In November 2022, when the generative AI chatbot ChatGPT was released, it marked the start of a new era of public accessibility to AI and an unprecedented integration of AI into everyday life.
While everyone, from students to professionals to retirees, were playing with and adopting this new technology, UGA College of Environment and Design assistant professor and MLA director Dr. Jessica Fernandez took a different approach: stop, look around and take the lay of the land.
“When I would read articles that were concerned with people’s relationship with AI, I would always stop and read them,” said Fernandez. “I started printing them, so I’ve been carrying those around for several years now.”
Fernandez, founder and director of the Relationships in Environment and Design Lab (REDLab), researches the intersection of people, place and technology. Lately, her research has turned to investigating how landscape architects feel about AI. Not, as she would point out, how they are using it, but how it is affecting their identity as professionals.
“The reason that I’m interested in this topic is that we have these concerns with our relationships with technology anytime a new tool comes out, but AI is particularly disruptive,” said Fernandez. “We have to decide where we stand and where we find our value, but then also where technology can help us with our work processes in appropriate ways.”
This research is the foundation of Fernandez’s upcoming talk at the 2025 ASLA Conference, “Staying in the Loop: Balancing Automation and Identity in the AI-LA Era.” While other researchers are exploring how AI can be used by landscape architects, Fernandez saw a knowledge gap that needed to be addressed.
“There have been recent surveys that have been sent out where people are understanding the nuts and bolts of how AI is being used,” said Fernandez. “What we have not fully explored is how the technology is affecting us and how it’s influencing how we see ourselves in the workplace. What us our role in the industry and how are we doing now?”
Fernandez and her team of student researchers at the REDLab are beginning to crack into the results of an international survey of landscape architecture professionals and academics that gauges their views and feelings about AI use. The team hopes that the survey can be a foundational resource for future AI research.
“This effort is part of a knowledge building effort assessing ‘look, here’s where landscape architecture professionals are at in 2025 right now, towards the beginning of this explosion of AI use,’” said Fernandez. “There are a lot of different ways that this knowledge can be helpful.”
In addition to teaching landscape architecture studios, Fernandez serves on UGA’s Leadership Council on Artificial Intelligence, which guides UGA’s efforts on interdisciplinary AI research and implications.
“When we better understand the ways that we are thinking about technologies, then it can either help us to engage more smoothly or understand when there are concerns, and where we might need to regulate or tap the brakes in certain areas,” said Fernandez.
Stay updated with Fernandez’s research at the REDLab’s website. Learn more about ASLA 2025 here.
CED at ASLA
Want to hear more from the CED in New Orleans? Don’t miss these sessions from Donnie Longenecker, senior lecturer and BLA program coordinator:
GDSM: LARE Prep: Grading, Drainage, and Stormwater Management
Level Up Your LARE Prep with AI
Emergent AI in Professional Practice
Practice your sketching abilities in New Orleans’ vibrant scenery with lecturer Cameron Berglund during a guided Sketch Crawl!
Don’t miss out on the chance to connect with other bulldogs at the UGA ASLA mixer! Register here.
