Booked on Planning

2026 Trend Report

Booked on Planning Season 5 Episode 6

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Planning for the future can feel overwhelming, yet essential. The American Planning Association’s (APA) 2026 Trend Report offers planners foresight into upcoming trends that could shape our world. In our latest episode, we talked with Petra Hurtado, APA’s Chief Foresight and Knowledge Officer, to delve into these trends. Now in it’s fifth year (coincidentally…or not….this was our 100th episode in the fifth year of our show), we have covered every trend report from the first so you can really start to see the evolution of the document and it’s contents.

This time around, we definitely talk about artificial intelligence (AI) and it’s impacts and how to prepare for it. As trends like AI, transportation, and housing continue to evolve, Hurtado emphasizes the need for planners to address these changes head-on--”looking away won’t make it go away” was the theme of the conversation. The episode highlights recurring themes like climate change, demographic shifts, and policy changes. 

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Stephanie: [00:01:00] Welcome back, bookworms. I'm Stephanie Rouse

Jennifer: I'm Jennifer Hyatt

Stephanie: and we're the hosts of the Booked On Planning podcast. In today's episode, we talked with Chief Foresight and Knowledge Officer Petra Hurtado about APAs 2026 Trend Report. is the hundredth episode of Booked on Planning, and it also happens to be the fifth year that the Trend report has been published, and we've covered all five trend reports now.

So we've kept up to date on all the things that our listeners should know about upcoming trends to help them plan better in their daily work.

Jennifer: Yeah, I really wanna congratulate Petra and her team on five years of this report. I think it's very interesting to go back and look through some of the previous reports this year. I only did the two previous, so 2024 and 2025 after reading 2026. But it [00:02:00] is very interesting to see what keeps coming through, like ai.

Transportation issues, housing issues, and then to watch some of the things that kind of fall off. Like there was some agricultural stuff in the 2024 report that didn't make it all the way through.

Stephanie: I think one of them from last year I really enjoyed was the use of mushrooms to do unique things. Didn't see it again this year, but it's not a strong trend. I'm hoping that there's still a lot of research and. Information coming on how to use mushrooms in a more beneficial way than just food production.

Jennifer: Yeah, maybe in like three years we'll see it in the current. Trends as opposed to the future trends portion of the report. But one of the things that I really thought was great, and I know you did too, that Petra talked about is all of these trends, a lot of 'em this year are not like maybe your favorite thing, like data going away, or we are having to find different places for data or AI coming really fast.

 as Petra said. Looking away is not going to make it go away. So I think it's really important that we look these trends [00:03:00] right in the face.

Stephanie: I think that's the perfect tagline for this episode. Looking away doesn't make it go away, and that's the whole idea behind this trends report is to look ahead and see what might be coming, what may influence us. In our daily careers and our work, and to be able to build the skills necessary to be able to address that and work more efficiently as we move forward.

Jennifer: Exactly. So let's get into our conversation with Petra Hurtado about the A PA 2026 trends report. 

Stephanie: Well, Petra, welcome back to the Booked On Planning Podcast. We're happy to have you on to talk about APAs 2026 trend Report now in its fifth year.

the new report doesn't repeat trends from past projects unless there were any major changes in the previous trends. What trends had major changes that were addressed again in this report, and why were they significant enough to talk about again?

Petra: Yeah, that's a great question and maybe one thing that I wanna call out first before I answer your question is that obviously the trends that from previous [00:04:00] reports that are still relevant can also still be found in our online trend universe at plan. Org slash foresight where really everything gets continuously updated.

 It's a dynamic trend platform essentially to, you know, keep track of everything else that's not in the report as well. Coming back to your question so usually some of the bigger topics you know, some might be mega trends, that occur in every report that can be addressed from different angles or more recent shifts are signaling.

Major changes are those that you know, get repeated. So we usually always have something about climate change and environmental issues. In some cases we focus on positive developments when it comes to innovative technologies or other, you know, new approaches on how to mitigate climate among others.

 Sometimes it's about, you know, negative developments, policy changes around that. But climate change is usually always a topic that we have. Similar with ai, obviously AI is evolving so fast and we learn [00:05:00] something new almost every day, so that topic never gets old. And then one thing that we also always try to have in the report is really about.

Demographic shifts. You know, in the first couple of reports there were things like aging population gender in planning, things like that. And then really since last year's report, we looked into some bigger shifts in terms of what we called the new average or shifting nation, where we really see some, bigger changes.

Like, for example, we have things like, americans don't move anymore as much in this year's report, which I think is very relevant to, planners. So really trying to have some angle on that area as well. And then I would say the other bigger topics where we pretty much in every report have something are transportation and related trends in housing, obviously.

Stephanie: Yeah, when we were developing our questions, we just were hitting a lot of questions around AI and wanted to make sure we peeled it back and did a, a more broader focus. But it seems like ai, especially in this report. Is really touching all [00:06:00] different categories, so it's touching transportation and housing and demographics.

And so it's hard to just have a category probably for just AI trends when it really touches all these other categories.

Petra: Absolutely. And I mean, we always try to highlight a few things that are really specifically to ai, but then, I mean, as you say, it's, it's like pretty much in every other topic cluster and every other trend somewhere as well.

Stephanie: And in this report you include scenarios as you have in past reports, but revisited the time horizons and brought the future closer. How does this change how planners should view these trends or the immediacy of addressing the predicted changes?

Petra: So one really important thing to mention is we're not predicting anything. So you said predict the changes. So really the thing that I'm preaching to everyone in every single presentation I give and that, you know, obviously my, my team hears it almost every day. We don't predict, right? So we just use today's facts to Help planners really prepare for what the future might look like, but we don't know what it will [00:07:00] look like. But yeah, so the scenarios I kind of like how you phrased it, like moving the future closer, but I think this is really in this year's report, it shows how change is really accelerating around us, and we could have also just decided to, you know, keep our 10, 20, 30 year horizons.

Because obviously ForSight is about long-term planning, long-term thinking as well. But. What we essentially did is we, we wanted to showcase the drivers of change and the shifts and the trends that are really the most important ones in the current time. and see how those might play out.

Like what are the bigger disruptors right now. And it just happened that when we built these scenarios, we realized these things are not so far out. So we really. You know, on the one hand, showcase how change has been accelerating, but then also to really focus on what we saw as high priority topics this year.

That's how that kind of played out.

Jennifer: as we've already talked about, one of the fastest trends is of course the use of ai, but I was really curious about how [00:08:00] planners can ensure. As we're turning more and more to this tool, we don't lose the human touch of our profession. How can we use this tool without losing what makes us planners?

Petra: To be honest, I think that this is really the strength of the planning profession in this entire ai. Conversation. 'Cause while we have many elements in our work that can be done by ai and we obviously have to figure out which ones those are, but what's really important in our work is the human factor and the interpersonal connections with our community members.

And so. I don't really see that going away. And what I would highlight is, is most important for us as planners is to make sure we upscale and we understand these tools. We understand how to use AI in responsible ways. We understand how we can do certain tasks maybe more efficiently with AI and, and how to really include it in our work.

 So. That we can make sure it's really still us as planners who use the tools and that the tools essentially don't replace us.

Jennifer: [00:09:00] I don't see an AI model sitting in a community center anytime. Soon, right.

Petra: I don't either.

Jennifer: but even on that side, so thinking of upskilling and how we as a profession maybe do utilize AI to make our jobs a little easier. Every time I think about it, I just think of that's what I did as a beginning planner when I was a baby planner. So a lot of what we're looking at is what we would maybe consider entry level work. But we still need entry level professional positions. So what's that gonna look like as we transition ai but still need to bring planners into the profession at the start of their careers?

Petra: That's a great question and we had a deep dive in the report on what the future of jobs really from entry level to leadership positions might look like. And obviously AI is one big component in that deep dive when it comes to entry level planners and also, you know, specifically young people.

Not every entry level planner falls into the category of, you know. Young people, maybe under 30, [00:10:00] but just that bigger category of entry-level planners. They can be very resourceful and I would say they come into the profession with a completely new and different perspective than the people who have been there for a long time.

 So where I see a big problem in planning is that we have so many of these legacy processes and legacy approaches that really don't help us to make our communities better. And so I see a great opportunity there to really rethink what entry-level planners do and what these jobs look like, knowing that many of these usual entry level tasks can be done by AI to really bring in these new perspectives and.

 Young people question things differently than we do. They look at the world in different ways and in the end, you know, we are planning for the future, so we wanna have the future at the table when we do that work, so I think it's gonna be important to create these avenues for entry level planners to really.

 Be able to voice their opinions to questions, the things that we [00:11:00] do, and to bring in their perspectives. So I really think we should take advantage of that. And in the end, I mean. I know experience is important as well, but outside of the box thinking is just equally important. And I think combining the two can be very powerful ' cause that's really where innovation happens.

 so the same, you know, applies to, you know, anything related to how we usually, I. Entry level people in our world of work. So for example, I, there's this concept of reverse mentoring, right? So I think the way entry level positions, entry-level people need to learn from experienced people and how to do certain things.

 Experienced people also need to learn how, you know, younger people or entry level people, approach the world and, and certain things that we do in our jobs. So I, think it's a great opportunity. It's probably long overdue and in this context, I think AI gives us this opportunity and I'll change it for the better.

Jennifer: Yeah, Stephanie and I both work with students Lincoln has the flagship University of [00:12:00] Nebraska. campus and we work with students in our planning program and every time I sit and talk with one of 'em, I just think I didn't think about it that way, or it's been a really long time since I've had to ask the why question, because I already knew the answer.

So I think that's a great point that mentorship very real.

Stephanie: Two, just leaning on the younger generation that has picked up AI and understands it a lot better. I've a 10. use it. And I can do like the very basic, prompt questions, but there have been things that I, I know are possible, but I can't figure out how to make it do that. But I know that the next generation coming in will have learned from the like ground up and will have that basic understanding and can do those kind of processes. And I had an intern a couple years ago who was playing around with chat GBT on how to build kind of a, a. chatbot of sorts to answer historic preservation questions. So to kind of give some preliminary feedback for residents and help streamline that kind of initial phase of working with the city and something I would've never figured out.

Petra: Absolutely, and I mean, they grow up with these tools. [00:13:00] Right. So it always depends on what, do you grow up with? What are you used to from, you know, what, what are the tools that you had at school to your disposal and all of that. and that's changing too. And even though, you know, in some of my presentations where I mentioned Yeah, and the young people, they're all tech savvy.

 I did have some younger people in the audiences that would say, well, no, I'm totally against it and this, that, and the other. And I'm like, yeah, I get it. But you still have a better understanding already just by growing up with it.

Jennifer: Yeah, even from the millennial perspective, you know, we were the first full tech generation or native born or whatever they call us. So I really hope that we remember what we went through and we just accept and embrace the younger people and not be like, well, I'm not gonna learn how to convert A PDF.

That seems ridiculous.

Stephanie: So one of the newer trends in this report was around major shifts in federal policy in all areas of planning, which is something that definitely touched every aspect of my work this last year. And I'm know tons of other planners that are really tracking this. [00:14:00] Closely ' cause it's impacting their work as well. How can we put these short term actions into a longer term context?

Petra: Yeah, that's, that's also great. I mean, all of your questions are great. This is why this is my favorite podcast. Maybe one thing also to clarify, we call it a trend report, but a lot of the things in here are really, drivers of change or signals, right? So especially when it comes to these policy changes, right now, I would just call them signals.

And obviously what they signal to us is that there's an obvious shift on the horizon in terms of how these things will play out if there's no support for, continuing the path forward from the government. But at the same time, we also can't put all cards on those shifts right now because they might change again in a matter of four years.

Right. and I think that this has really been one of the big challenges in planning in recent years, that maybe even decades at this point, we're dealing with these political extremes and the extremes are changing almost every four years. Right. And it's not that we just move from one administration to the next.

It's like. [00:15:00] Either administration looks at a complete different viewpoint on how to, you know, approach certain things so that's really what's been challenging to planning. I would add an a third layer to this, and that is that in addition to these you know, political changes that have their cycles, we also have technological innovation cycles now joining our world of timeframes.

Right? And so on the one hand we need to make long-term plans. We have four year election cycles and then we have technology, you know, changing almost on a daily basis. And how can we as planners, work with an environment like this. And so I think an important lesson learned here is really to find alternative ways on how we do certain things.

I think we have been too reliant on legacy programs and legacy ways of doing things, and so. For example, as planners, what's definitely important is to diversify, for example, where we take our funding from to guarantee that these projects actually can be implemented. And a great example for that is really the city of this.

Detroit. [00:16:00] Last year we recorded at a PAA podcast with the planning director from Detroit, Alexa Bush. And she gave some great examples of how Detroit actually came out of the crisis that they had a few years ago by diversifying funding sources and, and now in today's world. This is really an advantage for them because they are not as depending on the federal government.

 And then there's obviously many other things related to policies where it really comes down to how we as planners communicate certain things to our community members. Be it, you know, climate change and other things that can be phrased differently if it's something that, you know, leads to political.

conflict or, discussions in a meeting that might not lead to, what we want the meeting to get to.

Jennifer: One of those major shifts, of course, is how data is being collected. and unfortunately we might just have a four year shift in policy, but data collection is forever. We can't go back and fix what we did not get this year or we did not get last year. So how should [00:17:00] planners be thinking about that and looking for new and importantly, accurate data to base our decisions on?

Um. 

Petra: Yeah, some of these data sets are now published elsewhere, mostly on websites of different nonprofits. Published an article on this a few months ago with some of the links of where some of that data lifts now. So that can also be found on planning.org. But obviously, I mean, this is a very serious issue if data that used to come from what used to be a trusted source, now comes from maybe a private entity or some organization that might sound trustworthy, but you don't actually know the background and all of that.

So that's obviously always questionable. And I mean, this is certainly a topic that a PA will have to dive deeper into and make sure we can support planners on this issue. What is the data that's really essential to planning? where does it live now? Who's collecting it? Where does it come from?

Is it trustworthy? But what's also interesting related to this every year in February. I work with our board of directors and with the A ICP commission with the [00:18:00] trend report, where we prioritize the different trends and topics in the report to make sure we understand what we need to prioritize at a PA based on how prepared we are and how big the impact is.

And so in this year's workshop just last February the board and the commission actually chose. disappearing data, the misinformation, disinformation as the highest ranked topic. So with that, I can also already say this is gonna certainly be one of our high priorities at a PA for the coming months and probably the next year.

Stephanie: Yeah. I think for me, one of the biggest concerns. Of data that's no longer being tracked is the, I think it's the called the billion dollar Disasters that Noah put out every year so you can track changes and see how of the disasters that are a result of climate change are impacting us, not just physically, but financially. And I guess I haven't tracked to see where that, if anyone has picked that up and are able to keep running with it.

Petra: Yeah. And, and that's also on the list of links that we've provided in that article. I'm happy to share the, exact [00:19:00] link through your resources if that's an option.

Stephanie: We'll definitely link that in our show notes along with the trends universe that you mentioned earlier. We'll have direct links to both of those.

Petra: Great.

Stephanie: So planning plays a critical role in ensuring safety, inclusion, and belonging in public spaces, but there are some really concerning trends making this challenging.

Can you talk about some of these trends and what planners should be doing about it?

Petra: Yeah, this is really a difficult one. Like so many, I guess in this year's report there has been a lot going on and things really range from, Things that might not be trends yet, like, ice rates, for example, in certain communities across the country. But also two things that really have developed into trends like harassment of members of the LGBTQ plus community.

 Decreasing support of DEI efforts from the corporate world among others, which some of those have actually already. Started a few years ago specifically the, decreasing support for DEI in the corporate world according to the data that we found that has already started to drop in [00:20:00] 2023.

 So my guess is that not all of these developments will have a suitable planning solution. But we will have to find ways to safely do our work in this environment, right? And, and still be able to achieve the goals that we have as planners where, you know, creating inclusive and equitable communities is one off.

But, so for example, one solution that we had suggested to ensure that. People can still participate in community meetings in a safe way is to, for example, provide hybrid or fully online options so that way people can join from wherever they feel there's a safe space for them, but can still be part of it, right?

So that's important to make sure that people can still participate in the process. And then other developments that we talk about in the report really relate to bigger societal changes. Potentially even shifts of value systems in the country. And also sometimes related to generational differences and of course, the important thing for planners, first of all, is to understand these better.

 [00:21:00] So that we can respond to really the root cause of those, and not necessarily just in a superficial way. So I don't have the solution here right now, but I think really learning and listening and understanding what's going on in our communities and why that is happening is really probably the most important first step there.

Jennifer: Misinformation is easily also spreading faster than it ever has before. So how should planners utilize the communication tools that we. Specialize in to engage in trust building and combat this misinformation in their communities.

Petra: Yeah, that's probably the $1 million question, right? I mean, I would say being transparent about where data comes from is obviously always a first step here. But I think what will become equally important in this context is really related to what we talked about in the beginning of the podcast.

And that is the human factor of planning. So really this real world connections between people, because especially when we plan on the local level. At this point, you might not be able to tell an AI deep fake [00:22:00] from a real video, right? It's getting more and more difficult, but you can understand what's going on in your community through shared experiences, through social connections, and by simply talking and listening.

 With and to people face to face. Right. So I would say that's, that's one of those pieces where I think the human factor of planning is gonna get more and more important the more we use AI and other tools that make it just more blurry, what is real and whatnot.

Stephanie: I think that goes back to the young planners too. 'cause we get asked this question at mentorship events with a program that we're helping with and they're, always wanting to know what skills do I need coming out of school? And I think for young planners it would be. Those soft skills, the communication and being able to listen and digest information and, and respond in a, a thoughtful way versus just sitting at a computer doing data.

It's gonna be more and more important to be out in communities and engaging with residents.

Petra: And, and a lot of the. You know, conclusions that we draw from the report [00:23:00] ourselves is really to also understand what are some of these skills that planners will need in the future really from all career stages. You know, we talked about entry level planners earlier. They, they might need other skills to get started.

Then, you know, planner in leadership or otherwise. What I also find really interest. Staying from what we found in some of our research here is that especially the combination of soft skills and tech skills is becoming more and more important especially in the light of, you know, AI agents becoming a thing now too.

And really this question, how do you manage a team? That is really hybrid between humans and AI agents. So you kind of need to understand the technology. You need to be able to communicate with your team and need to be able to combine both of these worlds, right? So it's, very interesting how, how complex these things are becoming.

Stephanie: For sure. And you kind of started answering this question, but you state at the beginning of the report that one of the goals is to inform planners of new skills they should develop and tools that are worth trying [00:24:00] based on this year's trend. Are there some skills or tools planners should be developing?

Petra: Absolutely. And that's why a PA has the upskilling program where we really focus on some of the skill needs that we identify through this foresight work. And yeah, I mean, as I mentioned, I mean there's obviously tech skills. Many of them are related to responsible use of ai, but there's obviously also others when it comes to human skills.

I mean, related to many things that we just talked about in the podcast, you know, listening, conflict management, those kind of skills are becoming more and more important, especially in a polarized world. But then ultimately I would really say knowing how to combine the two will be the most important thing in the future.

Jennifer: So the word of the year for the trend is. And I certainly feel uncertainty every day in my life moving forward right now with planning, but I think that that could potentially be a superpower. So how can planners take that uncertainty and use it to our advantage? I.

Petra: I always [00:25:00] say that the future won't be shaped by certainty, right? It will need a combination of uncertainty and curiosity, and I think that's what we need as planners. I think the most important thing here is really to have our eyes and ears open. And to keep an open mind as well. And what I mean with that is we have to watch and listen constantly what's happening around us, which is really what we do when we develop the trend report.

And that's why we see it as a tool for planners. Something that they can use if they don't have the time to constantly watch and listen. Right? So that's something that we provide to, you know, make it possible to do that. And then the second thing, and that's really on all of us, is really to. Look at these things in neutral ways.

There, there's a lot of things in the trend report that one might say, I, I don't like it. Right? But looking away is not gonna make it go away. And so that's really the main point that we need to acknowledge that these things are happening, and only by doing that we can start preparing [00:26:00] for them. And if we don't like them, then we can find ways to prepare for them so we, maybe can prevent them or find ways to avoid them.

But. Again, looking away is not gonna make them go away. And, and one thing that was really a an interesting example for us was when we started talking about urban air mobility at a PA and suddenly we got emails from some members saying, Hey why are you guys talking about flying taxis? Are you going crazy?

Or, what's going on? But in the end, there are several pilots and some of these you know, flying taxis, if you wanna call them, are operational already in different countries around the world. And so this is really happening and it's on us as planners, if we learn about them inform ourselves about what does it actually mean?

How does it relate to my community, and what can I do if I don't want them to be in my community? Right? so I think that's really the important thing to use this uncertainty combine it with curiosity and use that to really shape the future in a way that it creates positive outcomes for everyone.

Stephanie: I'm gonna use that quote. [00:27:00] Looking away doesn't make it go away to my husband. 'cause every time I bring up AI or. Talk about some way. I tried to use it to make my teaching class a little bit easier on myself. he goes off, he hates ai, doesn't want it, but I'm like, it's not going away. So might as well harness the benefits of it.

Petra: Very true. Very true.

Stephanie: And this last question, since we've had you on every year with the new trends report, I feel like we could create a trend out of your answer to this question, but as this is booked on planning, what books would you recommend our listeners check out?

Petra: And that's always really the most difficult question. And I, I really took some time and thought about which book should I bring. And I, brought three books with me today because I really couldn't decide for just one. So I have one fiction book and two non-fiction books. I. the first one is the fiction book.

It's science fiction by Achi and Bradley, the Ministry of Time. And what I liked about the book is that it really brings the past, the present, and the future together. So it is obviously something about time travel but it's [00:28:00] essentially about. How people from, you know, 15, 16 seventeens hundreds were brought into the present time and then also engaged in some other time travel.

But what I really liked about it was that it looks at how we live our lives and what our social norms and values are today. How someone from the 16 hundreds, for example, would be able to comprehend this or not. Right? So how do. We look from other time zones essentially to how we do things today.

So that was really fascinating to me. I think it was really well done. The second book that I have here is the book, God is Read by Vine Delau, Jr. And so this is really something. One thing that we've been trying to do, or one thing that's our learning project at a PA is really to understand how some, you know, indigenous peoples understand time and approach it specifically because when we look at long-term thinking and long-term planning.

 There's different thoughts of how far in the future we need to go, [00:29:00] but I always find it fascinating, especially from the sustainability standpoint on how do we include you know, future generations. And so obviously there's a lot that we can learn from indigenous people, but I think, that work essentially is currently getting me deeper and deeper into this because it's also very fascinating on how we look at time in different ways, in different cultures.

And so, for example the Western world, if you want to call it that really looks as time is a linear thing versus indigenous. Communities and also other cultures. See the time as circular and, you know, how would that change a foresight process if you change that perspective? So to me that's very fascinating.

And so this particular book is mostly about combining, indigenous religious thinking with Christianity, which really brought the linear time concept to our world. But like, just in in that whole context, it's, there's a lot of inspiration and, yeah, just really interesting approach and how to look at time, which is fascinating to me.

 Yeah. And then the third book is really one book that was one of [00:30:00] our sources for the deep dive in the Report on the Future of Jobs. And that's the book, work Without Jobs, and I'm totally gonna butcher that name now, but it's by Raven Zen. I hope I say that. Somehow close to what it should be and John Woodrow.

 And so what's fascinating about that book is really how they look into how we need to move away from these legacy job descriptions. Really try to understand the full potential of the individuals. That we work with their, their talents, their interests, their skills, and how we can move to a way more productive way of, working with people and at the same time how their motivation and also goes up because they can use their full potential and not just what's listed in a job description.

Stephanie: Those all sound like great recommendations and every time we get a fiction book, I always say this, but we love it when our guests can sprinkle on a fiction book to mix in with all the nonfiction books that we're all reading.

Petra: some imagination is always important.

Stephanie: Yeah. Well, Petra, thank you again for joining us again for this [00:31:00] year's 2026 A PH Trends report to talk about the new changes.

Petra: Well, thanks again for having me. 

Jennifer: We hope you enjoyed this conversation with Petra Hurtado about the A PA 2026 trends report.

You can download the full report on APAs website linked in the show notes, and don't forget to look for Petros book page, bookshop.org/shop/book done planning. Remember to subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts and please rate, review and share the show.

 Thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time on. Booked On Planning.