Urban AI represents a cutting-edge shift in urban design. This technology facilitates swift decision-making and the achievement of optimal solutions in urban design, leading to significant time and resource savings on routine tasks in urban design processes. This, in turn, empowers urban designers to concentrate on more strategic and high-impact aspects of their work. Moreover, as the volume of data generated daily in urban planning and design continues to rise, AI becomes an indispensable tool for analyzing and processing this information for creating intricate urban models and plans. This paper aims to equip researchers, practitioners, and investors in urban AI with a comprehensive knowledge base, keeping them engaged with continuous developments. Also, the research paper provides a broad understanding of artificial intelligence background. Specifically, the research paper presented an inventory and monitoring of the sub-fields of artificial intelligence, and identification of the most effective ones in urban design, to identify the most important applications of artificial intelligence in urban design and clarify its effective role and functions. Notably, the research reached some important results that artificial intelligence excels in all stages of the design process except for the development stage, which humans still control. By comparing traditional and digital design through a matrix linking the stages of workflow and the effective role of both human experience and artificial intelligence. Ultimately, we assert that this in-depth research is crucial for grasping the effective utilization of AI, as a tool, in the urban design process.
 
Special Issue of AEIC 2024 (Sustainable Architecture and Urban Design Session)