Six European cities have joined forces in an EU-funded project to develop artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the fields of energy and mobility.
 
The AI4Cities project brings together Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Paris, Stavanger and Tallinn to help the cities reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support them in meeting their climate change commitments.
 
The project runs from now until December 2022. The cities will be guided by ICLEI’s procurement team and go through a pre-commercial procurement (PCP) process, a tool that enables the public sector to steer the development of new services directly towards its needs.
 
First, the buying authorities will define the needs and requirements in the energy and the mobility fields they would like to see developed to move towards carbon neutrality. Then, they will challenge start-ups, SMEs, bigger companies and other relevant stakeholders to design innovations applying the use of AI and related enabling technologies, such as 5G, IoT, cloud computing and big data applications.
 
AI4Cities is divided into five main phases. During the preparation phase (Phase 0), the procuring cities will organise a series of activities – roundtables, workshops, and matchmaking events, among others – aimed at ensuring the open market consultation is an ambitious co-creation exercise.
 
The PCP process will consist of a design phase (Phase 1), a prototype phase (Phase 2) and a prototype testing phase (Phase 3). AI4Cities will reach the supply side to select and fund a minimum of 40 contractors (20 for the energy challenge and 20 for the mobility challenge) who, during Phase 1, will present their reports with a concept design, results of their feasibility studies and conclusions.
 
Then, a minimum of 20 contractors – ten for each of the two challenges – will be invited to develop their prototypes in Phase 2. Finally, a minimum of six contractors (three and three) will make it into Phase 3 where a series of larger scale pilots will be undertaken.
 
To increase the potential impact of the project, a group of cities will be recruited to follow the PCP process and support the uptake of the outcomes. The final stage (Phase 4) will focus on the implementation of the tested services.