AI for surveyors and planners · Sydney

AI for surveyors and town planners: less retyping, faster lodgements

In most surveying and planning firms the expertise is in reading the site and the controls, and the hours go on writing it all down again. Statements of environmental effects built from the last one, council requests answered from scratch, quotes chased, jobs tracked in a spreadsheet. I help firms turning over one to ten million take that load off, one small step at a time, using the systems you already run.

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Where a surveying or planning firm’s week actually goes

Follow a residential DA through a planning firm and most of the work is assembly. The site, the LEP and DCP controls, the survey, the architect’s drawings and the client’s brief all have to be pulled into a statement of environmental effects that reads like the forty before it, then lodged through the NSW Planning Portal, then defended when council comes back with a request for information. A surveying office runs the same pattern with quotes, field data, plans and certificates.

None of it is hard. All of it is constant, and it lands on the planners and registered surveyors whose judgement is what clients pay for. That is the kind of work AI is now good at: reading the controls and the documents, drafting in your structure and your wording, comparing against what you have written before, and putting a short list in front of a person to check.

This is not about a new platform. You keep your survey software, your job system or spreadsheet, Xero, the Planning Portal and your shared drive. The job is to connect AI to what you already run, so the paperwork is drafted for you and your people review it instead of writing it.

What I’d take off your plate first

Usually survey and CAD software in the field office, a job system or spreadsheet for jobs, the NSW Planning Portal and council portals for lodgement, Xero or MYOB for money, and Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for everything else. I connect AI to those, rather than asking you to replace them.

Statements of environmental effects

A first draft SEE in your structure, built from the site details, the relevant controls, the drawings and your own past reports for similar proposals. The planner argues the case instead of retyping the boilerplate.

Council RFIs, answered faster

A request for information read, each item listed against the drawings and reports, and a draft response with the missing documents named, so nothing sits in an inbox while the clock runs.

Lodgement packs

Before a DA or CDC goes to the Planning Portal, the documents checked against the checklist for that application type, with gaps and inconsistencies between reports flagged for a person to fix.

Fee quotes from enquiries

An enquiry email read, the job type and site identified, and a quote drafted from your fee schedule and comparable past jobs, ready for someone to check and send the same day.

Job tracking and client updates

Where each job sits, from field work to lodgement to determination, written up from email and the job list, with a short weekly update to each client that sounds like you.

Invoicing and disbursements

Stage invoices drafted for Xero or MYOB when a milestone is reached, and council fees, searches and sub-consultant bills matched to the job and passed on without anyone hunting for receipts.

And the admin every office has

The same work turns up in every surveying or planning firm: email, spreadsheets, documents, and a Microsoft or Google setup that grew without a plan.

Invoicing and accounts payable

Supplier bills read, coded and matched to the order or the job before they reach Xero or MYOB. Mismatches drafted into an email for someone to approve. Overdue invoices chased politely, on a schedule.

Email that answers itself, nearly

The inbox triaged each morning, routine replies drafted in your tone, attachments filed to the right folder, and a short list of what actually needs you today.

Spreadsheets you stop rebuilding

The weekly report that someone copies and pastes together every Monday, produced before you arrive, with a sentence on why the number moved.

Documents and slides

Proposals, letters, reports and board slides drafted from your own templates and your own past work, so the first draft is eighty per cent there rather than a blank page.

Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, set up properly

Shared drives that make sense, permissions that match who you are now, and AI connected to mail, calendar and files the same way for everyone instead of five people doing it five ways.

Project and job tracking

Status updates written from what actually happened in email and the job system, tasks pulled out of meeting notes, and a morning brief per person of what is due.

How it works: audit, roadmap, implementation, training, support

Sold one step at a time. Each step is quoted before it starts, stands on its own, and you decide after each one whether to take the next. Most businesses your size go from the audit to a working, trained setup in three to six months.

  1. Audit

    Two weeks, fixed price. A map of every system you run, a ten-minute staff survey, a few five-minute screen recordings of the work that eats the week, and short conversations with the people who run the business. It costs your team minutes, not hours.

  2. Roadmap

    A ninety-day plan written from what the audit found: which processes first, ranked by admin removed against cost and risk, which AI plan and accounts your team should be on, and a two-page policy on what may go in. Every item has its own price.

  3. Implementation

    I build the first one or two automations inside your own Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, connected to the systems you already run. AI drafts, a person approves anything that leaves the building, and it runs beside the manual way until you trust it.

  4. Training

    Your team learns on their own work, not on demos. One standard setup for everyone, a short session per group, and one-to-one time with the two or three people who will carry it once I step back.

  5. Support

    A light monthly retainer: one call, a one-page summary, fixes, and the next routine your team worked out promoted into something the business runs. I read the AI news so your people do not have to.

Use AI without handing over your clients’ data

A planning or surveying firm’s files hold clients’ property details, plans for developments that are not yet public, neighbour and objector correspondence, and your own fee history. Some of that is commercially sensitive for months before it is lodged. None of it needs to leave your own accounts for AI to be useful.

The work happens inside your Microsoft or Google tenant on a business AI plan, with a company account for every person who uses it. Nothing goes into a free chatbot, and nothing is lodged, sent to council or sent to a client until a person has read it and said yes.

The basics, every time

  • Company accounts on a business AI plan, never personal logins. Business plans do not train on your data.
  • AI connected to your own Microsoft or Google tenant, so files stay where they already live and access is revoked in one place.
  • A two-page policy your team can actually remember: which accounts, what may go in, what never does.
  • Everything I build lives in your accounts and is logged. I work from a staff login, not the master key.

Where most start

A typical first project: the first draft of every SEE

In a planning firm the quick win is usually the statement of environmental effects. Site details, controls and drawings go in, and a draft in your structure comes out, built from your own past reports. It runs beside the usual way for a few jobs until the planners trust it. From there, council RFI responses and same-day fee quotes are usually next.

Where I work

Based in the Sutherland Shire. In person across these areas, remote everywhere else in Australia.

Sutherland Shire

Cronulla, Miranda, Caringbah, Sutherland, Gymea and around.

Southern Highlands

Bowral, Mittagong, Moss Vale, Exeter, Robertson and around.

St George

Hurstville, Kogarah, Rockdale, Sans Souci, Bexley and around.

Eastern Suburbs

Bondi Junction, Double Bay, Paddington, Woollahra, Randwick and around.

Frequently asked questions

Will AI get the planning controls right?

It drafts from the controls you point it at and shows where each statement came from, so a planner can check it quickly. It does not replace a planner’s reading of the site or the merits. Every report is reviewed before it is lodged.

Can it lodge on the Planning Portal for us?

I would not have it lodge on its own. It can prepare and check the pack so lodging takes minutes. The act of lodging, and anything else that goes to council, stays with a person.

We are surveyors, not planners. Does this still fit?

Yes. The pattern is the same: quotes from enquiries, job tracking, plans and reports drafted in your format, and invoicing. The field work and the registered surveyor’s sign-off stay exactly where they are.

Is this worth it for a firm our size?

If your senior people are writing reports at night and quotes wait days to go out, usually yes. The audit will tell you honestly, and if better templates would do, I will say so.

How much of my team’s time does this take?

Minutes, by design. Ten for the survey, ten for an optional screen recording, an hour with the key people. Whoever runs operations spends two or three hours across the first fortnight.

Do we have to commit to the whole thing?

No. Every step is quoted on its own and you decide after each one. Plenty of businesses take the audit and one project, and stop there until they see it working.

Are you tied to a particular AI vendor?

No. I lead with Claude because I think it is the strongest all-rounder for business work today, and I work just as happily with Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT or Gemini if that is what your team already uses. Everything is built so the model is one part you can swap.

Related industries

AI for architects

Fee proposals, meeting minutes, consultant coordination and timesheets, so the design hours go on design.

AI for engineers

Fee proposals, inspection reports, certification letters and timesheets, without the engineers writing them at night.

AI for builders

Variations, progress claims, subbie compliance and tenders, without the builder doing the paperwork at 9pm.

Every industry

All twenty, in one place.

Running a surveying or planning firm and doing the admin at night?

Tell me what you run, how many people, and what eats the most time. I will tell you honestly whether an audit is worth it.

Tell me about your business

Tell me what you're dealing with

Three lines is plenty. I reply personally, usually within a day, and the first call is free.