Cognitive Cities: The next frontier in urban evolution

Explore the transition from smart to cognitive cities with Varun Paul, Director at PwC Middle East. Discover how cities like the Line in Saudi Arabia, Telosa in the USA, and Seoul in Korea are leveraging data, AI, and next-gen digital infrastructure to become intelligent ecosystems. 

These cognitive cities are not just about technological advancement but are designed to learn, evolve, and proactively enhance inhabitants' well-being. From personalised digital wayfinding in mobility to AI-powered learning platforms in education and intelligent emergency response systems in public safety, we examine how cognitive technologies are transforming urban life across multiple sectors. Join us as we envision a future where cognitive cities shape sustainable, efficient, and livable urban landscapes. 

What is Tech-powered by PwC Middle East?

Explore human-led, tech-powered transformation.

Welcome to PwC Middle East’s “The Tech-powered” podcast series delivering the latest thinking from across the Middle East technology landscape with our tech leaders. A must-listen for innovators, industry leaders, and the tech-savvy who are eager to discover how tech shapes our digital world and the future.

Speaker 1: 00:05

Over the decades, cities have undergone significant evolution, driven by a complex interplay of urban challenges technological progress and a shared commitment to fostering livable, sustainable and efficient urban environments The adoption of smart infrastructure and the integration of ICT technology has set the stage for next evolutionary step that is the journey towards becoming cognitive where the cities use next generation technologies to create intelligent and responsive urban systems. At the core, Cognitive Cities harness the power of data, artificial intelligence and next generation digital infrastructure to transform cities into intelligent and adaptable ecosystems. These cities are not just technologically advanced, but also capable of learning from data evolving to changing circumstances proactively and autonomously delivering services and ultimately enhancing the well-being and livability of their inhabitants. Today, we witness numerous cities across the world including the line in Saudi Arabia, Telosa in United States, Seoul in Korea that have embarked on an ambitious journey to becoming cognitive cities. The impact of cognitive technologies on urban life is spanning across multiple sectors including mobility, banking, finance, education, so on and so forth.

Speaker 1: 01:29

Allow me to give you a couple of examples. In mobility, the cities are implementing personalized digital way finding that allows the resident to seamlessly move across the city and navigate across its assets, leveraging augmented reality. In education, cities are implementing AI powered personalized learning platforms that adapt to individual students' needs, enhancing learning outcomes. Furthermore, they are able to analyze students' performance data, identifying learning gaps and providing targeted recommendations supporting individuals' learning journey. In public safety, city are implementing intelligent emergency response systems that analyze multi sector sensor data and incoming reports for correlation to predict and prioritize incident response, thereby improving the resilience in the cities.

Speaker 1: 02:21

Going forward, I believe that cognitive cities represent a bold vision for the future of urban living. As we continue to embrace innovation, the evolution of Cognitive Cities is likely to shape urban landscapes of tomorrow. For more information, I would encourage you to read through our thought leadership in this space, Cognitive Cities, A Journey Into Intelligent Urbanism at pwc.com.