Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most disruptive technologies of our time. Interest in the use of AI for urban innovation continues to grow. Particularly, the rise of smart cities—urban locations that are enabled by community, technology, and policy to deliver productivity, innovation, livability, wellbeing, sustainability, accessibility, good governance, and good planning—has increased the demand for AI-enabled innovations. There is, nevertheless, no scholarly work that provides a comprehensive review on the topic. This paper generates insights into how AI can contribute to the development of smarter cities. A systematic review of the literature is selected as the methodologic approach. Results are categorized under the main smart city development dimensions, i.e., economy, society, environment, and governance. The findings of the systematic review containing 93 articles disclose that: (a) AI in the context of smart cities is an emerging field of research and practice. (b) The central focus of the literature is on AI technologies, algorithms, and their current and prospective applications. (c) AI applications in the context of smart cities mainly concentrate on business efficiency, data analytics, education, energy, environmental sustainability, health, land use, security, transport, and urban management areas. (d) There is limited scholarly research investigating the risks of wider AI utilization. (e) Upcoming disruptions of AI in cities and societies have not been adequately examined. Current and potential contributions of AI to the development of smarter cities are outlined in this paper to inform scholars of prospective areas for further research.
Highlights
There exists a strong scientific consensus that anthropogenic climate change is the biggest crisis of our time [1,2]
Further research is needed to consolidate the knowledge in the field; The central focus of the literature is on Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, algorithms, and their current and prospective applications; AI applications in the context of smart cities mainly concentrate on business efficiency, data analytics, education, energy, environmental sustainability, health, land use, security, transport, and urban management areas, and; Upcoming disruptions of AI on cities and societies have not been adequately investigated in the literature; further investigations are needed on that issue
The study reported in this paper offers a novel contribution to the literature by mapping out the scientific landscape of the understudied ‘AI and the smart city’ area
Summary
There exists a strong scientific consensus that anthropogenic climate change is the biggest crisis of our time [1,2]. These efforts provided some hope, despite the political and policy quagmires in many countries. In recent years, with the advancement of the current digital revolution, a large portion of policymakers, practitioners, and scholars have increased their faith in smart urban technologies to mark a major turning point in the history of humankind [9]. This technocentric view—in solving urban and environmental problems with the aid of technology—has increased the popularity of the ‘smart cities’ notion [10]. These cities— referred to as ‘geographies of disruption’ [11]—harness digital technologies to offer new business opportunities, shape the urban fabric, improve the quality and performance, and overcome many of the challenges confronted by urban areas [12]
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