AI is ubiquitous in the workplace. You’ve likely used it already to schedule meetings, take notes and supercharge research efforts. And with AI agents becoming more powerful and more popular, capabilities are about to expand even further.
But the office isn’t the only place where AI is thriving. Thanks to AI city planning efforts, artificial intelligence also is making big waves in local government, where civil servants are using it for data-driven problem solving in a variety of impactful domains. From improving traffic flows and bolstering water infrastructure to strengthening education and creating more inclusive communities, public-sector use cases abound.
To find out how cities around the world are using AI and other emerging technologies to support their residents, The Forecast embarked on a virtual tour of municipal AI all-stars. Here are 10 global destinations whose AI initiatives left a lasting impression:
Singapore
In 2023, the island nation of Singapore announced its AI Trailblazers initiative, which gives participating organizations free access to Google’s Gemini and Duet AI tools so they can quickly build and test AI applications that will stimulate Singapore’s economy and improve life for Singapore citizens.
So far, 84 businesses and government agencies have built more than 100 generative AI solutions for the country. One solution, for example, uses AI to assist in developing course content for teachers. Another collects available badminton courts based on users’ location and date preferences, allowing for effortless booking. (Unfortunately, it can’t improve the accuracy of players’ drop shots.)
Sydney, Australia
At the center of Australia’s $10 trillion property market is Sydney, the world’s second-most expensive city behind Hong Kong. Chris Pettit, director of the City Futures Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, has led multiple projects that help Sydney residents and city planners make more informed decisions.
“These decisions will have ramifications for the next 50 to 100 years,” Pettit told The Forecast. “You put in a new metro line, new apartments, you need credible information.”
One of Pettit’s most significant projects — the Rapid Analytics Interactive Scenario Explorer (RAISE) — leverages geospatial data, machine learning and big data visualization to create a world-class property evaluation model. A main driver of the project, Pettit said, was the increase in property values adjacent to critical infrastructure like metros and schools. To apply that knowledge in ways that can benefit local residents, the project created a toolkit that rapidly calculates property values using automated valuation models. Generated values can then be visualized on a map and overlaid with other location-based information to yield insights about real estate trends that are relevant to policymakers and city planners.
To commercialize the tool, the City Futures Research Centre partnered with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which wanted to automate its mortgage assessment process. When the tool grew to encompass more areas across Australia, tech company Property Exchange Australia (PEXA) purchased it.
Meanwhile, Pettit has continued championing public-sector AI solutions and efforts to bring them to citizens and civil servants who lack a technology background.
“We’ve had the rise of dashboards and story maps, which make it a lot easier for those non-techie users to come in and look at what’s going on around a city based on spatial maps that GIS folks put together. But what if you could talk to your map?” Pettit said. “There’s so much to your spatial functionality that isn’t at the fingertips of communities.”
To create that functionality, Pettit built MapAI to unlock geospatial data for urban planners and city officials. While expert coders can grab code for use in their own applications, novice users can use a map interface to quickly identify and analyze properties based on desired criteria — for example, properties located near train stations.
“We’re trying to harness the power of MapAI and other AI tools to make data and evidence more readily accessible to planners and those who are shaping our cities,” Pettit said.
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Amsterdam AI is designed to help the city of Amsterdam develop and deploy responsible AI technology. To make sure that it has the talent it needs to do so, the city’s two universities offer a joint master’s program in AI that allows students to expand their knowledge in real-world settings alongside major corporations.
As a result of these efforts, Amsterdam now has AI initiatives spanning nearly every sector. Medtech companies like Aidence and SkinVision, for example, use medical imaging AI applications to detect early signs of lung cancer and melanoma. Agtech company Sensoterra, meanwhile, creates wireless soil moisture sensors to help farmers improve their yields and use less water.
Clean energy and responsible fashion are two other areas where Amsterdam shines. Consider AMMP, for example, which is an Amsterdam-based startup that helps companies in emerging markets track performance and supply chain challenges, making renewable and hybrid energy systems more accessible. Or there’s Dexter Energy, which offers AI-based energy usage forecasts to identify grid imbalances. And in the fashion sector, Lalaland creates AI-powered, customizable virtual models that consumers can use to demo looks before they purchase them, thereby reducing returns and waste.
Helsinki, Finland
Finland’s capital city, Helsinki, is a hotbed of activity for AI city planning. Scott Shepard, founder and CEO of The #CitiesFirst Advisors + Podcast, managed a micromobility safety pilot project there in late 2023.
The project used computer vision powered by smart AI algorithms to harvest granular infrastructure data, offering a complete picture of sidewalk and bike path conditions, plus gaps to improve. Shepard was responsible for the entire thing, from overseeing sidewalk object detection to collecting data and training AI models.
“This innovative project was used to influence smarter urban planning and investment in infrastructure, encouraging active mobility, including walking and cycling,” Shepard told The Forecast.
Medellín, Colombia
As part of his #CitiesFirst Podcast, Shepard has interviewed 31 guests on topics like mobility, urbanism, AI, and decarbonization. In one 2024 episode, he spoke with Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogota, Colombia. The two explored the history of urbanism in Latin and South America, specifically highlighting Medellín for taking a grassroots, community-based approach to reclaiming public spaces.
“This is being done by using tech-driven approaches, such as tactical urbanism and AI visualizations, to calm traffic, make streets safer and provide for a more inclusive environment for all citizens,” Shepard explained.
Colombia is one of the top Latin American countries for AI investment. Medellín, in particular, has used a combination of technology and community input to improve its city. By leveraging data science, it has directed municipal investments at the areas that are most important to residents — like transportation and education. Its gondola system, for example, has cut commute time for poorer neighborhoods from 2 hours to 20 minutes, and one mayor put more than 20,000 teachers through training courses focused on innovative teaching approaches.
Sunnyvale, California, and Dearborn, Michigan, USA
The National League of Cities (NLC) works with more than 2,700 cities, towns and villages ranging from over 1 million residents to fewer than 5,000. Despite their diverse sizes and makeups, however, these cities and their leaders have a lot in common with each other — including an interest in using AI for city planning and operations.
Joshua Franzel, NLC’s senior executive and director for research and data analysis, told The Forecast that local governments want policies in place before beginning AI projects. To offer step-by-step guidance, NLC built the AI Toolkit for Municipalities.
“Local governments are looking for trusted partners to walk with them as they’re evaluating different tools and applications they might consider implementing,” Franzel said.
“We continue to update our online database that offers the policies and documentation that local governments are using around transparency, ethics and implementation so that other jurisdictions can look to them as a starting point to build their own policies that meet their local needs.”
One way cities are implementing AI is through translation offerings that make communities more inclusive. In Dearborn, Michigan, over half of the city’s 110,000 residents speak a language other than English. Dearborn uses AI to translate online content and provide chatbot assistance on its government websites. The virtual AI agents, powered by Google Cloud Contact Center AI, offer personalized interactions in English, Spanish and Arabic.
Sunnyvale, California, is using AI in a similar way for public meetings. Residents attending in-person city council meetings can access closed captioning powered by AI-enabled translation services.
Tucson, Arizona, USA
Cities also can use AI for forecasting and predictive maintenance. In Arizona, Tucson’s water department uses AI software to analyze over 4,600 miles of water pipes. Extracting trends and patterns from previous pipe failures, this analysis helps predict which pipes are most likely to fail, assigning risk scores to identify the most urgent needs.
A proactive approach benefits both the city and its constituents. Tucson can better manage its water infrastructure and target areas requiring repair. Residents, meanwhile, can turn on the tap without worrying about their water service going out at inopportune times.
New York, New York, USA
The Big Apple is such a fan of emerging technology that it developed the New York City AI Action Plan, which combines expertise and contributions from 50 city employees across 18 agencies. The plan includes intel on initial steps like establishing guiding principles and developing AI risk assessment and project review processes.
AI is enhancing public education, too. One example is the City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which teamed up with DataKind to increase graduation rates. To identify potential dropouts, they built an AI model to analyze 75 risk indicators, such as grades, attendance and credit hours. At-risk students receive a tailored support program with advisor coaching and specialized resources. Over two years, the AI-driven intervention program boosted John Jay’s senior graduation rate from 54% to 86%.
Washington, D.C., USA
The nation’s capital is a statistician’s dream thanks to the Open Data DC community, which offers city and government data to the public. It recently introduced the DC Compass AI assistant to help make sense of all the data.
DC Compass pulls from the jurisdiction’s open data portal to produce data visualizations, dashboards and chatbot functionality. Residents can learn about areas of interest, such as bike lane locations; traffic accidents over a given timeframe; and how the city incorporates data into operations, education and civic participation.
“Using data analytics to assess traffic flows not only impacts obvious things like commute time and getting across town, but also noise levels and local pollution levels,” Franzel said.
Mapping Out More AI Use Cases
Although it’s impossible to predict the future of emerging technology, at least one thing is certain: Government officials and city planners will continue exploring how they can use it to improve — and, in many cases, simplify — routine tasks and services.
As for AI city planning, enhancing quality of life for residents remains a top priority, according to Shepard. “Cities and urban planners need to first consider the specific needs of their local communities and citizens,” he said. “Work with communities to identify local needs — and pains — and work backward to employ the appropriate technologies, including AI, to help deliver better outcomes.”
Franzel outlined three key steps city leaders should use as a guide.
“First is having the right data-collection infrastructure in place to aggregate, store and on-demand pull the data when you need it,” he said. “The second piece is having the right folks on staff, or contractors that allow you to use the data to impact program and policy implementation. Third is communication. How do you communicate [findings] to elected officials, and how do they communicate to the public?”
For those worried about a potential AI takeover, Pettit offered a final piece of perspective. “We need cities that are livable, productive and resilient. All these AI advances are tools,” he said. “We’ve got to keep humans in the loop and use tools that provide useful insights so we can collectively check our cities to be better for everyone.”
Joey Held is a writer and podcaster based in Austin, Texas. He’s the founder of Fun Fact Friyay and the author of Kind, But Kind of Weird: Short Stories on Life’s Relationships. Connect with him on LinkedIn or BlueSky — he’s always happy to chat travel itineraries.