RotaPlanner Update: April 2026

The April update introduces significant improvements to the AI assistant interface, enhanced scheduling validation, and refined subscription management tools. These changes aim to streamline the process of creating and managing rotas.

AI Assistant Enhancements

The AI assistant has been updated with a new interface and expanded capabilities to assist with rota management and automatic shift scheduling.

• New Sidebar Integration: The AI assistant is now accessible via a sidebar when viewing the primary rota calendar. This sidebar is fixed in place, allowing it to remain visible while scrolling through the schedule.
• Multi-turn Conversations: The assistant now supports continuous dialogue. This enables the submission of multiple questions or several change requests within a single chat session.
• Improved Formatting: Responses from the assistant now support markdown rendering, providing clearer formatting for lists and instructions.
• Knowledge Base Integration: The assistant can now reference the internal user guide to provide information regarding system features and processes.
• Entity Recognition: Improvements to entity identification allow the assistant to interact more accurately with specific locations and staff members by using refreshed identifiers.

Scheduling and Validation

Updates to the scheduling engine provide better accuracy when assigning shifts and improved visual feedback during the shift auto-population process.

• Eligibility Validation: New validation rules prevent the assistant from assigning staff to shifts for which they are ineligible. This includes automated checks for staff availability, specific location requirements, and required skill sets.
• Publishing Status: A visual loading indicator now appears when publishing shifts to confirm the action is in progress.
• Recurring Shift Visualisation: The interface for managing recurring shifts and repeat fields has been redesigned to provide a clearer view of schedule patterns.

Subscription and Billing

Refinements to the billing section provide better visibility into account status and staff data requirements.

• Billing Interface: The subscription management area in the user interface has been updated to clarify current plan details.
• Payment Status: The system now displays the current payment status directly within the billing dashboard.
• Staff Contact Details: A phone number field has been added to staff profiles. This provides the necessary infrastructure for future notification features.

System Performance and Removals

Improvements have been made to the underlying infrastructure to increase the overall speed of the application.

• API Performance: Optimisations to API handling have improved response times for data requests across the platform.
• Feature Removals: The legacy template onboarding endpoint and MCP components have been removed to streamline the application's codebase.