As the world's population grows and urbanization accelerates, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPS) are facing an increasing pressure to supply high-quality wastewater. AI is a brand associated with water technology companies, writing Xylem Vue, with a focus on analytics, smart sensors and AI.
Directives such as the EU Directive 2024/3019, the US Clean Water Act (CWA), and the Japan Water Pollution Control Act set stricter standards for wastewater reuse with high quality requirements. This poses challenges for WWTP as these standards require advanced technologies such as membrane filtration and disinfection, continuous monitoring with IoT sensors, and promoting energy neutrality through anaerobic digestion.
wwtps integrates AI
Pablo Montalvillo, water consultant at Xylem Vue, said the integration of AI technology and digital twins in wastewater treatment plants “represents a transformative approach to improving operational efficiency, reducing costs, making decisions and achieving sustainability goals.”
“The challenges include ensuring data quality, implementing processes, and integrating these new digital tools into the organizational culture.”
As highlighted in the recently published Xylem Vue report, Water Technology Trends 2025: The Revolution of Water ManagementAI use in therapeutic plants is currently around 10% to 15%, primarily for large utilities. In 2025, this figure is expected to rise to 25-30% as AI solutions become more cost-effective and deliver clearer returns.
This trend will continue to gain momentum over the next few years. Experts predict that by 2035, AI will become mainstream in 40-60% of large and medium WWTPs in developed countries, driving sector-wide compliance, safety and efficiency.
AI is moving towards wastewater treatment
This paradigm shift places AI and the Digital Twins as key components in advances in water treatment technology. Therefore, in “Water Technology Trends 2025: The Water Management Revolution,” Xylem Vue has identified six important trends in these technologies in water treatment.
- Operational optimization. AI model Models fine-tuning processes such as chemical administration and energy use, reducing operational costs, and ensuring regulatory compliance. It also meets quality standards, reduces carbon footprint and saves costs.
- Data-driven process optimization. By leveraging big data analytics and machine learning, treatment system optimization (TSO) solutions streamline wastewater treatment by improving processes such as real-time aeration, chemical administration, and sludge retention. TSO adopts decision intelligence to provide actionable insights and ensures compliance with drainage standards while minimizing energy and chemistry use.
- Predictive maintenance. AI detects data patterns and predicts equipment failures, minimizing downtime and extending asset lifespan.
- Enhance decision-making. Real-time insights help you make faster and more informed decisions.
- Sustainability. AI-driven solutions reduce environmental impact and promote efficient resource use.
- Water reuse. The increased rarity of water promotes the implementation of technologies that allow for safe reuse of treated water for applications such as agricultural irrigation and urban use, contributing to sustainability and conservation of water resources.
- Finally, emission control and hydraulic efficiency. IoT sensors and big data enable real-time monitoring of sanitary networks and WWTPS, discharge detection, and optimizing hydraulic performance.
Convert wwtps to smart facility
Digital transformation is transforming wastewater treatment plants into smart, sustainable facilities that meet the rapidly changing demands of the world. “WWTP achieves a higher level of operational efficiency, better regulatory compliance and more sustainable environmental management thanks to real-time monitoring, predictive analytics and automation,” said Montalvillo of Xylem Vue. “These technologies also allow for the conversion of wastewater treatment residues into water reclamation centers and biorefinery, which can convert wastewater treatment residues into valuable resources such as energy, biogas, biofertilizers and other useful products.”
