Emerging Technologies

How AI and science-led design are transforming the built environment

Science-led design improves the built environment for people

Science-led design improves the built environment for people. Image: Unsplash/Bailey Rytenskild

Cynthia Kantor
CEO, Project and Development Services, JLL
This article is part of: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
  • Artificial intelligence (AI) AI is emerging as a driver and enabler of change across building design.
  • Science-led design, powered by AI, enables data-driven decisions, improving building performance, urban planning and human well-being.
  • AI-driven tools are reshaping the built environment, merging disciplines like neuroscience, psychology and engineering for innovative design.

As AI innovation advances rapidly, we see its influence across the built environment in expected and unexpected ways, nowhere more so than in design.

While opportunities for AI in design have, so far, been mostly focused on streamlining processes through digital tools, it has the potential to create more fundamental changes in how buildings are used and operated, and how they connect with people and wider urban systems.

From predictive building analytics and operational robotics to evolving work and infrastructure systems, AI is emerging as a driver and enabler of change across building design.

Alongside technology changes, economic uncertainty, climate change and post-pandemic shifts in urban living and work patterns have created more complexity in the built environment.

Companies are under increasing pressure to ensure their assets and real estate deliver greater efficiencies, drive value from investment, reduce environmental impact and enhance human well-being.

Many organizations are now looking towards the science-led design of spaces and places to support complex investment decisions and bring greater design certainty, with AI opportunities to accelerate the possibilities within this field.

Science-led design is an approach that brings research and data into creative processes, to enhance decision-making with greater information about how a building or place might perform or to assess its impact on people or the planet.

It uses evidence and defined targets – from building sensors, human experience data and even climate or infrastructure data – to enhance design for specific outcomes.

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Integrating advanced data

In recent years, there has been a marked increase in science-led building certifications. According to JLL research from 2023, the number of organizations signed up to the zero carbon science-based target initiative has increased fivefold since 2018.

Meanwhile, the volume of real estate currently assessed under the science-led WELL certification for healthy buildings has increased by approximately 250% since 2021, as the International WELL Building Institute indicated in 2024.

Despite the advantages of science-led design, its development has been limited by the ability to bring complex datasets from the built environment together or integrate research and data from other sectors. AI is changing this paradigm.

Machine learning, natural language processing and AI algorithms are changing how we view complexity and providing new opportunities for integrating science-led design into building development and design.

For instance, building monitoring and analytics have advanced in recent years to enhance performance for sustainability and well-being.

However, integrating new research or changes to these models – evolving work patterns, predictive maintenance scheduling, advanced manufacturing processes or even neuroscience evidence – has so far been beyond our technological capability.

AI is lifting these limitations.

At a city scale, science-led design and AI are converging in the form of digital twins, integrating multiple data sources and evidence for city planning. In Helsinki, for example, a city-wide digital twin combines a city model with infrastructure data, mobility data and research on pedestrian behaviours to inform urban mobility plans.

In the past, these analytics could be viewed independently but AI can now help us predict connections and interdependencies in these systems.

As the design and construction of places and spaces become increasingly complex, we see the convergence of AI maturity and science-led design as an enabler of positive change and innovation.

Cynthia Kantor, CEO, Project and Development Services, JLL

Psychological and neurological approaches

At a building level, emerging fields of neuro-architecture bring research from neuroscience and psychology to the design of buildings, providing a greater understanding of the success factors of productive and healthy spaces.

For instance, a recent study between IBM and Earlham Institute used AI to gain deeper insights into human circadian rhythms, with possible applications in lighting design in buildings.

In addition, designing high-performance workplaces for creative and complex work could be enhanced by AI-led insights from neuroscience or cognitive psychology on optimum working environments.

Preparing for a future with AI opens exciting opportunities in how we think about building requirements and the evolution of design.

While some may feel apprehension about AI’s role in the built environment, combining AI with science-led design creates opportunities to embrace complexity that was not possible before and embark on a more creative and innovative future in design.

AI will change our expectations from the built environment. Future design teams may include computer programmers or AI technologists who can facilitate deeper collaboration between disciplines such as biomedical or psychology and building engineers and designers.

As the design and construction of places and spaces become increasingly complex, we see the convergence of AI maturity and science-led design as an enabler of positive change and innovation. They enhance the development of thriving spaces for people and the planet.

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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