ThoughtLab: Urban Experts Come Together to Study How 250 Cities Are Becoming Future Ready in the AI Era

With social and environmental challenges growing in urban areas, and mobility, infrastructure, and digital systems failing to keep up with citizen and business expectations, cities need to act now to harness AI and other emerging technologies to become future ready. To help urban leaders develop implementation roadmaps for the future, ThoughtLab, a leading global research firm, has joined forces with a broad group of business, government, and academic leaders to launch a comprehensive benchmarking study examining the strategies and investment plans of 250 cities to meet future citizen and local business needs.

This landmark study, titled From Future Vision to Urban Reality, will explore how cities in different locations, and with varying populations and income levels, are reinventing themselves across the urban environment—from infrastructure, mobility, and energy to public safety, health, sustainability, and education. The data-driven research will provide actionable insights into nine key urban initiatives:

1. Harness AI and other emerging technologies
2. Unlock the full power of data
3. Design infrastructure fit for future purpose
4. Develop people- and planet-centric mobility
5. Innovate through wider ecosystems
6. Achieve sustainable development goals
7. Build resilience for a riskier world
8. Ensure citizen buy-in, trust, and equity
9. Find new funding avenues and business models

Building an AI-empowered city

To help urban leaders address rapid technological change, the study will focus on how trail-blazing cities use AI and other emerging technologies—together with new business models and partnership ecosystems—to spur innovation, resilience, sustainability, and economic growth. It will explore a growing set of AI use cases, from optimizing traffic flows and minimizing carbon footprints to enhancing public safety and healthcare services. The research also will identify policies and practices for ensuring the responsible and secure use of AI and data by cities, with a focus on the newest form of AI, generative AI.

“In the ever-evolving landscape of urban development, AI—and particularly generative AI—has become a transformative force, promising unparalleled advancements in smart city planning and management,” says Lou Celi, ThoughtLab’s CEO and the project director. “However, the path forward remains uncertain, with AI’s enormous upside clouded by its potential downside. That is why an urban AI playbook based on evidence-based research and benchmarking is so crucial for cities today.”

An operational playback for the future

As cities implement key elements of their future-ready visions and move from pilots to scale, they need trusted benchmarking analysis and strategic insights to ensure they make the right decisions. This valuable research, which will be freely available in the public domain, will provide urban leaders with a portfolio of decision support including:

• An in-depth thought leadership report on how 250 cities are drawing on emerging technology, wider ecosystems, and innovative business models to implement their future visions.
• Best practice profiles of 15 cities around the world that are ahead of the curve in critical areas of future readiness across urban domains.
• A benchmarking database comparing the future-ready goals, strategies, and investment plans of 250 cities across locations, income levels, and population sizes

A coalition of leading urban experts

The research coalition for From Future Vision to Urban Reality consists of:

• Global businesses, including Axis, Deloitte, FTI Consulting, GM, Intel, Itron, and ServiceNow
• Multilateral organizations, including the World Bank and UNECE
• Associations and think tanks, including Anbound, Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA), Fiware, Resilient Cities Network, Open Sustainability Collaborative, SmartCitiesWorld, and United Cities
• Academic institutions, including Arizona State University, IESE Business School, University of Pennsylvania Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR), Rochester Institute of Technology - Dubai, Stuttgart Technology University of Applied Sciences, and University of Southern California
• Government and transportation leaders from Almaty City, Barcelona, Bucaramanga, Cary, Chicago, Clark County, Dublin, Kyiv, Los Altos Hills, New York, Philadelphia, Drancy, Seattle, Trondheim, and others.

About ThoughtLab

ThoughtLab is an innovative thought leadership firm that creates fresh ideas through rigorous research and economic analysis. We specialize in assessing the economic, financial, and social impact of technology on cities, companies and industries. Our services include fielding business, consumer, investor, and government surveys; organizing executive interviews, meetings, and advisory groups; conducting economic modeling, benchmarking, and performance analysis; and developing white papers, eBooks, infographics, and interactive analytical tools.

Find out more on www.thoughtlabgroup.com.

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