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Ask AI – Expanded Analysis

Ask AI now draws on a broader range of stakeholder records, Tasks, Issues, Grievances, Commitments, and Documents, delivering richer, more contextual analysis without requiring users to manually piece together information from across the platform. Users can select which record types to include, tailoring the analysis to the question at hand.

Ask AI is also now available directly within Engagement Plans, making it easier to surface relevant insights where engagement work is planned and tracked, without complex filtering.

Within Documents, Ask AI uses the context of where a user is working, whether on a Stakeholder page, an Organization, or an Engagement Plan, to surface the most relevant content instantly.

No More Hunting for Documents

Access to documents has also been significantly expanded. Users working from a Stakeholder page or an Engagement Plan can now browse and query all documents attached to any related communication, without navigating away or searching manually. And since Ask AI draws on this same expanded document pool, both you and the AI now have everything in one place to find what you need, faster.

Together, these expansions reduce information silos, improve operational visibility, and enable teams to act on more complete and actionable intelligence across every stage of their stakeholder engagement work.

Key benefits

• Analyze Tasks, Issues, Grievances, Commitments, and Documents alongside Communications for richer insights
• Access Ask AI directly within Engagement Plans to find answers in context, without complex filtering
• Instantly locate documents, data, and figures using context-aware AI search
• Identify unresolved concerns, risks, and missing follow-ups faster across multiple record types
• Reduce manual research time and improve decision-making for field teams, managers, and leadership

Where to Look

• Stakeholder & Organization Pages – Access Ask AI like before, and see on the top-right the new section that lets you choose where you want to find your answer: Communications, tasks, issues, grievances, commitments, and/or documents.
• Engagement Plans – On an Engagement page, look for the new Ask AI on the left.
• Any list page - When looking at a list of Communications, Tasks, Issues, Grievances, Commitments or Documents, find the Ask AI icon on the top-right.
• Documents – On a Stakeholder or Engagement plan page, select Documents on the bottom left. A new tab showing all documents linked to communications is now available.

Email Notifications – Centralized Management & User Autonomy

With this release, Borealis transforms how email notifications are configured and experienced, giving administrators a faster path to setup while putting users in control of the communications that matter most to them.

Superusers can now configure notifications in a single step, replacing a previously complex four-step process. A standard set of notifications is available out of the box and can be activated across sites in seconds, with site-level configuration ensuring each team receives only relevant alerts. Global defaults can also be defined so new users are productive from day one.

Users can manage their own preferences directly from their profile, opting out of updates they monitor in-app while keeping the alerts that matter. Every notification email now includes a footer explaining why it was sent, with a direct link to manage preferences. Superusers retain full oversight and can reactivate critical notifications at any time.

Key benefits

• Configure a custom notification in a single step, reducing setup time significantly
• Apply site-level notification settings to ensure each team receives contextually relevant alerts
• Empower users to manage their own notification preferences directly from their profile
• Maintain administrative oversight with the ability to reactivate critical notifications for any user
• Reduce notification fatigue and improve platform engagement by delivering only relevant communications

Important notes on activation

• For all exising clients, only the existing email notifications will be activated upon release.
• All users will be able to go into their profile and opt-out of existing notifications or opt-in new standard notifications.
• Contact the Borealis Helpdesk (helpdesk@boreal-is.com) if you want to perform a complete review of your notifications processes.

Where to Look

• User Profile – Manage your personal notification preferences and opt in or out of specific alerts.
• Notification Emails – Find the new contextual footer with a direct link back to your preferences.
• Superuser Settings – Like you did before as a superuser, Navigate to Email notifications in Configuration. Creating and modifying notifications will be simple and intuitive.

Maps – Spatial Selection, Measurement Tools and UI Improvements

The Borealis map has always been a powerful way to visualize land data, now it's also a place to act on it. This release introduces new analytical and measurement capabilities while also refining the overall map experience with an improved layer control and refreshed icons.

With spatial record selection, users can draw a shape or use an existing map feature to identify all records within or near a defined area, with an optional buffer to capture nearby assets. The resulting records open directly in a list view, ready for bulk updates, assignments, engagement plan linking, or any other action. This closes the gap between geographic analysis and operational follow-through without any manual searching.

Measurement tools allow users to calculate distances and areas directly on any Borealis map in the unit system of their choice. Users can also click anywhere on the map to retrieve the exact latitude and longitude of a point, useful for field preparation, impact assessments, and data validation.

The map interface has also been refreshed: the layer control has been improved for easier navigation and visibility management across complex datasets, and map icons have been updated for greater clarity and consistency throughout the platform. By default, inactive records are now hidden from the map to keep the view clean and focused on active data, with a toggle available under each layer name to show them when needed.

Key benefits:

• Select impacted parcels, stakeholders, and records spatially, then act on them without leaving the map
• Apply buffers around drawings or existing features to capture nearby records
• Measure distances and areas directly on the map in configurable units
• Retrieve latitude and longitude for any point with a single click
• Navigate and manage map layers more easily with an improved layer control
• Benefit from refreshed map icons for a clearer, more consistent visual experience
• Keep the map focused on active data by default, with a per-layer toggle to show inactive records when needed

Where to Look

• Any Borealis Map – Access the new toolbar to activate selection mode or measurement tools, and locate the new layer control button on the bottom left.
• Selection Results – Once data is selected on the map, open selected records in list view directly from the map action bar.
• General Parameters – Set default units for distance and area measurements.

Additional Improvements

Engagement Plans – Assessment Method

Tracking social acceptability and engagement plan performance no longer requires external tools. Users can now conduct structured assessments directly within Engagement Plans, log multiple evaluations over time, and analyze results in Analytics, all without leaving Borealis.

Administrators configure assessment methods with custom evaluation axes and optional coverage periods to enforce a consistent reporting cadence across teams.

Key benefits:

• Assess and track engagement plan performance directly in Borealis, no more Excel exports
• Log repeated assessments over time and analyze results with built-in Analytics
• Standardize evaluations with configurable axes, automatic score calculation, and coverage periods

Where to Look

• Engagement Plans – A new Assessment section appears once an assessment method is active
• Settings → Assessment Methods – Configure axes, scores, and coverage periods
• Analytics – Filter and visualize results by reporting period

Stakeholder Engagement

• Stakeholders – Preferred Name Display: Preferred names are now displayed consistently in parentheses next to stakeholder names across key views such as selection fields, toast messages, and individual record headers when the field is enabled. List views remain unchanged to preserve readability, while imports and updates continue to work seamlessly with or without the preferred name displayed.
  This automatically works if you have the Preferred name field activated. As a superuser, open the Fields configuration of Individuals. 
   
• AI Insights : AI Insights now disappear after 6 weeks if no action has been performed on them, presenting you only with fresh news.
  If you are interested in getting more value out of AI Insights, contact your Account manager.
   
• Grievance Portal – Email Notification Enhancement: A new configuration option allows follow-up emails sent from the portal to include the full message content directly in the notification. When enabled, stakeholders can view updates without logging into the portal, reducing friction while maintaining security.
  Contact your Account manager if you want to add the Grievance portal to your subscription.
  Contact the Borealis Helpdesk (helpdesk@boreal-is.com) if you already have the Grievance portal and want to activate this new configuration.
   
• Communications – Create an Issue from the Outlook Add-in: A new option to create an Issue directly from the Outlook Add-in has been added, mirroring the existing workflow for complaints and commitments.
  This field is available from the Outlook add-in, by clicking on the + Add fields drop-down list.
   

Projects

• Projects – Direct Data Linking Control: A new Allow direct data linking option is now available on the Projects configuration form. When turned off, the project becomes unavailable for selection when creating or editing records such as communications, engagement plans, and tasks, making it ideal for parent or reporting-only projects that should not receive data directly. The project remains fully available as a filter in list views, Analytics, and reports, and access inheritance for child projects is unchanged.
  As a superuser, open the Fields configuration of the Projects form to make this new field available. Contact the Borealis Helpdesk (helpdesk@boreal-is.com)  if you need help setting up a parent project structure.

Land Management

• Agreements – Expiry & Payment Management Enhancements: Several improvements have been made to how agreements and payments behave around expiry dates, giving teams more control and reducing the risk of accidental data loss.

  • Agreements no longer automatically switch to Expired status or cancel linked payments when the expiry date is reached.
  • A visual warning indicator now appears on agreements that have passed their expiry date, making it easy to spot records that need attention without losing their active status.
  • A new Expiry date in the past quick filter lets users identify all active agreements whose expiry date has already passed.
  • A new Does not expire option can be enabled on an agreement to permanently hide the expiry date field for perpetual agreements.
  • Cancelled payments can now be reopened to restore them to their previous pending state, If a payment was cancelled because it was rejected during the approval process in a payment campaign, it cannot be reopened.
  • Payment due dates can now be edited directly, as long as the payment has not yet been linked to a payment campaign.

   

• Communications - Batch Update of Linked Parcels: It is now possible to bulk update parcels linked to communications via the Excel updater. A new Parcels column allows users to add, replace, or clear linked parcels efficiently, helping maintain accurate data at scale.
  There is now a new column in the Excel update template of communications. 
   
• Geometry Area in Square Meters, Hectares, and Acres: The system now provides the flexibility to display geometry areas in square meters, hectares, and acres simultaneously. All three fields are available for configuration within the Land Management and Stakeholder Engagement modules, supporting consistent reporting across international projects.
  As a superuser, open the Fields configuration of Company assets, Parcels of Land units record page to activate these fields or contact the Borealis Helpdesk (helpdesk@boreal-is.com).
   
• New section - Conditions Register: A new Conditions section has been added to the Land Management module, consolidating parcel and agreement-related conditions in one place. Users can now add, edit, or delete multiple conditions simultaneously using the new batch update action.
  The new Conditions section is accessible directly from the navigation bar on the left, in the Land Management module.

Social Investment

• Community Contributions - Rejection Emails: Users can now send professional, template-based rejection emails directly from Borealis when rejecting a community contribution, individually or in bulk. Before sending, the subject and body can be reviewed and edited. A one-time send rule prevents duplicate notifications, and the system automatically excludes records with missing email addresses during bulk processing. Every sent email is automatically logged as a read-only Communication record linked to the contribution, ensuring a complete audit trail with no extra steps.
  Contact your Account manager if you want to add the Online Contribution Request Interface to your subscription.
  Contact the Borealis Helpdesk (helpdesk@boreal-is.com) if you already have the Online Contribution Request Interface and want to activate this new configuration.

   

• Community contributions: A new Public Form field has been added to Analytics to clearly distinguish between submissions originating from different public forms. This update ensures all community contributions and issues are properly categorized, allowing for more intuitive reporting and data segmentation.
  This field is available when creating or modifying a widget based on Community contributions.

Analytics

• User Group Filter Behavior: Improved clarity and control when filtering by user groups. A new option allows users to filter strictly by the selected group (excluding members), while the existing behavior is now labeled "Group & Members" to reflect its inclusive logic.
  This option is available when adding a filter to a widget based on tasks.

Tasks

• Task Chains - Configurable Task Titles: A new option in task chains allows users to choose whether generated task titles include the related record name. Enabled by default, this helps improve task clarity while giving the flexibility to keep simpler titles for reporting or integrations.
  This new option is available when configuring steps of a task chain.

   

• Task Chains - Global Project Availability: A new option allows task chains to be made available across all current and future projects, reducing maintenance overhead and eliminating the need to manually update task chains each time a new project is added.
  This new option is available when configuring steps of a task chain.

Mobile application

• Create a Communication as an Issue: Added support in the mobile app to create a communication as an Issue directly from the communication flow, aligning the behavior with the existing "Is a grievance" option.
  This new field is available when creating a communication in the mobile app for anyone that can create Issues.
   
• Landowner Displayed When Selecting Parcels: The associated landowner is now shown when selecting parcels in a Communication record, providing better visibility and helping users identify the correct parcel more efficiently.
  This new information is visible for everybody with the Land management add-on.

Howdie: This product release article is for informational purposes only and does not modify or supersede the terms of your subscription agreement.