The AI assistant in Routing24Copy link

The assistant works on the plan open in the current browser tab. It builds plan data, repairs addresses, sets constraints, runs the optimization, reads the routing plan back, and edits routes. This page covers where the assistant opens, everything it does, the reviews it asks for before it changes the plan, and the AI budget it spends.

Open the assistantCopy link

Press AI ASSISTANT in the header. The pane opens beside the plan under the same title. Drag the divider between the pane and the page to resize it. The pane header carries a menu icon labeled Chats and connections and a close icon. Once a conversation starts, the header shows its title and a New chat icon.

The menu lists every chat you have held about the open plan, under Chats in this plan. Select one to switch the pane to it. New chat starts an empty conversation and keeps the current one in that list. The pane has no control that deletes a chat. The menu also opens MCP server connection, which belongs to Routing24 as an MCP server.

The assistant requires a signed-in account. Sending a message without one answers "Sign up for a free account to use the AI assistant."

An empty pane opens on four example prompts, one from each of the four things the assistant does: build a plan, edit the plan data, rearrange and optimize, and explain the result. Press a prompt to send it, or press More examples for a new set. The box at the bottom takes a question or an instruction, and Enter sends it. The + button attaches up to four files of any type. A message carrying only files sends.

What the assistant doesCopy link

The assistant builds a whole plan from a single instruction: it creates the plan, geocodes the addresses, reports the ones it could not place, starts the optimization, and draws the routes on the map in the tab. See Convert any data and fix every address for a worked example.

The assistant covers the whole working cycle:

• Plan data. Imports an attached Excel or CSV file. Writes a converter for a supplier layout the importer does not accept, saves it, and re-runs it on next week's file. Creates, updates, and deletes orders, vehicles, depots, and address-book rows by their id. See Convert any data and fix every address.
• Addresses. Repairs the addresses the geocoder could not place, and the ones it placed far from the rest of the plan.
• Bulk changes. Selects rows from a plain-language description, queries the plan with SQL, and changes a field across many rows at once.
• Constraints. Turns operating rules stated in words into time windows, capacities, shifts, breaks, tags, sequences, and costs. See Describe constraints in plain language.
• Optimization. Starts an optimization, re-sequences one route on its own, and cancels a run in progress.
• The routing plan. Reads the whole routing plan back, down to one stop's arrival time. See Query, edit, and export a plan with AI.
• Route edits. Moves, unassigns, splits, merges, and re-crews routes, marks stops as placed by hand, and undoes and redoes. See Query, edit, and export a plan with AI.
• Output. Opens any page of the app, flies the map to an order, depot, or address, and downloads the Excel workbook. Saves the plan and returns its link.

The assistant reaches the plan in the tab and nothing outside the app. To draft the driver emails, post a summary to a dispatch channel, or push the routes into another system, use a connected assistant. See Routing24 as an MCP server.

Questions and reviewsCopy link

Where a request leaves a choice open, the assistant asks inside the pane. The question arrives as a set of options, a checkbox list, a yes or no, a row of buttons, or a free-text box. A free-text question also accepts a file.

A change that touches many rows at once arrives as a review. The assistant lists the rows it is about to write, before and after, and the change applies only when you confirm it. Three actions take that route:

• A field change across many rows, asked as "Apply 12 field changes to 8 sites?"
• An address repair, asked as "Fix 6 of 9 unlocated addresses?" See Convert any data and fix every address.
• A delete, which lists every entity by id before it removes it.

The optimization offerCopy link

A change to a named field applies to the plan data and stops there. The routes on screen keep the sequence the last optimization produced. The assistant starts an optimization when the request asks for one, never on its own to cover an edit.

The pane offers one instead. A turn that changed the plan closes with a row headed Optimization, reading "data changed since the last optimization", and a Re-optimize button. On a plan that has orders, vehicles, and a depot but no routes yet, the row reads "not optimized yet" and the button reads Optimize. The button runs the same optimization the Optimize button on the optimization page runs. When the plan carries manual edits, the app confirms first, because the run replaces them. Once the routes are back in sync, the row reports the finished optimization.

Below that row, the same turn reports the plan's current cost, distance, and problem count against the last full optimization. An edit that added 12 percent to the cost reports that figure in the same turn.

Revert to a point in the conversationCopy link

Every row in the transcript that changed the plan carries a Revert here link. It returns the plan to the state it held before that row, and deletes the conversation after it. The confirmation states what the revert covers, for example "Changes made after this point (3 data edits and 1 manual route re-arrangement) are undone."

Three limits apply. The confirmation states each one:

• Field edits made outside the assistant are not tracked, and they stay.
• Routes computed by optimizations run after that point are not restored. Optimize again after reverting.
• The revert cannot itself be undone.

A grayed Revert here link names its reason on hover: "Wait for the current optimization or edit to finish" while the plan is busy, or a note that the point is no longer available once the undo history has moved past it.

Where the conversation livesCopy link

Routing24 saves the conversation with the plan. Opening another plan opens that plan's conversation. Routing24 keeps the conversation with your account, so signing out puts it out of reach until you sign in again. When the same plan is open in two tabs, the tab that writes last wins, and the two conversations do not merge.

The assistant's edits and your own edits walk one undo history. See Query, edit, and export a plan with AI.

The AI budgetCopy link

Every account carries an AI budget, and every tier includes the assistant. The tier sets the budget size: Starter carries a larger one than Free, and Pro a larger one again.

The ring beside the pane title appears once the budget drops below 95 percent. Its tooltip reads "N% of your AI budget left", "Fully refilled in Xh Ym", and "Refills continuously, around the clock." The ring turns amber at half and red below a fifth. An exhausted budget stops the assistant. The pane then shows the time remaining until it refills.

An optimization the assistant starts spends the same allowance as the Optimize button. See Describe constraints in plain language.

Next stepCopy link

A connected assistant runs the same tools. It also reaches your files and your other systems. Routing24 as an MCP server covers what Routing24 hands a connected assistant, and how a call from that assistant reaches your plan.