超过 400 名空间数据专业人士齐聚 SDSC26 伦敦会议，共同探讨 GIS 的未来，涵盖智能体工作流、开放基础设施、环境风险及城市智能等领域。

Over 400 spatial data professionals gathered at SDSC26 London to explore the future of GIS, from agentic workflows and open infrastructure to environmental risk and urban intelligence.

每年，SDSC 都会呈现一幅地理空间行业未来走向的全景图。而到了 2026 年，这一图景显得尤为清晰。今年亦是 CARTO 的重要里程碑：Javier de la Torre 正式推出 CARTO for Agents——一种全新方法，旨在助力空间专业人士与 AI 代理直接协同工作，从而以前所未有的速度创建地图、开展分析、构建工作流并开发应用。 如今，这一转变正加速落地于地理空间领域。主题演讲正式介绍了 CARTO for Agents，这是 CARTO 平台一次重大的演进升级，专为帮助 GIS 专业人士通过对话式工作流，与 AI 代理直接协作；同时提供面向实践者与代理均友好的 CLI 脚本终端接口，并增强对开放标准（如 MCP，Model Context Protocol）的支持。本质上，这引入了一种“无头”（headless）的地理空间工作流范式，使代理可在不依赖传统浏览器界面的前提下与 CARTO 交互。 整场主题演讲始终聚焦于一个核心信息：AI 正在不断拓展空间专业人士的能力边界，让空间工作比以往任何时候都更高效、更易获取。正如 Javier 在会议尾声所言：“各分论坛中最为鲜明的主题之一，便是 AI 正如何迅速提升空间工作流的可及性。”在所有这些案例中，演进方向清晰可见：地理空间正从一种“操作对象”，转变为一种“对话对象”。 英国地形测量局（Ordnance Survey）提供了一个有力例证：其分享了如何通过现代化地理空间基础设施，提升系统可扩展性，并优化空间数据在团队与合作伙伴间的交付流程。行业趋势正从彼此孤立的 GIS 系统，转向将空间数据作为企业级数据平台的原生组成部分——更具灵活性、互操作性，也更易于集成至分析与 AI 工作流之中。 他们重点强调的关键转变在于：自然风险已不再抽象。它具有明确的地理属性、显著的财务影响、日益强化的监管要求，并可通过最新的地理空间基础模型与卫星影像嵌入技术实现精准追踪。在整个会议期间，围绕气候风险、供应链及可持续发展报告等议题的讨论，反复印证了地理空间数据作为环境与气候风险认知之关键基础的重要地位。 城市智能与出行分析亦贯穿全天议程。多位讲者探讨了城市如何日益倚重空间分析，以支撑住房、交通、基础设施及气候韧性等领域的实时决策。马德里创新团队展示了其“城市模拟器”（City Simulator），旨在协助政策制定者探索涵盖出行、排放与住房可负担性等多维度的城市情景。这些演讲共同揭示出一条主线：城市规划正从静态模型，转向持续更新的空间系统——该系统真实反映城市环境在现实中的动态行为。 几乎每一场分论坛均达成一项共识：工具与技术（包括 AI）仅是故事的一部分。真正令最成功案例脱颖而出的，是其背后的人文语境：领域专业知识、本地化认知，以及推动能力转化为实际影响所必需的组织变革。爱尔兰都柏林市议会（DPD Ireland）的分享即为典型体现：在其重构路径优化引擎的过程中发现，数学上最优解在实践中未必适用。他们的核心体悟精准概括了当日主旨：“技术只是达成目标的手段。真正关键的问题在于：你试图解决什么问题？谁需要使用结果？你又将如何推动组织共同适应这一变革？”工具将持续演进，而历久弥坚的，是使用者的专业知识与判断力。 这并非源于某项单一技术，而是源于地理空间系统设计、访问与使用方式的整体性转变——AI 代理正日益成为工作执行过程中的核心角色。地理空间正愈发深度嵌入组织运作机制，也愈发触达一线使用者。若以本届大会为风向标，我们才刚刚踏上这场转型之旅的起点。 如需进一步了解 CARTO for Agents 的发布详情，欢迎查阅 CARTO 官方文档，或预约与我们的团队交流，深入了解地理空间代理如何助力贵组织规模化开展空间分析、加速日常业务进程。 CARTO 亮相 Google Cloud Next ’26：来自 Google Maps Platform、Gemini Enterprise 及 Agentic GIS 合作伙伴生态系统的关键地理空间 AI 创新。 探索 Google Cloud Next 2025 大会发布的关键地理空间洞察——AI、低代码工具、Earth Engine 及更多塑造位置技术未来的创新成果。

Each year, SDSC brings together a snapshot of where the geospatial industry is heading. And in 2026, that picture felt especially clear. This year also marked a major milestone for CARTO, with Javier de la Torre introducing CARTO for Agents, a new approach designed to help spatial professionals work directly alongside AI agents to create maps, run analysis, build workflows, and develop applications faster than ever before. And now, that shift is arriving in geospatial. The keynote introduced CARTO for Agents, a major new evolution of the CARTO platform designed to help GIS professionals work directly with AI agents through conversational workflows, a CLI script-friendly terminal interface for both practitioners and agents, as well as richer support for open standards like MCP (Model Context Protocol). Essentially, this introduces a headless approach to geospatial workflows, allowing agents to interact with CARTO without relying on a traditional browser interface. Throughout the keynote, the message was focused on how AI is expanding what spatial professionals can do, making spatial work faster and more accessible than ever before. Or as Javier put it near the end of the session: One of the clearest themes across sessions was how quickly spatial workflows are becoming more accessible through AI. Across all of these examples, the direction of travel was clear: geospatial is becoming something you talk to, not just something you operate. A strong example came from Ordnance Survey, which shared how it has been modernizing its geospatial infrastructure to improve scalability and streamline how spatial data is delivered across teams and partners. Rather than isolated GIS systems, the trend is toward spatial data living as a native part of enterprise data platforms, flexible, interoperable, and easier to integrate into analytics and AI workflows. The key shift they highlighted is that nature risk is no longer abstract. It is geographically specific, financially material, increasingly regulated, and trackable with the latest capabilities in geospatial foundation models and satellite imagery embeddings. Across the conference, similar ideas surfaced in conversations around climate risk, supply chains, and sustainability reporting, reinforcing the role of geospatial data as a critical foundation for environmental and climate risk awareness. Urban intelligence and mobility analytics also featured prominently throughout the day. Speakers explored how cities are increasingly using spatial analytics to support real-time decision-making around housing, transportation, infrastructure, and climate resilience. Madrid's innovation team showcased a "City Simulator" designed to help policymakers explore urban scenarios across mobility, emissions, and housing affordability. Across these talks, a common thread emerged: cities are shifting from static planning models toward continuously updated spatial systems that reflect how urban environments actually behave, in real-time. Across nearly every session, there was a shared recognition that tools and technology, including AI, are only part of the story. What consistently set the strongest examples apart was the human context behind them: the domain expertise, the local knowledge, and the organizational change required to turn capability into impact. DPD Ireland's session was a clear expression of this. In rebuilding their route optimization engine, they found that the mathematically optimal solution wasn't the right one in practice. Their takeaway captured the broader theme of the day: technology is just a means to an end. The real questions are what problem you're solving, who needs to use the result, and how you bring an organization along with the change. Tools will keep evolving. What endures is the expertise and judgment of the people working with them. Not because of any single technology, but because of a broader shift in how spatial systems are being designed, accessed, and used, with AI agents increasingly playing a central role in how work gets done. Geospatial is getting more embedded in how organizations work, and more accessible to the people using it. And if this year's conference is any indication, we're only at the very beginning of that transformation. To learn more about the CARTO for Agents launch, you can explore our CARTO documentation or schedule time with our team to see how geospatial agents can help your organization scale spatial analysis and accelerate day-to-day work. CARTO at Google Cloud Next '26: key geospatial AI innovations from Google Maps Platform, Gemini Enterprise, and the Agentic GIS partner ecosystem. Discover key geospatial insights from Google Cloud Next 2025 - AI, low-code tools, Earth Engine, and more innovations shaping the future of location tech.