targeted manner.

The system is able to recognize different languages and fonts, making it ideal for organizations with a diverse customer base and varying requirements. Even official documents such as license plates and identification documents can be captured. Overall, the AI component offers a comprehensive solution for the efficient management and processing of a wide range of documents.

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