Artificial Intelligence – Enabling Smarter Municipalities

One of the key differences between conventional and smart cities, towns or rural areas is the use of data and technology to make better decisions and the ability to implement these decisions efficiently, effectively, and, when possible, autonomously. The rapid development and roll-out of IoT technologies, the ability to store and process data at an ever-shrinking cost and the widespread adoption of cloud technologies enable the gathering of high-quality data with true richness, frequency and resolution. But without the technology to turn this data into intelligence, it would not be possible to harvest this added value. Artificial intelligence (AI) provides a set of techniques to extract the right insights from the existing data to enhance decision-making and lay the foundations for smart services. In this article, we first explain how AI works, which kinds of problems can be solved by applying intelligent algorithms, and how AI is already transforming the most relevant disciplines in the scope of a smart city. Then, we suggest a set of recommendations for municipalities to enable and manage the adoption of AI to make cities, towns and rural areas increasingly smart.