With a Little Help From AI: Pros and Cons of AI in Urban Planning and Participation

Exploring the phenomenon of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in urban planning and governance, this article reviews most current smart city developments and outlines the future potential of AI, especially in the context of participatory urban design. It concludes that especially the algorithmic analysis and synthesis of large data sets generated by massive user participation projects present a beneficial field of application that enables better design decision making, project validation, and evaluation.