Technology, Data and City Government Innovation

CGI Lab | Research Studio 02

This research studio investigates the conditions under which European city governments can transition to AI-first, data-driven, digital public institutions — organisations capable of creating value not merely through more efficient processing of existing tasks, but through fundamentally new configurations of human expertise, agentic systems, and urban data infrastructure.

The city of 2035 will be digital by default: data-driven and AI-first. It will inherit even more complex and challenging operating, environmental, social, and technical challenges with increasingly diverse stakeholders. To achieve this, city leaders and managers will need to properly understand AI technology and data, including how to design and maximise the benefits of these technologies. Senior leaders will need insights on cutting-edge urban AI and data practices across multiple sectors.

From transport to policing, from utilities management to underground asset registers, and to support purposeful city planning – strategic knowledge of data and AI will be essential. Whether city leaders deliver services in-house or contract out, choose policies that veer towards the state or market, the ability to adopt, adapt and utilise data and AI technology will have a prime position in urban policymaking. Their understanding of how digital technology, including agentic and generative AI and data, fundamentally alter the way value is created and create new opportunities to organise our work differently will be critical to leverage the potential capabilities of these tools.

The research program of the studio is motivated by two foundational questions that are driven by this vision. First, how can we design digital infrastructure, including data lakes, that will be the foundation of future data-driven, AI-first city government with sovereignty, security, efficiency, and responsibility in order to steward limited resources towards economic growth, citizen inclusion and enhanced security? Second, artificial intelligence technology, particularly generative and agentic AI, is developing at an unprecedented rate. How can European cities leverage this powerful technology to drive innovation? Autonomous systems are already performing significant administrative and operational functions in leading private-sector organisations — scheduling, procurement, citizen-facing service delivery, compliance monitoring, resource allocation.

Beginning in July 2026, this three-year applied research programme will investigate these issues. Please contact us if you would like to get involved or have suggestions on the research. There will be a series of academic and policy-focused publications linked to the programme.