The phrase "AI permitting" covers a wide range, from a smarter search box to an agent that files on your behalf. It helps to be precise about the stages — because the leap from one to the next is mostly a data problem, not a model problem.
Three stages: inform, assist, execute
1. Inform
Tell the user exactly what they need: every required federal, state, and local permit for their specific project and location, the official forms, the right agencies, costs, and a critical-path schedule. This is live in EntitleHQ today — and it already removes the days of research that permitting normally costs.
2. Assist
Do the paperwork with them: pre-fill applications from project data, draft agency status-check emails and submittals, auto-track conditions of approval and deadlines, and surface the single next action. This is where the AI permitting agent stops being a reference and starts being a teammate.
3. Execute
Submit and manage on the firm's behalf: file through agency portals, respond to requests for information, and keep the project's permit status current without a human babysitting a spreadsheet. This is the destination — fully automated AEC permitting.
Why coverage is the moat
Each stage rides on the same foundation: a nationwide permit database. Not a list of permit names — the real structured data: which permits trigger for which project types, the current official application for each, the issuing agency, and the building department for the actual jurisdiction a project sits in.
EntitleHQ's library already spans all 50 states with hundreds of official forms at federal, state, and local levels, and resolves a project's address to its specific city or county authority. That depth is exactly what's hard to copy — the UI is cheap; the curated coverage underneath is months of work. As we argue in why permitting automates first, the data layer is the whole game.
Where we are
EntitleHQ is at stage one for everyone and moving into stage two: address-resolved jurisdictions, an official-forms library, an embedded assistant, and one-click agency drafts are already shipping. The roadmap from here is straightforward — keep widening coverage, keep moving work from "informed" to "done." The goal is unambiguous: the best AI permitting agent on the market, and AEC permitting that runs itself.