Decision Intelligence Design™ | AI for Sustainable Product Design
What this Framework is about
Decision Intelligence Design™ is Circoolar’s proprietary framework for applying artificial intelligence to sustainable product design in a way that is credible, governable, and decision-ready.
As AI is increasingly used to accelerate life cycle assessments, fill data gaps, and model sustainability scenarios, many organisations face the same challenge:
AI tools advance faster than the organisation’s ability to decide where AI should meaningfully influence Sustainable Design decisions, and where human judgement must remain in control.
This framework exists to close that gap. Rather than starting with tools or pilots, Decision Intelligence Design™ focuses on designing the intelligence layer first:
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clarifying decision intent,
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defining AI agent roles,
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orchestrating insights across the product lifecycle, and
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ensuring traceability for regulatory, reputational, and strategic integrity.
It bridges strategy and technical implementation, helping organisations move forward with confidence rather than experimentation by default.
Framework progressive tiers
Tier 1: Decision Readiness Assessment
Purpose: Create clarity before commitment.
This tier focuses on understanding where AI is already influencing sustainability decisions, where it could add value, and where its use would create risk or false confidence.
It assesses:
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sustainability decision points across EcoDesign and product development
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current and potential AI use cases
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organisational readiness, governance, and decision ownership
Outcome:
A clear decision-readiness profile that distinguishes:
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use cases suitable to act on now
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emerging opportunities that require safeguards
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experimental areas that should not yet be scaled
This replaces intuition with shared understanding.
Tier 2: Advisory & Decision Structuring
Purpose: Move from insight to intentional action.
In this tier, Circoolar supports leadership teams in translating assessment insights into structured decisions, not scattered initiatives.
This includes:
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prioritising AI EcoDesign use cases based on value, risk, and readiness
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clarifying decision ownership and escalation paths
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designing safe experimentation spaces for emerging and experimental use cases
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aligning sustainability, innovation, and product leadership
Outcome:
Focused progress, reduced innovation fatigue, and clear mandates for what should proceed to implementation design.
Tier 3: Decision Intelligence Design™ (Implementation Design Layer)
Purpose: Design the intelligence before the technology.
This is the core differentiating layer of the framework.
Before any technical build begins, Circoolar designs how AI should think and interact with human decision-makers, including:
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AI Agent Concept Design - Defining the purpose, inputs, outputs, reasoning logic, decision boundaries, and risks of each AI agent supporting Eco-Design decisions.
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AI Orchestrator Concept - Designing how multiple AI insights are combined coherently across lifecycle stages, portfolios, and trade-offs, rather than producing disconnected outputs.
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Decision, Governance & Traceability Blueprint - Ensuring explainability, human-in-the-loop control, and evidence integrity aligned with regulatory and credibility requirements.
Outcome:
An implementation-ready intelligence architecture that preserves sustainability intent, reduces rework, and allows AI and IT teams to build the right system, not just a functional one.
What makes this Framework different
Decision Intelligence Design™ does not focus on:
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tools
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dashboards
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automation for its own sake
It focuses on:
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decision quality
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governance and accountability
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alignment between AI capability and sustainability responsibility
This is particularly critical in the context of evolving European regulations, where AI-influenced sustainability decisions must be explainable, traceable, and defensible.