Describing AI assistance in a fee proposal to a client

Say in the fee proposal what the client is paying you for, and say where the drafting sits inside it. An ai assistance fee proposal that hides the method invites the awkward question later. One that describes it plainly, alongside the review you carry out and the parts that stay excluded, usually ends the conversation in a sentence.

Clients are not troubled by the method. They are troubled by not knowing who is responsible for what.

Why the wording earns its place

Three audiences read a fee proposal. The client, who wants to know the price and the deliverable. The client's lender or funder, who may ask who prepared the supporting documents. And, later, a case officer or an inspector, if the document's provenance ever comes up at a hearing.

A sentence that covers the method protects all three readings. It also protects you, because a proposal that is silent on the point can be read as implying that every word was drafted from scratch by the named author.

What to say about the process

Keep it factual and short. Describe the sequence rather than the technology.

A workable form of words: the supporting statements are prepared using structured drafting tools against the adopted development plan and national policy, then checked, edited and completed by this practice using the site information, the survey data and our own professional judgement on the matters that require it.

That tells the client three things. The structure comes from a tool. The site specific content comes from evidence. The judgement comes from a person whose name is on the document.

Avoid two temptations. Do not overclaim by describing the tool as doing policy analysis it cannot do. And do not undersell by calling it a template, because a client who later sees a cited policy and a flagged assumption will wonder what else you were vague about.

What to say about review and sign-off

This is the part clients read twice. Be specific about who does what.

• the named person in your practice who reviews and issues the document
• the scope of that review, for example policy coverage, factual accuracy against the drawings and the site survey, and internal consistency
• where an external specialist is required by law or by the council, and that their report is a separate commission

Where the project needs a report that a licensed or competent professional must prepare, say so in the proposal rather than in a later variation. A Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment under the Environment Act 2021 regime expects the statutory metric to be completed by a competent person, with the biodiversity gain plan approved by the local planning authority. A Protected Species Survey needs a suitably licensed ecologist under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017. An Environmental Statement must be prepared by competent experts under the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017. An AI-assisted draft of any of these is a starting point for that professional, never a substitute.

PlanScope's own professional directory exists for that step, and you can send a draft for review and sign-off through it. See the professional directory for how the review and sign-off route works.

Scope, exclusions and assumptions

The exclusions list is where disputes are prevented. For a planning submission supported by drafted statements, the usual exclusions are:

1. Measured survey, topographical survey and any site investigation.
2. Specialist reports requiring a licensed or competent author.
3. Validation of the council's local list requirements after submission, unless separately instructed.
4. Negotiation of conditions and obligations after a resolution to grant.
5. Appeal work.

Assumptions matter as much. State that the statements rely on the drawings and site data supplied at a stated revision, and that material changes to either will need the documents revisiting. Drafts flag missing facts with a marker rather than inventing them, which is a safeguard rather than a defect, and the proposal should say that those markers get resolved before submission.

A worked proposal paragraph

Illustrative wording for the scope of services section of a fee proposal:

"We will prepare the Planning Statement and Design and Access Statement for the application. These documents are drafted with structured AI-assisted tools against the adopted local plan and the National Planning Policy Framework, then reviewed, edited and issued by [the named planner], who takes responsibility for the content. Site specific inputs come from your survey and from our site visit. Where the council requires a report that must be prepared by a licensed or competent professional, we will identify it and obtain a fee for that separate commission. Reports should be reviewed before submission and we do not guarantee planning approval."

Adapt it to your practice. The elements to keep are the method, the named reviewer, the source of site facts, the carve-out for specialist authors and the honest statement about outcome.

Pricing the review rather than the draft

Here is the commercial consequence most practices work out late. Once drafting time falls, the fee cannot sensibly be built on the hours spent typing. Price the judgement.

Three approaches that hold up:

• a fixed fee per document, with the review and issue explicitly included
• a fixed fee for the submission pack, with a schedule of what is in it
• a time charge for the policy and negotiation work, with documents at fixed prices

Clients compare your fee against the cost of doing it another way, so it helps to be open about the tooling cost. PlanScope's published prices are one free report, £50 per report on Pay Per Report, and £150 per month or £600 per year on Professional, which removes branding and adds your own logo. See PlanScope pricing for what each tier includes. Quoting that alongside your own fee makes the value of the review visible rather than hidden, which is usually the stronger position.

Do not discount the review. It is the part that carries your professional indemnity exposure.

The questions clients ask

Four come up again and again, and short answers work better than long ones.

Who is responsible if the document is wrong. You are, as the issuing practice, in the same way as for any document you sign.

Will the council know. The council assesses the content against policy and does not ask how a statement was typed. Content that is accurate, cited and specific to the site reads as competent regardless of method.

Does this mean I do not need surveys. No. A draft cannot measure a site, count traffic or identify a bat roost.

Can the fee come down if a tool did the drafting. Sometimes, which is why the fixed fee per document approach is cleaner than an hourly rate.

Our note on explaining an AI-assisted draft to a client or a committee covers the verbal version of this conversation, and the limits of what a draft can establish about a site are set out in our piece on where site judgement cannot be drafted.

PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.