Query, edit, and export a plan with AI
By Nathan ColeUpdated
The assistant answers questions about a finished plan, applies edits to it, and produces the output you ask for. This page covers querying the routing plan, batch edits, problem and drift reporting, and moving the result into another system.
The assistant reads the whole routing plan: every route, every stop in driving order, arrival and departure times, loads, waits, reported problems, and the unassigned orders. A freshly optimized plan and a saved plan reopened by its link work the same way.
Querying a finished plan
Which routes finish after 16:00, and by how much?
List every stop arriving in a 15 minute window or less of its deadline.
Those are the ones that will slip if the morning runs late.
Route 3 looks light. What is its load factor and its total distance
compared to the others?
Give me the stop sequence for van 2 as a numbered list with addresses
and ETAs, ready to paste into WhatsApp.
The assistant reads the plan open in the tab and needs no export step.
Batch-edit from a sentence
Editing through the assistant uses the same engine as drag and drop in the app, including the shared undo history. Each action is one tool call that applies atomically: either the whole change takes effect or none of it does. A request like the one below runs as a series of those actions, each one its own undo entry.
Cancel orders 88431 and 88437, they called this morning. Then move the
three Molenbeek stops from route 1 to route 2, put them after the
Rue Verte stop, and re-sequence route 2 afterwards.
These are the available actions:
| Ask for | What happens |
|---|---|
| "move these stops to route 2" | The assistant re-plans the stops onto that route, at a position you name or the cheapest one |
| "take these off the routes" | They become unassigned and stay in the plan |
| "give route 4 the big truck instead" | The route keeps its stops and changes vehicle |
| "split route 1 in two" / "merge 3 into 2" | Routes split and merge |
| "add an empty route" / "delete the empty one" | The assistant creates or removes a route. Stops still on a removed route become unassigned in the same edit |
| "tidy up route 2" | The assistant re-sequences that one route |
| "undo that" | The assistant reverts the last edit |
The plan data behind the routes is editable the same way: the assistant creates or updates orders, vehicles, and depots by their id, or deletes them. A changed field, a new time window for example, applies at the next optimization, not to the routes on screen. Deleting removes the entity and everything that depends on it. The assistant in the app lists every row and waits for your confirmation. A connected assistant deletes without one. The undo history covers data edits alongside the route edits.
The assistant's undo shares one history with your manual edits in the app. A stop you dragged a minute ago is the step "undo that" reverts. Ask for a corrective edit rather than a blind undo when both of you have been working on the plan.
Problems and drift reporting
An edit that breaks a time window or overfills a van still applies, exactly like dragging the stop yourself. Routing24 scores the result and reports the problem, and the assistant relays it. Ask "what did that break" after an edit. The reports are covered in Problems and warnings, explained.
Every read and every edit includes a comparison against the last full
optimization, covering your manual edits as well as the assistant's. The
comparison has a severity. At degraded or severe the assistant
says so, leading with cost, for example "cost +2348 (+12.3%), distance +12.4%, 1 new problem vs the last
optimization", and takes no further action. Re-sequencing one route or
re-running the optimizer replaces the manual edits in its scope. The assistant does either
only when you ask, and confirms first when the plan has manual edits.
An edit from a connected assistant puts the app behind a full-screen Agent controlled overlay, which blocks manual editing until it finishes. Press Take control to take it back at any moment. The assistant in the app raises no overlay. Both write into the same edit history, so you can continue by hand exactly where either one stopped.
Getting the result out
The standard export needs no assistant: Export on the optimization page downloads the full routing plan workbook. See Export routes to Excel.
The assistant covers the other case: a specific part of the plan in a specific format.
Write me a CSV with one row per stop: route number, stop sequence,
order id, customer name, arrival time as HH:MM, and pallets. No header
row. That is what our warehouse screen imports.
The assistant in the app writes that answer into the pane. Its tools can access the plan and nothing else of yours; what a message sends to the AI providers, and to whom, is stated in Privacy and data handling.
A connected assistant reads the structured routing plan and writes into your own files, mail, and tools. That is how a finished plan is moved into a system Routing24 does not integrate with directly.
Draft one email per driver with their stop list, ETAs and the customer
notes, and the plan link at the bottom. Do not send them, let me read
them first.
Post tomorrow's route summary to the dispatch channel: driver, number
of stops, first and last ETA, total distance. One line each.
Write the finished routes into our dispatch system through its API,
one call per route, and report what it accepted.
Routing24 offers no self-serve REST API for optimization. The Optimization API is a Pro product set up with the team. See Integrations.
Ask the assistant to save the plan and give you the link. Driver-facing links are a separate feature. See Share a route with a driver.
Next step
Edit routes by hand: drag, split, merge is the same editing model, done with a mouse.
FAQ
What can I ask about a finished plan?
The assistant reads the whole routing plan: every route, every stop in driving order, arrival and departure times, loads, waits, reported problems, and the unassigned orders. Ask which routes finish after 16:00, which stops arrive close to their deadlines, or for one route's stop sequence ready to paste elsewhere.
How do edits from a sentence actually apply?
Editing through the assistant uses the same engine as drag and drop in the app, including the shared undo history. Each action is one tool call that applies atomically: either the whole change takes effect or none of it does. A larger request runs as a series of actions, each its own undo entry.
What if an edit breaks a time window or overfills a van?
The edit still applies, exactly like dragging the stop yourself. Routing24 scores the result and reports the problem, and the assistant relays it, so ask what did that break after an edit. Every read and edit also includes a comparison against the last full optimization, led by cost.
Can the assistant send routes to my other systems?
The assistant in the app writes answers into the pane; its tools can access the plan, not your files or other systems. A connected assistant reads the structured routing plan and writes into your own files, mail, and tools: one email per driver, a summary in the dispatch channel, or calls into a dispatch system's API.