Waste management is becoming a complex challenge for cities worldwide, with urbanization leading to an increase in waste production. In Amsterdam, waste management practices are evolving from reactive and predictive systems to more generative solutions. Greengrid, a platform integrating Generative AI with digital twin technology offers a smarter, more sustainable way to manage waste in the city.

Amsterdam’s current waste management system mostly relies on sensors, while this improves efficiency, it still falls short of anticipating future challenges. Greengrid fills this gap by enabling the platform to generate new, tailored strategies for waste management. This approach is proactive, using data to generate scenario-based plans that can help the city prepare for seasonal events, policy changes or increased recycling initiatives.

The main capability of Greengrid is the scenario-based planning. The urban digital twin is a replica of Amsterdam, integrating geospatial data, waste patterns and operational inputs. Greengrid generates simulations to test different waste management strategies. The simulations help to visualize how different variables, such as weather or events, affect waste management. The system can, for example, suggest temporary bin placements based on the output. The platform can also simulate the effect of new policies, such as a ban on single-use plastic. These simulations allow the city to make informed decisions, which will have long-term environmental effects.

The market for smart waste management solutions is growing rapidly. Progressive cities, such as Amsterdam are committed to become climate-neutral, which represents an ideal starting point for GreenGrid. The global smart waste management sector is expected to grow from 3.17 billion to 14 billion by 2035 (Future Market Insights, 2025), where Greengrid can address the urgent need for these innovative waste management systems. Additionally, Amsterdam as an early adopter, makes it a leading market for this kind of technology. Cities with similar sustainability goals across Europe are more likely to follow once the system’s effectiveness has been demonstrated.

Greengrid creates a significant strategic impact by offering planning agility, operational efficiency and cost savings, and sustainable outcomes. Planners can quickly generate a range of solutions and test them before implementation, which reduces trial-and-error costs. Greengrid also supports improved decision-making, through the representation of AI-generated proposals.

Greengrid is an innovative solution that offers Amsterdam the ability to manage its waste proactively, meeting its sustainability goals. The platform supports cities in transforming their waste management into efficient solutions for more sustainable environments.

AI has been changing the way I work, study and manage all of my work. I have gotten to know many tools that help me perform tasks in my daily life, the most common being ChatGPT for any daily question. This led me to the one problem that I have thus far managed myself, can AI help me manage my daily life?

Somehow, after using AI daily as an assistant during my studies to manage my workload, I have failed to think about how I can use AI to manage my studies in combination with my daily lives. Therefore, I started experimenting with how AI can create a custom daily AI workflow. To do this, I used the AI that I am most familiar with, ChatGPT.

To build my personalized daily AI routine, ChatGPT asked me to what my current situation is, what my goals are, and what other daily activities I want to spend my time on. With the information I provided, ChatGPT generated a daily routine for me, specifying what tasks I should work on within certain time periods, working towards my upcoming exams and deadlines. My planner also suggested when I have time to work out and was able to create workouts throughout the week. The routine even included how I can use different types of AI can help me with my tasks, such as Notebook LM for articles and Perplexity for research, based on my preferred AI tools.

Others may find this type of use of AI disturbing, thinking that AI is “taking over our daily lives”. However, I think that AI can have every role in our lives that I give it, and if we do not become dependent on it, we could never lose control over our own lives. We should learn to use AI as an assistant that can help us, and by letting AI create a daily planning and routine for me, I have turned it into my personal AI-copilot and life coach. Would you try this? And do you think this would give AI too much influence over your life?

References:
1. Personalized daily AI routine generated by ChatGPT, OpenAI, Oct 7, 2025, https://chat.openai.com/chat.
2. Image generated by ChatGPT, OpenAI, Oct 9, 2025, https://chat.openai.com/chat.

In my generation, Gen Z, where social media platforms are in the center of our lives, we are used to short-form and fast passed content creation. We do not watch commercials on tv, but see ads pop up on our TikTok ForYou page. We do not look at billboards, but we scroll through ads on Instagram. Content creation has been shifting, changing and evolving for centuries, but where will this digital disruption end with the fast-paced emergence of AI, and will our creative minds still be relevant in the future?

Since the arrival of social media, the content that is created online has already adapted to how younger generations perceive and pays attention to digital content and marketing, transforming it into short-form and user-generated content. But with AI, the rate at which content is produced has also accelerated.

Adobe has recently launched Firefly, which creates images powered by Gen-AI, enabling creators to generate their own images. AI-powered content creators such as ChatGPT and Jasper can write out any content you want in a matter of seconds. And even brand logos can be generated by AI with the press of a button.

Our creative minds will always be relevant, but the way we use it has changed. AI will never be able to kill our creativity, but it has moved it upstream. Instead of becoming content creators, we should use our imagination to become the creative brain behind the content that AI could create for us. AI has the potential to create anything for us, but we must make sure that we do not lose ourselves in what AI can create and that we keep coming up with our own ideas to make sure that the content that we create stays imaginative and original.

The possibilities of expressing our creativity through AI are endless, and yet we are still limiting the use of it. How long do you think this will hold up? There is a fine line between AI limiting and boosting our potential, but the change is coming either way.