The giant leap for smart cities: scaling up smart city artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) initiatives
Open accessAbstract
Despite the promise of AI and IoT, the efforts of many organizations at scaling smart city initiatives fall short. Organizations often start by exploring the potential with a proof-of-concept and a pilot project, with the process later grinding to a halt for various reasons. Pilot purgatory, in which organizations invest in small-scale implementations without them realizing substantial benefits, is given very little attention in the scientific literature relating to the question of why AI and IoT initiatives fail to scale up for smart cities. By combining extensive study of the literature and expert interviews, this research explores the underlying reasons why many smart city initiatives relying on Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) fail to scale up. The findings suggest that a multitude of factors may leave organizations ill prepared for smart city AIoT solutions, and that these tend to multiply when cities lack much-needed resources and capabilities. Yet many organizations tend to overlook the fact that such initiatives require them to pay attention to all aspects of change: strategy, data, people and organization, process, and technology. Furthermore, the research reveals that some factors tend to be more influential in certain stages. Strategic factors tend to be more prominent in the earlier stages, whereas factors relating to people and the organization tend to feature later when organizations roll out solutions. The study also puts forward potential strategies that companies can employ to scale up successfully. Three main strategic themes emerge from the study: proof-of-value, rather than proof-of-concept; treating and managing data as a key asset; and commitment at all levels.
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Factors contributing to the lack of scalability of many smart city initiatives that rely on AIoT include resource and capability constraints, overlooking the importance of comprehensive change, and the influence of different factors at different stages of implementation.
“In addition, Kuguoglu et al. [15] investigate the reasons behind the failure of many smart city initiatives that rely on AIoT to scale up. Through a combination of literature study and expert interviews, the study identifies various factors contributing to the lack of scalability. These factors include resource and capability constraints, overlooking the importance of comprehensive change, and the”
From Smarter eco-cities and their leading-edge artificial intelligence of things solutions for environmental sustainability: A comprehensive systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as [15]
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- Authors
- Kuguoglu, B. K., van der Voort, H., & Janssen, M.
- Affiliations
- Delft University of Technology (NL)
- Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, 2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands
- Corresponding author
- Janssen, Marijn
- ORCID
- Janssen, Marijn
- Venue
- Sustainability
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2021-11-07
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 21
- Pages
- 12295
- ISSN
- 2071-1050 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3211411448
- Cited by
- 68
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 4.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Lirias (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Research Repository (Delft University of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- European Commission
- Technische Universiteit Delft
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Media Technology › Smart Cities and Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Internet of Things and AI
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Impact of AI and Big Data on Business and Society
- Keywords
- smart cities, AIoT, scale-up, pilot project, implementation failure, organizational change, strategic factors, organizational commitment
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