Josh Decker, director of design at McAdams, on how AI is quietly reshaping the way cities are designed and built
When ChatGPT launched in 2022, generative AI felt like a distant concept for our industry. Four years later, AI tools are no longer experimental novelties; they are becoming embedded across project lifecycles, from early visioning to design and quality control.
As AI adoption accelerates and new tools are increasingly available, the firms seeing the most durable value are those that approach each opportunity with intentionality and a focus on long-term sustainability. At McAdams, we view AI as a strategic capability rather than a replacement for human expertise, believing that AI delivers its greatest benefit when paired with robust governance, human judgment and a clear understanding of where technology adds value.
We have found clear value in four areas of our practice.
- Code and regulation review: We leverage AI tools to pull together key metrics and guidelines at the start of a project. Our teams still confirm the details, but we start from a much better place than we used to.
- Early option generation: Using generative image tools speeds up how quickly we vet concepts with clients. What used to take us weeks of back-and-forth now takes minutes. Clients see the process working, and our relationships grow because of it.
- Stakeholder and community engagement: Digital platforms help us share information, gather input and shape design alternatives alongside community members and governing agencies. Transparency improves, participation widens, and everyone becomes an active contributor.
- Theming, branding and placemaking: AI has helped expand our creative range as we work through open space strategies, connectivity and sense of place. It gives us more to react to, earlier in the process.
Turn stakeholders into collaborators
In early project stages, McAdams has seen AI-enabled tools transform the way teams engage with clients, communities and governing agencies. Visioning conversations that once required time-consuming manual synthesis can now be captured, analysed and translated into early design ideas with remarkable speed. This shift turns stakeholders into active collaborators, broadens participation and creates a more comprehensive, inclusive process.
As projects move from visioning to concept development, AI-generated imagery and option testing accelerate client feedback loops. Design variations can be explored and refined in minutes rather than weeks, allowing teams and clients to align more closely on viable ideas and creating clarity as critical decisions are made based on highly curated options.
Keeping a human in the loop
Despite its capabilities, AI is not a substitute for professional judgment, and overreliance on it can pose risks during the design, development and construction drawing phases of plan development. Design decisions require contextual understanding, jurisdictional knowledge and accountability to clients and communities. A “human in the loop” approach is essential to preventing AI-created “sameness”, ensuring authenticity, protecting quality and preserving the placemaking efforts.
One of the most important lessons emerging for our industry is that organisational structure often determines outcomes, and treating AI as a side project or informal committee limits impact and long-term viability. In 2024, McAdams formalised ownership of AI and other continuous improvement initiatives by creating a Business Innovation team.
In partnership with IT and operational leadership, McAdams’ Business Innovation team undertakes the challenge of vetting commercially available AI tools, developing custom AI solutions and integrating both into our daily practice.
This collaborative process allows us to put ethical and privacy guardrails in place, while also ensuring that AI tools are aligned with business needs, our quality standards, client expectations and our long-term technology roadmap.
For planners, designers and engineers, AI is reshaping the future. Professionals are increasingly acting as both curators and creators, using AI to access more information and explore more options, while applying experience and judgment to determine what truly serves our clients and communities.
The firms leading the next decade of AEC work will not be the ones who moved fastest on AI. They will be the ones who built internal discipline around it before the market demanded it. That means a named owner, clear protocols, measurable outcomes and the willingness to say no to tools that do not meet the standard.
It will be those who embed AI into construction thoughtfully, maintain human accountability and focus on technology that amplifies, not diminishes, our profession.
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