By Doreen Hemlock
Artificial Intelligence has the potential to transform cities, dramatically improving services from transport to health and safety. Yet Miami does not yet shine among the world’s leading cities using AI to drive efficiencies and boost their economies, according to a new survey.
Miami ranks in the middle-tier among 250 cities in 78 countries surveyed on their use of AI, since it has mobilized the technology only in limited ways so far. The top 49 cities considered world leaders – including Beijing, Melbourne, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Istanbul and Kuwait City – use AI more broadly in more varied applications, says the report, AI-Powered Cities of the Future, produced by research group ThoughtLab, in collaboration with corporate heavyweights ServiceNow, Deloitte and Nvidia.
“Miami is making great progress in AI adoption. It is already harnessing AI to streamline government operations and analyze large amounts of data through an AI-enabled city brain,” ThoughtLab CEO Lou Celi told RefreshMiami.com. “But unlike AI leader cities in our study, Miami has not yet fully implemented the use of AI to power its services across urban domains, such as transportation, safety, and infrastructure. “
The report lays out a data-backed roadmap for cities to harness AI and achieve the best results. The roadmap draws on interviews with city leaders, business leaders and academics and on research into evolving forms of AI. Some experts believe AI will become “an urban utility on par with others like electricity and water,” the report notes.
New forms of AI emerging
Today, more than half of the 250 cities surveyed use traditional AI across their urban domains. But new forms of the technology are emerging, starting with generative AI or GenAI, that will be game-changers, the study finds. GenAI lets cities draw on vast sets of data in any format, easily retrieve information, and generate content and analysis instantaneously. After that, Agentic AI will let take the technology to the next level by taking actions on the information without human guidance.
To mitigate risks from the newer forms, “cities are testing GenAI use cases in-house and setting policies for responsible use before rolling out AI solutions to external stakeholders. As urban leaders fine-tune their plans, the percentage of cities actively employing GenAI is expected to more than triple over the next three years,” the research finds.
Cities now using AI best
The survey categorized the 250 cities based on their use of AI into three groups: leaders, 20 percent; advancers like Miami, 60 percent; and adopters, 20 percent. In North America, leaders are Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Montreal, New Orleans, New York, Ontario, Quebec, San Antonio, San Jose, Seattle and Toronto. In Latin America, leaders are Mexico City and Brazil’s Curitiba, Niteroi and Sao Paulo.
The AI leaders appear to cope more effectively than other cities with urban challenges, from climate change to supply-chain shocks. “Crucially, AI upgrades the resilience of cities, helping them monitor and predict disruptions and recover from them quicker,” the report found.
A roadmap to AI leadership
To become a leader, the report suggests eight action steps for cities. First, make a top-down commitment to AI, backed with an adequate budget. “Often these plans begin at the national level and cascade down to cities,” the report says. “Over the next three years, AI leaders will outspend other cities on data and technology.”
Second, build a modern information-technology foundation. That involves gathering and integrating data from different urban domains and from external sources and putting them on a secure, cloud-based platform.
Third, develop AI skills, talent and processes. Six of every 10 cities leading in AI have appointed a head of AI for their area, for example, the study found.
Fourth, cultivate an innovation ecosystem, working with private, public and non-profit groups. That ecosystem involves tech startups, larger corporations, civil-society groups and utilities, among others.
Leaders next can take these four steps: fast-track AI adoption over varied urban domains; combine AI with other technologies – from biometrics to mobile apps – to supercharge results; focus on data security; and work to ensure responsible use of AI, recognizing the potential for misinformation, job displacement and other risks from the evolving technology, the report says.
ThoughtLab released a separate report last fall on “future-ready” cities that also found Miami to rank mid-tier among 250 metro areas and not among the world’s best-in-class. That report found Miami bogged down by challenges including income inequality, affordable housing, climate change and traffic.
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