In this session, Liselott Stenfeldt brings that human-scale tradition into the AI age: how can public-life data, behavioural insight and future scenarios enrich simulations, digital twins and planning models? Gehl explores how technology can help planners, developers and decision-makers move from hindsight to foresight – and act earlier, faster and with greater awareness of the human impact. 

The challenge is not simply to plan faster, but to make sure the models understand what makes cities worth living in.

What happens when AI meets the human scale? 

In this fireside, Angie Mendez moderates a conversation between Gehl, leading developers and city administrators on how technology can become a shared language for better urban decisions – not just a faster way to produce more plans. Better data can help us test more possibilities, understand consequences earlier and challenge assumptions that have often relied on instinct. But better models still require judgment.

Together, the panel explores where AI, public-life data, behavioural insight and local knowledge can improve decisions on land use, mobility, amenities, density and public space – and which decisions should remain grounded in experience and an understanding of how people live. The question is not whether data can make cities smarter, but whether we can use it to make planning more relevant, more precise and more human.