The wastewater sector is undergoing a major transformation as wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) become water resource recovery facilities (WRRF). Artificial intelligence (AI) supports data exploitation to accelerate this transition as the deployment of AI-powered tools in production, compared to existing treatment technologies, is much faster. This limits AI’s full use in driving the change from WWTPs to WRRFs. The EU-funded DARROW project will design (and demonstrate in an operational environment) an innovative modular and flexible data-driven AI solution to make existing WWTPs more autonomous, energy efficient, and better prepared for their transformation into WRRFs. The initiative will exploit existing AI and data analysis techniques by reducing WRRF’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, increasing resource recovery and improving water quality.