econdev.ai

What AI can do
for a genuinely hard
analytical problem.

Location decisions involve dozens of variables, multiple analytical frameworks, and data that typically takes a consulting team weeks to assemble. EDai is a working demonstration of what AI makes possible when applied to exactly that kind of challenge.

Built as a learning and R&D project. The models evolve. So does the thinking.

Launch the App →
analytical engines — running
Metro CODBAfter-tax operating margin · 100+ metros
IncentivesNPV estimation · state programs
Economic ImpactRIMS II Type II multiplier analysis
Fiscal Impact10-year local revenue projection
Location ScoringMin-max scalar · 147 variables
Free · No login required AI memo on completion
R&D Project

EDai is a personal learning project exploring applied AI. The analytical engines, the curated news pipeline, and the community dashboards are all experiments in what becomes possible when AI is applied to complex, multi-factorial challenges that previously required expert teams and significant resources.

What It Is

Serious analytics.
No gatekeeping.

When Amazon conducted its HQ2 search, the process exposed a stark reality: the data and analytical frameworks that inform major location decisions are largely inaccessible to most communities. Large corporations retain specialized consultants. Well-resourced states build proprietary models. Everyone else makes do.

EDai draws on the same methodologies used by leading economic development consultants — operating cost modeling, incentives forecasting, economic and fiscal impact analysis, multi-variable location scoring — and makes them available to anyone. Whether you're benchmarking your community, screening markets, or evaluating where to expand, this platform gives you a rigorous analytical starting point in minutes, not weeks.

The Platform

Three ways to get smarter
about any U.S. market

Location Intelligence Engine

Five analytical engines run in parallel across any U.S. metro. Enter your project parameters — industry, employment size, wage levels — and the platform generates a full suite of outputs culminating in an AI-written decision memo in plain English.

The same frameworks used to evaluate major facility location decisions — incentives forecasting, fiscal modeling, operating cost comparisons — now self-serve and free.

Launch the Engine →
Metro CODB
After-tax operating margin across 100+ U.S. metros for manufacturing, professional services, and distribution.
Incentives Screening
State incentive program eligibility screening and net present value estimation based on your project inputs.
Economic Impact
Direct, indirect, and induced employment and output effects using RIMS II Type II multiplier methodology.
Fiscal Impact
10-year local government revenue projection modeling the tax implications for the host community.
Location Scoring
Min-max scalar ranking across 147 variables — labor, cost, infrastructure, quality of life — weighted to your priorities.
⚠

A note on the numbers

The outputs generated by EDai are analytical estimates, not professional determinations. The models draw on publicly available data and established methodologies, but every project is different — local conditions, negotiating dynamics, and on-the-ground factors always matter.

Use these outputs as a rigorous starting point, not a final answer. For consequential decisions, engage qualified economic development professionals, legal counsel, and financial advisors.

Why Free

The asymmetry was the problem.

"The data exists. The methodologies are well-established. AI makes it possible to put both in the hands of anyone who needs them."

For most of its history, sophisticated location intelligence has been the exclusive domain of the well-resourced. Large corporations retained specialized consultants. State development offices built proprietary models. Communities without the budgets to commission detailed analyses competed at a structural disadvantage — shaping where investment flows, which communities get considered, and which ones don't.

There's no paywall. No free trial that expires. No enterprise tier. The platform is free because the point is access — and access only means something if it's unconditional.

About

Serious credentials.
Genuine curiosity.
One R&D project.

EDai grew out of a specific moment. In 2018, Virginia competed for Amazon's HQ2 — one of the largest corporate location searches in U.S. history. The process required assembling a 900-page response in six weeks, answering 607 questions across talent, real estate, tax policy, incentives, and infrastructure. What became clear was how much a community's competitiveness depended on having access to the right data and analytical frameworks. Not every community has that access. It shouldn't require a mega-deal to get it.

The platform draws on more than a decade of experience in management consulting, state economic development, and applied research — and years of building the underlying models that now power it. EDai started as a consulting venture. It's now something more interesting: a personal R&D project exploring what AI makes possible when applied to genuinely complex analytical challenges.

The analytical engines, the curated news pipeline, and the community dashboards are all experiments — built in parallel with a full-time role, driven by the same conviction that motivated the platform from the start.

Sean Brazier
Sean Brazier, PhD
Chief of Staff, Strada Education Foundation · Founder, EDai

Sean brings more than 15 years of experience across economic development, workforce, and education policy. He began his career at McKinsey & Company, led the Economic Competitiveness team at the Virginia Economic Development Partnership — including co-leading Virginia's winning HQ2 bid — and most recently served as a senior consultant at Bell Creek Consulting, advising the Gates Foundation and regional philanthropies on economic mobility strategy. He joins Strada Education Foundation as Chief of Staff in April 2026.

EDai is an independent R&D project — a working experiment in applied AI that runs alongside his day job and reflects a longstanding conviction: that the data and tools needed to make better location and economic development decisions shouldn't be locked behind expensive engagements.

Strada Education Foundation Bell Creek Consulting McKinsey & Company VEDP Harvard Business School LSE VCU Morehouse College
LinkedIn — sean-brazier-phd