Leandry Jieutsa, PhD candidate at the UNESCO Chair in Urban Landscape, has published an article in the Revue québécoise d’urbanisme on the rise of artificial intelligence systems in municipalities. The piece, “Les systèmes d’intelligence artificielle en urbanisme et dans les municipalités au Québec,” connects directly to his doctoral research, which examines the actor dynamics, organizational shifts and governance mechanisms shaping the AI innovation ecosystem of Quebec municipalities.
The article offers a clear overview of the main families of AI systems used in urban planning (machine learning, deep learning, generative AI and hybrid systems) and grounds them in concrete cases already deployed across Quebec, from land mapping in Rimouski to municipal chatbots in Laval and infrastructure management in Trois-Rivières. It shows how this still-modest but fast-growing shift is already reshaping the work of urban planners.
Beyond the applications, Leandry calls on municipalities to take a more active role in governing these technologies, with an emphasis on transparency, citizen inclusion and critical reflection on the risks involved. This line of thinking connects closely with the Chair’s own work on artificial intelligence in cities and adds to the collective conversation the Chair aims to advance around responsible urban AI.
Full article (in French): Revue québécoise d’urbanisme, September 2026