Smart city projects receive public stamp of approval

Most people around the world are willing to trade some personal liberties for better public services in smart cities, a new study shows. The smart cities study by Nutanix found out that two-thirds (66 per cent) believe facial recognition technology will do more good than harm when used to fight crime.

The study analysed survey data from over 7,700 residents and business executives in 19 large cities around the world, including Dubai, UAE to reveal how their priorities differ and align.

“Adoption of technologies such as IoT and AI play a critical role in creating a ‘Smart City’. IoT based solutions enable innovative use cases to enlighten smart cities and seamlessly integrate various city management systems,” said Aaron White, regional sales director, the Middle East at Nutanix.

Over two-thirds (70 per cent) of business respondents say the ability to access open government data is vital to their business. Nearly as many executives (69 per cent) say they are willing to share more data to secure the benefits of smart cities.

Citizens of Dubai emphasise keeping smart-city initiatives within budget while businesses want public authorities to plan for the long term and also ensure new smart city services are easy to use.

Read: Dubai and Abu Dhabi top table as smartest cities in Middle East

Wariness of large technology firms may be on the rise due to negative media coverage about privacy scandals, disruptions to jobs and other factors, but most respondents want their cities to be involved in smart city initiatives. Citizens expect they will create job opportunities, and executives hope they will spur innovation and create new market opportunities.

When asked to choose from a menu of technologies most integral to their town’s smart-city initiatives, the vast majority select 5G mobile, artificial intelligence (AI) and IoT. The same is true of business respondents, many of whom also point to data analytics and cloud computing.