Michael Jansen is the Chief Business Officer at TwinMaster, where he leads global strategy, partnerships, and market development for AI-driven digital twin technologies.
A trained architect, he studied at Yale University and the University of Cambridge before rising to lead the Asia practices of two major U.S. international architecture firms before the age of 30.
In 2004, at 33, he founded Satellier, a pioneering global services platform for the AEC industry backed by Sequoia Capital and Silicon Valley Bank. He scaled the company to more than 700 employees within four years, fundamentally reshaping how architectural production is delivered worldwide.
Over a 25+ year career, Michael has founded and led multiple high-growth ventures and has been at the forefront of innovation across architecture, urban design, and AEC technology. A Fulbright Scholar and former adviser to the World Economic Forum, he has been featured on CNN, CNBC, and the BBC, and in leading publications including Forbes, TechCrunch, Fast Company, BusinessWeek, and Inc.
At TwinMaster, he works directly with leading AEC firms, global AEC software platforms, and strategic investors to drive adoption of AI-native systems in real-world practice. Over his career, he has raised more than $45 million in capital across multiple ventures, supporting the growth of transformative companies in the built environment.
Despite the surge of “AI-powered” tools across AEC, the industry remains at the very beginning of its adoption curve. Most solutions are bolting AI onto workflows and platforms never designed for it—resulting in systems that cannot reason, scale, or withstand real project complexity.
This session takes a clear position: AI must be native to the design and decision process itself—not added after the fact.
Drawing on real enterprise deployments, Michael Jansen and Dr. Prasanta Bose will explore how AI-native systems move beyond automation into true decision intelligence—reasoning across cost, carbon, energy, compliance, constructability, et al., to guide better outcomes, not just faster outputs.
The discussion will challenge prevailing narratives around generative design and “AI everywhere”, offering a practical framework for understanding what works, what doesn’t, and what AEC firms should be preparing for over the next 3–5 years.
This is not about replacing architects and engineers. It’s about finally delivering the intelligence layer the industry has been missing.
(with Dr. Prasanta Bose)
