So it makes sense, then, that the lakeside municipality is looking to artificial intelligence, or AI, to speed up housing development.
“When you submit a digital application, it will be digitally reviewed through AI, and you’ll get a digital response saying it’s compliant. Or it’s non-compliant and here’s the errors, here’s the fixes, without sitting on a stack of paper that a plan-checker might get to after they come back from vacation and after they’ve reviewed all the ones on top of it,” said Doug Gilchrist, Kelowna’s chief administrative officer. “That’s the real home run.
“That’s a big first step,” Gilchrist says, but it’s only the first step. As the technology advances, he said, it will eventually be able to assess building applications and issue permits for compliant projects, or provide feedback and work with the applicant to address areas of non-compliance.More straightforward applications — such as building a new single detached home — could be permitted by the bot, with no human oversight, he said.