Smart Cities' AI Moment

Surging AI capabilities are reigniting smart city programs. City leaders have an opportunity to seize the moment — or risk getting left behind for good.

This piece originally appeared in the August 23, 2023 print edition of Technology Integrator.

By Mary Ames, August 23, 2023

Source: Midjourney by author

DIGITAL UTOPIAS

You could be forgiven for thinking that “Smart Cities,” those digital utopias full of automatic street lights and self-emptying garbage bins, are as outdated as skinny jeans and Warby Parker frames. 

The concept, which popularised a new vision of the government-citizen interface, defined by universal wi-fi, app-based city services and shared data, powered by public-private partnerships with global technology companies, was born out of the 2008 financial crisis.  Over the next decade, a tidal wave of smart city projects were announced, each promising to harness the smart phone-powered digital revolution that was reshaping consumer behaviours and expectations of what defined a “good” service.

DUBAI ON STAGE

Dubai was an award-winning leader of the Smart City movement. Smart Dubai was launched in 2014 with a vision to make Dubai the happiest city on earth, by way of technological innovation.

Smart Dubai introduced DubaiNow, the unified app for all government services; launched the Dubai Data initiative to streamline and synthesise government data; crafted the Dubai Blockchain Strategy making Dubai a global hub for development of the boundary-breaking technology; set up an artificial intelligence lab in partnership with IBM; advocated for an Internet of Things to intelligently manage city operations, and forged global partnerships with government and industry leaders hoping to learn from Dubai’s success story.

But by the end of the decade, enthusiasm for smart cities had dimmed.

Across the globe, once-prominent smart city programs were quietly shutting down, having never quite delivered on their promise. While Dubai has undoubtably succeed in its mission to usher in a citywide digital transformation, even Smart Dubai registered the waning appeal of the ‘smart city’ moniker. The government department rebranded to Dubai Digital Authority in 2021.

SMART CITIES TODAY

So, where does that leave smart cities today? 

The technological innovations that ignited the smart cities movement are now entry-level requirements for global competitiveness. For government leaders, digital is no longer a choice. From service delivery to environmental protection to equity and inclusion, a robust, secure and available digital infrastructure is essential to sustain a productive and healthy community.

Digital government infrastructure was put to the ultimate test during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cities that were able to seamlessly transition to digital services minimised disruption to daily needs and realised an inestimable impact from digital connectivity on community resilience. 

Now, a new wave of digital disruption is challenging city leaders to imagine anew the relationship between government, technology and citizen services.

Long before Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook to Meta and Elon Musk turned Twitter into X, artificial intelligence and digital twins were favourite talking points of smart city pioneers. Now that the technology is here, what will city leaders do about it?

Metaverse technology holds enormous potential for city leaders. Using spatial computing to manipulate a 3D model of the city, also known as a digital twin, city managers can monitor and respond to vital city operations in real-time. The model also enables municipal workers to conduct of simulations of emergency scenarios, improving readiness and response times should the worst happen. 

THE CHOICE

The combined powers of a digital twin city connected to live data from an IoT network, run through a generative AI program to analyse patterns and implement solutions in real-time, paints a tantalising picture of a new smart city that is able to, essentially, run itself. 

The public has already seen the real power of AI, through programs like ChatGPT and a myriad others. It will be only a matter of time before they turn their attention to government services and wonder, “shouldn’t my city be able to do that?” 

City leaders will need to be ready. It’s time to get smart.