New platform gives economic development professionals access to 20+ specialized AI team members designed to save time, reduce outside costs and help professionals focus on creating economic impact.

DALLAS, Texas — August 25, 2026 — After more than three decades of working alongside economic development organizations, Global Site Location Industries (GSLI) is preparing to unveil ECONSquad AI, a new artificial intelligence platform built specifically for economic development professionals.

GSLI Chairman and CEO Eric Kleinsorge founded the company in 1994 with a mission to help communities create jobs, attract investment and strengthen local economies. Over the years, he repeatedly saw talented economic developers spending increasing amounts of valuable time behind their desks—researching companies, completing RFPs, searching for grants, analyzing data, writing reports, developing marketing materials and tackling specialized work they were often never hired to perform.

“When I was introduced to what AI could really do, it was an epiphany,” Kleinsorge said. “I immediately thought about the thousands of hours I had watched economic developers spend doing necessary work that kept them from the work only they can do—building relationships, helping businesses, recruiting companies and creating economic impact.”

That realization led GSLI to develop ECONSquad AI, which provides access to more than 20 specialized AI team members designed around economic development functions including company research, grants, RFPs, BRE, data analysis, site analysis, marketing, meeting preparation and more.

Kleinsorge believes the bigger story isn’t AI. It’s time.
“For decades, we’ve measured economic development by jobs, investment and projects won, but rarely by one of our most valuable resources—the economic developer’s time,” he said. “AI gives us an opportunity to separate the work that requires you from the work that simply requires getting done.”

Kleinsorge calls the shift the Economic Development Use-of-Time Revolution—a movement toward using AI to reduce time-consuming work, expand the capabilities available to small economic development teams and potentially reduce dollars spent outsourcing tasks that can now be AI-assisted.

ECONSquad AI will be available for $99 per month. Its value proposition is intentionally simple: if the platform saves an economic developer even a few hours each month, it can potentially pay for itself while returning valuable time to prospect development, business visits, relationships and dealmaking.

“We didn’t build AI to replace economic developers,” Kleinsorge said. “We built it to give economic developers back to economic development.”

The philosophy builds upon Kleinsorge’s recent book, Less Work. More Impact. in Economic Development, and his belief that AI should help professionals spend less time behind their desks and more time creating measurable impact in their communities.

First Look: September 1, 2026

GSLI will officially unveil ECONSquad AI during a special VIP Launch Party on September 1, where economic development professionals will see the platform in action, meet members of the AI workforce and get a first look at what GSLI believes could represent a significant change in how the profession works.