Overview

AI is woven throughout Forerunner to help you work faster, reduce manual data entry, and streamline complex workflows. On the web, Ask Forerunner answers questions about your account and fills out records. In the mobile app, the AI Assistant fills out records from your voice, photos, or a live session in the field.

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What is AI in Forerunner?

AI in Forerunner refers to a set of intelligent capabilities that automate repetitive tasks, extract information from documents, and assist you in completing your work. These features are designed to save time while maintaining accuracy.

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Where you’ll find AI

AI capabilities appear across the platform, integrated into the tools you already use:

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Anywhere on the web app

Click Ask Forerunner in the top right of any page to open the Global AI Assistant. It answers questions about your records, properties, files, and tasks, and from the documents in your AI knowledge. Your conversations are saved so you can pick one back up later.

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Records

With a record open on the web, ask the Global AI Assistant to fill in fields from your description or a photo. On mobile, tap Talk to fill out record to describe what you see, or record audio and transcribe or upload photos, and the AI Assistant fills out fields. See Talk to fill out record. AI action fields can also populate automatically based on configured prompts. See AI Fields.

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Files

When you upload Elevation Certificates, AI can extract key data points and populate fields automatically. You can also configure AI-generated error summaries to include when sending ECs.

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Record setup

When configuring record types, the AI Assistant can help you set up fields, validation rules, and form structure. AI also powers conditional logic, enabling smarter forms that adapt based on user input. See AI Assistant for record setup.

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Mobile app

The AI Assistant on mobile lets you record audio and transcribe, or upload photos, so it can fill out fields for you. Complete records faster while you’re in the field without needing to type. See AI Assistant on mobile, or tap Talk & show camera to talk while it sees your camera. To fill out a record just by talking, tap Talk to fill out record.

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Common use cases

AI in Forerunner supports a variety of workflows: Field inspections — Tap Talk to fill out record to describe what you see and have the AI Assistant fill out the inspection, or Talk & show camera to talk it through with your camera on. Upload photos and the AI Assistant fills out fields accordingly. Elevation Certificate processing — Automatically extract data from uploaded ECs, reducing manual data entry and ensuring accuracy. Generate error summaries when certificates have issues. Form configuration — Get AI assistance when building complex record types, including help with conditional logic and field setup. Data collection — Configure AI action fields that generate values based on prompts, automating calculations or summaries within your records.

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Keeping AI accurate

A common question is how Forerunner prevents AI from “hallucinating”—producing information that sounds plausible but isn’t true. We address this at the design level, not just with instructions to the AI. Several measures work together: Grounded in your own information. Forerunner’s AI works from your account’s records, documents, and form structure—not from general knowledge on the open internet. When you ask about your data, the assistant looks up the actual values in your account and reports what it finds rather than recalling figures from memory. Your documents are the source of truth. You can provide the documents that govern your community—such as ordinances, permitting procedures, and floodplain guidance—and the AI Assistant references them directly, treating them as the authoritative source and preferring their guidance over general knowledge. You control these materials and can update them at any time. Suggestions are validated before they’re applied. When the assistant proposes values for a record, each value is checked against your form’s rules before anything is saved. Values that don’t fit a field are rejected automatically, so the AI can’t enter malformed or invalid data into your records. No fabricated regulatory details. The AI is instructed never to invent regulatory citations, statute numbers, or jurisdiction-specific rules, and to direct you to your authoritative source when it isn’t certain. You review every change, and access is scoped to you. AI suggestions never take effect on their own—you review and accept, modify, or discard each one. Every AI action runs under your own login and permissions and is limited to your account’s data, so the AI can only see and act on what you can.

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AI policies and data use

We protect your data and keep AI safe and transparent. You’re always in control: AI suggests, you review and decide—and you can change any suggestion before it’s used. Here are the measures we take. Your data is not used to train AI. Under our AI provider’s enterprise terms, your data is processed for your requests only and is not retained for model training. Where data lives and who can access it. Data used for AI (e.g. form input, uploaded documents) is stored in AWS US-East-1 with encryption at rest and in transit, isolated by account. Only authorized users in your account and qualified Forerunner personnel can access it. Data is sent to Google’s Gemini API only for processing when you use AI features. AI is an assistant, not a decision-maker. Every AI suggestion requires your review and an explicit action before it takes effect. AI cannot submit forms, approve applications, or change data on its own. All such actions are logged. Safety and reliability. System prompts are defined on our servers and can’t be changed by users. We use content filtering, input validation, and rate limiting. AI requests and errors are logged; the system fails gracefully so you can complete work manually if AI is unavailable. For full details on encryption, access control, and compliance, see Data security and privacy.

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Getting started with AI

AI features are available throughout Forerunner. Here’s how to start using them:

1. Ask Forerunner a question — Click Ask Forerunner in the top right of any page and ask about your account’s data
2. Fill out a record with it — Open a record, describe what you observed, and review the fields it fills in
3. Upload an Elevation Certificate — See how AI extracts data automatically from your uploaded documents
4. Explore the mobile app — Try Talk to fill out record, or record audio and transcribe or upload photos, for faster field data collection
5. Configure AI action fields — Work with your Customer Success Manager to set up fields that generate values automatically