'TrendsAI': Effortless Community Engagement Analysis

The UK planning industry is ready

Last month, I attended the Digital Planning Winter School with Peter Madden OBE of Cardiff University and the RTPI. For two days, we explored the exciting landscape of digital planning, with one topic dominating the conversation: AI for planning, powered by large language models. The message was clear: "get ready, the future is here".

Early adoption and understanding the efficiency gains were crucial themes. However, a significant hurdle emerged: building these powerful models requires vast amounts of sentiment data. On day two, I proudly presented Commonplace, unveiling the groundbreaking work we've done to create our very own AI solution for engagement analysis, tackling this data challenge head-on. Being one of the longest standing solutions for digital engagement, we are positioned to able to offer bespoke AI tools.

This event wasn't just about technology; it was about harnessing its power to shape the future of planning. The energy was palpable, and it's clear that the integration of AI is no longer a question of "if" but "when." Commonplace stands at the forefront of this revolution, ready to empower planners and engagement managers with deeper insights and more informed decision-making, allowing them to spend more time planning rather than deciphering and analysing data!

Built by our in-house data scientists using 3 million data points

Commonplace has engaged on over 2600 projects spanning a hug variety of themes. We have fed this engagement data into a large language model and trained it for three years, with 10 years of real engagement data with over 3m data points to become the most accurate AI solution for design and planning with unmatched accuracy and specificity.

Effortless and unlimiting engagement analysis

Commonplace is making engagement unlimiting...

TrendsAi intelligently tags comments and auto-summarizes topics, giving you instant insights into what matters most. You can also now perform keyword searches to dive into contributions.

ChatGPT on steroids? That's right. Our in-house data scientists and analysts have developed a custom-trained version that generates compelling topic summaries, saving you even more time - giving you the highest levels of accuracy. (90%) Even if you plumbed your data into ChatGPT manually - you would not get the same accuracy.

Gone are the days of manually sifting through mountains of surveys, emails, and forum posts. Commonplace now harnesses the power of AI to analyze your engagement data instantly giving you the deepest insights into what matters most to your audience, and helping you to unearth hidden gems and insights you might have otherwise missed.

Commonplace empowers you to focus on what truly matters: planning meaningful communities, not drowning in data.

Benefits

• Hundreds of hours saved analysing contributions (DLUHC estimates that ￡19k is spent analysing local plans!)
• No need for external contractors - faster, more efficient, taking control of data inhouse. (Approx ￡3k saved not outsourcing contractor per project)
• Letting engagers engage! Allowing employees to do the jobs they have been hired to do - and reduce human error
• Upskill and make your employees happier - tedious jobs get boring. Fun, immersive and engaging tools help to keep staff around for longer
• Capture hidden gems of ideas from local people - give them more flexibility to answer surveys with free text - for better, less limiting insights - ask open questions about their thoughts, feelings, wants on particular subjects.
• Robust reporting and useful for preparing research docs - don't just analyse the data, USE the data to your advantage to prepare research or reports. Compelling auto-generated topic summaries provided for ease
• Engage on multiple topics simultaneously - harness data to help make informed decisions across multiple departments without getting over-loaded.
• Mitigate bias - ensure your engagements are objective (facts) rather than subjective (feelings)
• Built into our existing real-time dashboards - so that clients can easily navigate and analyse
• Compatible with Commonplace voicenotes (transcriptions) - allow users to use their voices to share ideas and feedback to easily analyse
• Most importantly - save money!

Five models available!

There are currently 5 TrendsAI domain models available on Commonplace.

1. Active travel
2. Housing / Regeneration / Public realm
3. Post-occupancy / Quality of life
4. Climate
5. Local plan

Sentiment data is crucial for developing robust NLP and AI solutions as it provides insights into human emotions, opinions, and reactions. This information is valuable across various domains, helping businesses and organisations make data-driven decisions, enhance user experiences, and respond effectively to changing sentiment.

ITrendsAI powered by Commonplace isn't just another AI tool; it's a transformative force for the UK planning industry. By automating tedious tasks, providing deeper insights, and empowering community engagement, it allows planners and engagement managers to focus on what they do best: creating thriving and inclusive communities for all.

Why easy data analysis is critical to planning

Easy data analysis is vital in planning engagement data, enabling timely decisions, responsive planning, and efficient resource allocation. Quick analysis of engagement data empowers planners to adapt to changing community needs, identify trends, and allocate resources effectively. The accessibility of easy data tools fosters community involvement, transparency, and shared responsibility. These tools also aid in identifying stakeholder priorities, benchmarking, and effective communication. Evidence-based decision-making, early risk identification, and streamlined collaboration among multidisciplinary teams are further benefits, ensuring urban planning initiatives align with the dynamic requirements of communities.

The future of AI for engagement

The future of digital community engagement will be characterized by AI-driven advancements that enhance real-time responsiveness, provide personalised experiences, ensure safety, and promote inclusivity. As organisations harness the power of AI technologies, they will be better equipped to build and sustain thriving, dynamic communities that adapt to evolving needs and preferences. Get in touch to see how you can make your engagement activities more effortless.

Already a customer? Get in touch with your CS manager

New to Commonplace? Book a chat with us:

[email protected]

+44(0) 7853637179