The AHJ Will Not Accept an AI Review. What Is the Tool For?
Helonic is an AI construction drawing analysis platform for architects, engineers, and contractors preparing permit submissions who ask whether the AHJ will accept an AI review. The authority having jurisdiction will not accept an applicant's AI review in place of its own plan review. That is the correct answer, and it does not make the tool pointless. AI drawing review is for the weeks before submission.
Direct answer. Helonic and similar AI drawing review tools run before permit submission, finding code and coordination problems so the set goes in cleaner and comes back with fewer comments. The AHJ still reviews the set and the design professional still signs it. Measure the tool by the resubmittal cycles it saves.
Why will the AHJ not accept it?
Because the code assigns the review to the building official. Under IBC Chapter 1, Section 107, the building official examines the construction documents or has them examined, and the documents are prepared by a registered design professional where state law requires one. An applicant's software report is neither.
Some cities now run AI tools on their own side of the counter. That is the city choosing a tool for its reviewers, and it still does not accept yours. What those pilots measured is in what city AI permit pilots measured.
What is the tool for before submission?
- Finding rule-based code problems before the plan reviewer does: egress widths, travel distance, accessible routes, rated assemblies.
- Catching coordination conflicts that generate comments, such as a rated wall on the architectural plan with an unrated penetration on the mechanical plan.
- Checking that every sheet in the index is in the set and every detail callout points somewhere.
- Giving the design team a list to clear before the stamp goes on.
Helonic's code compliance checks cover the rule-based items. A manual version of the same pass is in the pre-submittal plan review checklist.
What is it not for?
- Replacing the jurisdiction's plan review or a third-party plan review the AHJ requires.
- Certifying that a set complies with code.
- Answering plan check comments without the design professional.
- Deciding interpretive questions, such as an alternate means or a code official's past rulings.
Do not attach the tool's report to the permit application. It invites the question of who checked it and adds nothing the reviewer will rely on. Where AI code checking is reliable and where it needs a person is covered in whether AI plan review is reliable for code violations.
How should you measure it?
- Count plan check comments per submission on recent jobs without the tool.
- Run the tool on the next set before submitting and clear the kept findings.
- Compare comments on first review and the number of resubmittal cycles.
Each avoided cycle is weeks off the permit timeline. When comments do come back, close them in one round with how to respond to plan check comments. More on the approach is in the AI plan check guide. Set up the comparison as a pilot using how to pilot AI drawing review software, and weigh code coverage with the other criteria in what to look for in an AI construction drawing review platform.
Practitioner insight
“The plan checker doesn't care what software we ran, and she shouldn't. What she noticed was we got eight comments instead of thirty. That's the whole point for us.”
Conversations with permit coordinators at architecture firms submitting commercial projects to large municipal building departments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will a building department accept an AI drawing review?
What is AI drawing review for if the AHJ will not accept it?
Should you attach an AI review report to a permit application?
How do you measure AI review before permit submission?
Milind Sagaram
Co-founder & CEO, HelonicMilind is the co-founder and CEO of Helonic, where he leads product and go-to-market for AI-powered construction drawing analysis. He works closely with general contractors, project managers, estimators, and owners to understand how drawing quality drives project outcomes - and where AI can reduce RFIs, change orders, and rework. Milind has interviewed hundreds of construction professionals across project delivery roles, from preconstruction estimators at ENR top-400 contractors to facilities directors at institutional owners, and uses those conversations to shape both product direction and the way Helonic talks about the work.
- Construction project delivery and preconstruction
- RFI and change order economics
- Owner and GC workflows for drawing QA/QC
- Estimating risk and bid-stage scope assessment
Last reviewed by Milind Sagaram · October 2026