Once ISN is connected to an AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT, you can ask it about your inspectors' routes, ask it to suggest a plan, and send that plan to Route Builder for approval. The assistant never changes your calendar on its own: every plan waits in Route Builder until someone accepts the suggestions and applies them.
This article covers asking about routes, asking for a plan, turning on AI route plans, sending a plan for approval, and approving it in Route Builder.
Who can use it
Asking about routes and suggesting plans: an Owner or Office Admin who also has Calendar Access. This is the same access that shows Route Builder under the Inspections menu.
Applying a plan to the calendar: the same people, plus permission to edit scheduled orders (owners always have it).
Turning AI route plans on or off: an Owner only.
An assistant can only see offices its user can reach.
Ask your assistant about routes
This works as soon as ISN is connected, and it only reads information. Try questions like:
"What does Tuesday look like for the Dallas office?"
"Why can't Jane take 1234 Elm on Tuesday?"
"Which inspectors could take this order?"
"Why won't this order plan?"
"What plans were applied in Route Builder this week?"
Answers match what Route Builder shows, including its reasons (no availability that day, hours too short, already booked, zip not covered, not qualified for a service). Times are in your office's local time. If a drive time has not been calculated yet, the assistant reports it as unknown rather than zero.
Ask your assistant to suggest a plan
Ask for a plan for one day, a date range, or specific days, for example "plan next week for any orders that have no inspector", "fit these three orders into this week" or "should another inspector take the 1 PM appointment at 1234 Elm on Tuesday?" The assistant proposes an inspector and time for each order.
Up to 7 days at once. Without named orders, each day plans only the orders that have no inspector yet, and no order changes date. To have the assistant consider a booked appointment, name that order.
Booked appointments keep their time and inspector, and the assistant plans around them. Placements you saved in a day's draft are never moved.
The assistant may tell you an order is already with the best inspector at its booked time. In that case it suggests no change.
A suggestion does not touch the calendar. It is kept for 30 minutes, and the assistant needs it to send the plan on.
Step 1: Turn on AI route plans (Owner)
Sending a plan to Route Builder is off until an owner turns it on for the office.
Go to Inspections > Route Builder.
At the top of the page, choose Settings (next to Map and Timeline).
Under AI ASSISTANTS, turn on Let AI assistants submit route plans for approval.
This applies to the whole office. Anyone who is not an owner sees the switch but cannot change it.
Optional: let AI plans change a booked appointment's time. Below the first switch, Let AI plans change a booked appointment's time is off by default. With it off, an assistant can still offer to give a booked appointment to another inspector at the same time. With it on, it can also suggest a new time on the same day. A booked appointment never changes day. This switch is available only while the first one is on.
Step 2: Send a plan for approval
After you have seen a suggestion you like, tell the assistant to submit it. It puts the plan into each day's saved draft in Route Builder, and nothing reaches the calendar yet. To move a booked appointment to another inspector, name that order when you ask for the suggestion.
The assistant can only submit a plan if its connection to ISN was approved with permission to make changes. A read-only connection can answer questions and suggest plans, but it cannot submit them.
You can ask the assistant where a plan stands: still waiting, applied, or dismissed.
Step 3: Review and approve the plan in Route Builder
Go to Inspections > Route Builder and pick the day (and office, if you have more than one).
If the page asks about a saved plan, the banner reads AI plan waiting for approval for the day. Select Restore. (Select Discard to throw the plan away.)
The banner AI plan waiting for your approval shows who asked the assistant, when, how many suggestions are waiting, and any note the assistant left.
The suggestions appear on each inspector's route and in the Suggestions panel. For each one, select the green Accept or red Reject icon. Accept all and Reject all are also there.
Select Review & Apply, check the changes, and apply them.
Applying the accepted suggestions is the approval. Apply is not available while any suggestion is still undecided. A rejected suggestion leaves the order where it was; a rejected move of a booked appointment puts it back on its original inspector and time.
After you apply, a green banner, Routes applied to the day, shows how many orders were written to the calendar. It has an Undo button for 15 minutes (the banner counts down the time left) and a Plan Next Day button to carry on with the next day. You can also ask the assistant to undo an apply within that time. A short message also tells you whether reschedule notices will be sent.
Good to know
Anyone who can apply can approve, including the person who asked the assistant for the plan.
History shows who was involved. An applied AI plan appears as the approver's name, then in brackets "AI plan requested by" and the name of the person who asked.
Customers are told only after approval. A reschedule notice goes out only for approved orders whose date or time changed, about 16 minutes after you apply, using your saved reschedule email and text choices. If none of those choices are switched on, no notice is sent, and the message after you apply says so. If you undo first, no notice is sent. An inspector-only change at the same time sends no reschedule notice.
Plans can be refused. The assistant cannot submit a plan if it is more than 30 minutes old or belongs to someone else, if an order or an inspector's day changed since the suggestion, if the day is locked, if another AI plan is already waiting on that day, or if the office has not turned on AI route plans. Ask for a new suggestion.
Two people editing one day. If someone else saves the day's draft first, you see "This day's draft changed since you opened it. Reload the day to see the latest before saving." Reload the day and carry on.
Integrations that use the ISN API can read, plan, approve and reject through the same checks, but the integration that submitted a plan cannot approve it.
Troubleshooting
"This office has not turned on AI route plans." An owner needs to turn on Let AI assistants submit route plans for approval in Route Builder > Settings.
The assistant says Route Builder is limited to owners and office admins. The connected user needs Owner or Office Admin plus Calendar Access.
The assistant can suggest a plan but can't submit it. Its connection to ISN was probably approved for read access only. Disconnect it, connect it again, and allow changes on the Authorize screen. See the connection article below.
I can't find the plan the assistant sent. Open Route Builder on the day it planned. The plan is in that day's saved draft; select Restore on the banner. Another user may already have applied or discarded it.
The switch is greyed out. Only an owner can change it.
The assistant won't move a booked appointment. Name the order when asking. It may also say the appointment is already with the best inspector. A booking on a locked day, or one a scheduler placed in a draft, stays where it is.
Related articles
If you have any questions about this information, please let us know! You can reach us by chat, email at help@inspectionsupport.com, or phone at (800) 700-8112.