Smart government services: How Oracle AI removes friction from regulation

AI can be a lifeline for government agencies bogged down by incomplete submissions and complicated review and approval processes. But how do you get real value from AI in complex planning, permitting, and licensing journeys? With Oracle, AI is pervasive across the regulatory lifecycle—helping government agencies move faster from application to approval, while improving the experience for their constituents and staff.

The cost of standing still

Regulators face real pressure. Their legacy technology simply can't keep pace with changing regulations. Meanwhile, they serve a wide range of customers—including citizens, developers, business owners, and others—with diverse needs and varying knowledge of regulatory processes. Consequently, customers can struggle to find current, accurate information. Staff are buried in time-consuming administrative work, while leaders lack the visibility to make truly informed decisions.

The effects are easy to see, but not always easy to measure. Housing projects can stall, reducing inventory and raising costs for homebuyers. Businesses and developers may take investments elsewhere. And constituents lose confidence in the agencies meant to serve them. When technology slows government services, it strains resources and stifles economic growth. So where can agencies turn?

Using AI to work smarter

AI can help agencies accomplish more by maximizing the impact from their two most valuable resources: The people who work for them and the data they collect.

AI can expand self-service—via such features as 24/7 on-demand access to information and services—so residents can find answers and complete tasks more easily. AI can automate repetitive tasks to boost staff productivity. It can also deliver insights and analytics that help leaders make better decisions and move from being reactive to proactive.

But even when the benefits are clear, where should agencies start?

AI that’s built in, not bolted on

The idea of bolting a standalone AI tool onto your legacy system might seem attractive. However, those tools often operate with narrow functional scope, while still requiring complex integrations and management to safeguard your data. More importantly, the need to bolt AI onto your legacy software can be a warning that the software itself has failed to modernize to adopt what is arguably one of the most impactful innovations of our time.

Oracle Permitting and Licensing delivers embedded AI where work happens, automating routine tasks, accelerating approvals, and improving service across every stage of the regulatory journey.

Because Oracle Permitting and Licensing is part of Oracle’s connected suite of cloud applications, agencies can connect data across departments for virtually seamless access, greater consistency, and richer insights—all running on Oracle’s best-in-class cloud infrastructure. There’s no patchwork integration to manage, no complex frameworks to maintain, and no coding or customizations necessary. Plus, the AI automatically protects your data by referencing the same user roles and permissions as Oracle Permitting and Licensing.

Oracle’s AI capabilities are proven at scale. Oracle has delivered AI across cloud applications and infrastructure for more than 15 years and continues to invest in new AI capabilities through quarterly updates. Today, more than 5,000 customers are live with Oracle AI.

So, what does that mean for the people using Oracle Permitting and Licensing every day?

How Oracle Permitting and Licensing elevates the customer experience and agency performance

Oracle’s goal is to augment people, not replace them. That means helping staff work more effectively and helping residents navigate regulatory processes with more confidence and less friction.

Better citizen services

Oracle Permitting and Licensing provides a modern citizen experience—including an intuitive customer portal powered by AI tools that guide applicants through the regulatory journey.

For many customers, friction occurs when they are unsure where to start and how to proceed with their project. This can be because they lack an understanding of regulatory requirements, are uncertain what applications are necessary, or are unclear about the data and attachments they need. For agencies, this directly impacts their two most important performance measures: First-time application acceptance rate and plan review cycle times.

Before submitting an application, residents can use Oracle Permitting and Licensing’s Zoning Summary to validate the viability of their project. This AI-enabled tool reviews the application against agency reference materials and provides feedback to the would-be applicant in a conversational format. This helps ensure that the project is taking place in an allowable location before an application is submitted for review.

At the start of the journey, Oracle Permitting and Licensing’s Regulatory Knowledge Agent helps customers make sense of complex regulations by letting them ask questions through a conversational interface. The AI analyzes regulations, municipal code, and other agency-uploaded ordinances to generate tailored answers. This empowers customers to easily understand the required applications, data, and attachments for their project, while reducing customer service demands on agency staff.

Finally, Oracle Permitting and Licensing’s Plan Review Pre-Check can automatically validate uploaded plans and application materials against building codes and reference standards, then email applicants a pre-submittal assessment. This AI-enabled feature improves the quality of plans submitted, reducing the time agency staff must spend to review them, mitigating rework, and ultimately accelerating approvals.

High performance agencies

On the agency side, Oracle Permitting and Licensing helps agencies improve internal productivity by automating routine work, connecting cross-department data, and enabling smarter, faster decision-making—both in the office and out in the field.

In the office, communication is simplified with an AI Assist tool. Staff simply enter a prompt and AI will author a professional-sounding email by referencing transaction-specific details. Staff receive a ready-to-review message, reducing time spent searching for details and writing the message from scratch.

Another way Oracle Permitting and Licensing automates routine tasks is through an embedded AI Assignment tool. In the application details screen for planning applications, AI provides assignment recommendations based on user roles, staff workload, and the details of that particular application.

Oracle Permitting and Licensing also supports work across multiple transactions with an embedded AI agent. This agent can review reported incidents—including related transactions, repeat violations, and nearby incidents—and surface relevant patterns and details to support faster investigation and reporting.

In the field, generative AI can create detailed inspection summaries based on completed checklists, comments, results, and other factors. Oracle Permitting and Licensing evaluates the data, identifies issues, and recommends steps to resolve them. The inspector can then review and edit the summary before submission, saving the inspector time while keeping them in control.

Governments trust Oracle for AI

These are just a few ways the embedded AI in Oracle Permitting and Licensing can reduce friction, accelerate approvals, and help agencies and communities work better together. Government agencies across the US recognize AI will soon be a vital part of the way they work, and are partnering with Oracle to deliver AI as part of their regulator services. In fact, they’re already using Oracle Permitting and Licensing to unlock AI-driven innovation and modernize regulatory services.