Cities of Things

When AI takes to the streets, who designs it?

AI is leaving the screen and entering the room. Buildings that learn how their residents move. Delivery carts that know the neighborhood. Energy systems that coordinate across a city block without being asked. Mesh networks where devices reason locally and act collectively. Physical AI adds situational awareness as the final crucial component to complete the digital transition.  

This creates entirely new design possibilities. Products that combine intelligence with location. Services that adapt over time through genuine relationships with people. Environments where the interplay between human and thing becomes the core experience. The organizations that learn to design for these possibilities first will define the categories that follow.

This is the domain of immersive AI; the condition of living and working inside intelligence, rather than visiting it on a screen, or even addressing it via a voice command. This reality offers new affordances for designing products and services.

Our exploratory research taught us what is relevant and what considerations are important for design and policymaking.

19 October: Three parts to visit.

On Monday 19 October, Cities of Things presents the Manifesto Designing with Immersive AI 2026: the result of 7 years of research and 31 interviews with designers, researchers, and policymakers.

We are guests at the Common Ground program of MAD Lab at Stadslab Eindhoven (NRE site), with an afternoon that you can experience in parts:

13:00–14:00 — Lunch & presentation
Iskander Smit shares the key findings of the manifesto, with a few interviewed experts who add their perspective. Free admission, free lunch.

14:00–16:00 — Design and prototyping workshop
Get started with the speculative design canvas: design an object for an immersive AI future and build it life-size with the Wijkbotkit. Limited spots — for those who want to design themselves, not just look.

16:00–17:30 — Presentation & drinks
The workshop results are shared, moderated by Monique van Dusseldorp, with discussants reflecting on what neighborhood bots mean for a neighborhood.

The bots will remain in place for the rest of the week as part of the Common Ground exhibition.

For creative professionals who want to work with — or on — urban robotics and physical AI. This Powered by CLICKNL event is open to the public.