World Cities Day 2025 celebrates “People-centred Smart Cities”—a vision worth pursuing and one that requires that we explore what it means to truly center people in our vision of the future.  

The smart city narrative promises elegant solutions: sensors, algorithms, and data analytics making cities more efficient, sustainable, and livable. Yet across cities worldwide, these technologies often end up serving goals quite different from resident well-being.

In Hangzhou, China, Alibaba’s “City Brain” system uses AI and surveillance cameras to monitor traffic and public behavior, raising significant concerns about mass surveillance and privacy violations. India’s smart cities mission has channeled billions toward technological infrastructure in cities like Bhopal and Pune, yet critics note these investments have done little to address basic housing, sanitation, or affordability crises affecting millions.

“Innovation districts” follow a familiar pattern worldwide. Barcelona’s 22@ district transformed industrial neighborhoods into tech hubs, with property prices increasing by €3,000 per square meter over a decade, displacing longtime residents. Similar projects promise revitalization but deliver gentrification and exclusion.

AI-powered tenant screening systems increasingly deny housing based on algorithmic assessments that perpetuate discrimination. These systems, now used by landlords globally, often embed biases that would be illegal if implemented by humans directly, yet operate with limited oversight or accountability. When cities address homelessness through technology, the pattern intensifies. Across multiple continents, municipalities deploy apps for reporting encampments and “hostile architecture” designed to prevent sleeping in public spaces. Technology becomes a tool for making poverty invisible rather than addressing its causes.

Read full article on Beyond the Smart City: Whose Intelligence Matters?