# DesignIntelligence / Design Futures Council > DesignIntelligence (di.net) publishes research, articles, podcasts, and video from the Design Futures Council (DFC) on the future of the design and construction industry, covering AI adoption, leadership, and firm strategy for architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals. ## Hub Pages - [Design Futures Council](https://www.di.net/dfc/): Landing hub for all DFC editorial content. - [Insight & Foresight](https://www.di.net/dfc/foresight/): Cornerstone aggregation of articles, podcasts, and video. - [Articles](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/): Full articles archive. - [Convenings](https://www.di.net/dfc/convenings/): Events and conferences archive. - [Podcasts](https://www.di.net/dfc/podcasts/): Podcast episode archive. - [Videos](https://www.di.net/dfc/videos/): Video archive. - [AI Readiness Pulse](https://www.di.net/dfc/research/ai-readiness/): Six-question survey of AI readiness in architecture, engineering and design firms, across six dimensions and five maturity stages. - [AI Readiness Pulse Findings](https://www.di.net/dfc/research/ai-readiness/report/): Aggregate findings from the AI Readiness Pulse. - [People](https://www.di.net/people/): Directory of DFC fellows and contributing experts. - [News](https://www.di.net/news/): DesignIntelligence news. ## Topics - [Leadership](https://www.di.net/dfc/category/leadership/) - [Trends](https://www.di.net/dfc/category/trends/) - [Best Practices](https://www.di.net/dfc/category/best-practices/) - [Strategy](https://www.di.net/dfc/category/strategy/) - [Technology](https://www.di.net/dfc/category/technology/) - [Design and Construction Marketplace](https://www.di.net/dfc/category/design-construction-marketplace/) - [Intelligent Choices](https://www.di.net/dfc/category/intelligent-choices/) - [Education](https://www.di.net/dfc/category/education/) - [Sustainability](https://www.di.net/dfc/category/sustainability/) - [Environmental Responsibility](https://www.di.net/dfc/category/environmental-responsibility/) ## Latest Articles - [How to Run an AI SWOT Analysis at Your Design Firm](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/how-to-run-an-ai-swot-analysis-at-your-design-firm/): A practical, step-by-step guide for architecture and design firm leaders to diagnose where AI strengthens and threatens their practice. - [Where’s Waldo? Finding the Human in Human-AI Collaboration at Design Firms](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/human-ai-collaboration-at-design-firms/): Adapted by the Design Futures Council from articles Patrick Scannell wrote for attendees of DFC’s September 2026 Leadership Summit, and from his conversation with Mike Keene at the summit. Walk into almost any conversation about AI in design firms and you will hear the same three questions. Which model should we standardize on? Which workflows […] - [The Magic Wand Doesn’t Ask: AI and the Lessons of Normal Accidents, with Patrick Scannell](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/magic-wand-doesnt-ask-ai-normal-accidents-scannell/): A structural engineer skipped one recalculation. A year later, 114 people died. Technologist Patrick Scannell on what that has to do with how design professionals are adopting AI. - [A Cruise Ship on Land: Scott Simpson on Las Vegas, Novartis, and what design is worth](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/a-cruise-ship-on-land/): Design creates enormous value. Scott Simpson, FAIA, principal at five architecture firms and CEO of two over a five-decade career, has spent that career trying to get the profession to say so in a language clients understand. Ahead of the DFC Leadership Summit on the Business of Design this September, we sat down with Scott to talk about the DFC, the business of design, and the language of value. - [When You Build, You Unbuild: The Significance You May Not Intend](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/when-you-build-you-unbuild/): The crowded, dilapidated buildings in the city started to disappear. Scaffolding went up overnight. Streets that had been lined with laundry hanging between windows and bicycles parked in narrow lanes became construction sites. New buildings appeared, made to look traditional. The city looked new but not quite new. But one thing had unmistakably changed: the […] - [The Misdirected Narrative: Significance and the Built Environment](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/the-misdirected-narrative-significance-and-the-built-environment/): “A good puzzle would be to cross Dublin without passing a pub.” — James Joyce, Ulysses On June 16, the streets of Dublin fill with an unusual crowd. Men in waistcoats and boater hats, women in long skirts and white blouses. They move through the city with purpose, stopping at pub doorways to hear someone […] - [What is Significance?](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/what-is-significance/): We use the word significance with ease. An award is a significant achievement. A shift in the market is a significant warning. A personal decision, a new beginning, even a small milestone can be framed as a significant turning point. Merriam-Webster defines it simply as “the quality of being important.” In ordinary usage, the word […] - [The Future of Design and Humanity: Returning to Fundamentals](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/the-future-of-design-and-humanity/): We live in a time of confusion. As truth is increasingly treated as subjective, the notion of a shared or universal truth has eroded. Without common reference points, people act according to their own belief systems. Personal values, social norms, political ideologies, and business ethics shift and collide. With the emergence of AI, this landscape […] - [What is Essential?](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/what-is-essential/): If everything is essential, then nothing is. We use the word essential constantly. In meetings, strategies, and briefs, things are described as essential when we mean important, critical, or simply high on the priority list. The word still carries weight, but it has drifted from what it originally meant. This is not just a language […] - [The Misplaced Search for Human Essence](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/the-misplaced-search-for-human-essence/): It’s not what AI cannot do. AI is doing what we thought only humans could do At Wimbledon in 2023, IBM deployed an AI announcer that doesn’t just describe tennis. It gets excited about it. When a player makes an impossible return, the AI’s voice rises. During tense rallies, it builds suspense. The system was […] - [Human BEING, Not Human Resources](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/human-being-not-human-resources/): 60,000. That is how many workers Foxconn replaced with robots at its Kunshan factory in 2016. Sixty thousand people made redundant by machines that could do their jobs faster, more precisely, and without breaks, benefits, or wages. The factory still runs. It produces more than it did before. It just does so in near-total darkness […] - [Context: Consequential Questions](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/context-consequential-questions/): Over the course of 2024, we have looked at Connections, Conviction and Convergence in our cascading examination of critical thinking among the design professions in Q1, Q2, and Q3. In Q4 we focus on Consequential Questions, the voices they enable and the decisions they invite. This issue serves as prologue to our annual conference in […] - [Consequential Questions For Consideration](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/consequential-questions-for-consideration/): As we consider the “now” and soon arriving “then”, we are confronted with our own lack of initiative regarding the consequential questions we ought to have posed much earlier. Today, we are faced with situations and circumstances most are utterly unprepared to address or respond to with adequate thinking, speaking and behavior that will yield […] - [Consequential Questions: Overcoming Perceptions](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/consequential-questions-overcoming-perceptions/): DesignIntelligence (Michael LeFevre, DI:) We’re talking with Lynn Simon, FAIA, LEED Fellow, a principal and the West Sustainability Services Leader in global sustainable development consultancy Arup’s Americas region. Welcome, Lynn. Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to speak with us. Our theme for Q4, and for our Q1 summit event in La […] - [Consequential Question Can Energy-Intensive 24/7 Buildings Be Carbon-Neutral?](https://www.di.net/dfc/articles/consequential-question-can-energy-intensive-24-7-buildings-be-carbon-neutral/): According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average hospital consumes more than 100 times as much energy as a standard tract home. In effect, one hospital’s energy demands can exceed a 100-home housing tract. Hospitals are always open; they run on reserve-power generators during grid outages. The University of California, Irvine, and UCI […]