ThoughtLab is launching its latest global study of 250 cities that shows how city leaders are advancing their social, sustainability and economic goals.
A select group of cities are jumping ahead when it comes to being “future ready,” according to a global study, conducted by thought leadership research company ThoughtLab.
From Future Vision to Urban Reality is being launched at Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, which runs from 5-7 November.
Top future-ready cities
ThoughtLab conducted a worldwide benchmarking study of 250 cities in 78 countries, representing nine per cent of the world’s population. It categorised 50 of these cities as future ready; 150 as progressing toward future readiness; and 50 in an earlier stage of development. The top future-ready cities by region include:
- North America: Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, and Toronto
- Latin America: Buenos Aires, Caracas, Curitiba, Quito, and Rosario
- Europe: Edinburgh, Helsinki, Lyon, Madrid, and Vienna
- Middle East & Africa: Ankara, Doha, Kampala, Rabat, and Tehran
- Asia Pacific: Beijing, Guangzhou, Melbourne, Taipei, and Tokyo.
Some 92 per cent of future-ready cities say they are well prepared to overcome today’s urban challenges and are already making considerably more progress than other cities on their net-zero plans and other urban performance metrics on pollution, crime, safety and health.
Future-ready cities are well ahead of others in preparing their urban domains to meet the fast-changing needs of citizens and local businesses:
- They have made the most progress in safety, security and resilience, with nearly three-quarters of them reporting significant progress, compared with just 17 per cent of others
- About two-thirds of future-ready cities have also made considerable headway in environment and sustainability as well as citizen living, health, and trust
- Over half have made significant progress in transportation and urban infrastructure, which are more challenging domains due to years of inattention.
Lou Celi, CEO of ThoughtLab and director of the research programme, told SmartCitiesWorld that while some cities have made great headway in a number of areas, there are also some problems that are persisting.
“Urban obstacles can be really hard to overcome because they’re intertwined – a budget shortage goes hand-in-hand with economic issues, which in turn are linked with homelessness. So it’s very hard to unravel these challenges and deal with them," he said.
“Future ready cities realise that the solution is holistic. You can’t solve these problems through a one-dimensional approach. You need to get all the domains to work together.”
He adds that some of the most future-ready cities have put procedures in place to think outside of silos and bring their thinking together: “They bring this typically top-down approach where the head of smart cities or the CIO bring people together across domains, getting them to communicate more about the solutions, and coming up with holistic plans.”
The report highlights the three steps that successful metro areas take to futureproof their cities:
- transform their operating model to enhance governance, foster citizen engagement, and drive forward-looking plans;
- prioritise technology as a key driver of urban transformation, investing significantly more than their peers in digital initiatives; and
- drive continuous innovation across key urban domains, taking a comprehensive approach to transformation.
Celi continued: “Future-ready cities realise they cannot do it alone. They build vibrant ecosystems of innovation that bring together not just tech companies, startups and academia but other government organisations and agencies, nonprofits and community groups. These partnerships provide future-ready not just innovative ideas, but also digital capacity, resources, and talent.”
How AI is transforming cities
The study shows that artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how future-ready cities analyse data, create content, and perform tasks, allowing them to boost productivity, drive efficiencies, meet citizen needs, and provide new activities, like real-time scenario planning, which were formerly out of reach.
The ThoughtLab study revealed a growing divide: on average, over half of future-ready cities are actively using AI across domains, compared to less than a third of other cities. Future-ready cities have made the most significant progress in applying AI to government operations (66 per cent), citizen living and health (56 per cent), safety and resilience (52 per cent), and transportation (50 per cent).
Celi said one of the obstacles to maximising the benefit of AI is inadequate data. “Very often, cities face data silos, gaps, and inconsistencies, including conflicting data formats. “To be future-ready cities must gather data from across silos and urban domains to create a single source of truth. Then cities can use AI, and increasingly Gen AI, to provide stakeholders with more personalised experiences, as well as more personalised, and frictionless experiences.”
The sample included cities of varying locations, levels of economic development, and population sizes ranging from 50,000 to over 37.1 million. The result is an actionable playbook of the most effective strategies and digital solutions used by cities to address challenges and prepare for the future, accompanied with a report detailing 12 city profiles.
The study was sponsored by Axis Communications, Deloitte, FTI Consulting, GM, Intel, Itron, ServiceNow, and Wireside Communications.
The report can be downloaded at From Future Vision to Urban Reality.
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Quelle/Source: Smart Cities World, 05.11.2024
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