Artificial intelligence is often pitched as a revolution. But in cities, its true power lies in making everyday life less dramatic. Less waiting. Less form-filling. Less chasing.

Using AI for smart cities isn’t about flashy tech—it’s about quietly fixing what’s broken, removing friction, and improving daily life without demanding attention.

At KnowNow Information, we work where AI meets civic systems: housing, environment, social services, for example; and our experience tells us something important – the potential is huge, but most cities are not yet ready to benefit from it.

And that’s not a tech problem. It’s a readiness problem.

From Bureaucracy to Flow  

Civic government is deeply bureaucratic by design. Almost every service requires a form, a wait, and often a follow-up. For citizens, it’s frustrating. For employees, it’s inefficient. For budgets, it’s unsustainable.

AI has the potential to shift this entirely.

Take our work with several London Boroughs, where we’ve implemented automated customer care systems for housing applications. These solutions not only reduced staffing requirements, they improved customer service at the same time. AI didn’t take over; it simply removed the friction.

This is where AI truly shines: speeding up the journey between a citizen’s need and its resolution.

The Best Government Experience? No Experience at All.  

Citizens don’t wake up hoping to interact with local government. In fact, the best experience is often no experience.

That’s why we focus on invisibility. An effective AI system should remember where a citizen left off, complete backend processes without needing repeated input, and avoid interrupting unnecessarily.

The goal is to remove the sense of effort. The citizen shouldn’t have to remember a reference number or guess which department to contact. A citizen-first approach designs systems that work for people, not the other way around.

Data Is a Human Problem  

Many assume the obstacle to AI transformation is technical infrastructure. In truth, it’s cultural.

Departments often treat data as property, something they own and protect rather than something to share for the common good. This is especially true when each department defines a “citizen” differently, leading to incompatible systems and fragmented insight.

Chris Cooper, our CTO, has written that true transformation starts by moving out of silos. His five key recommendations for digital cities include:

• Starting with a clear vision;

• Defining principles that protect people and support sustainability;

• Establishing a framework of outcomes to measure success;

• Creating data points that back up those outcomes;

• And most importantly, standardising data so it’s trusted, usable, and accessible across departments.

Progress doesn’t begin with tools, it begins with alignment.

AI for Smart Cities Means Action, Not Just Answers  

While generative AI tools are dominating headlines, AI for Smart Cities must go beyond conversation. Real transformation depends on action, not just answers.

At KnowNow, we’ve been building agentic AI systems over the past year using platforms like IBM watsonx.orchestrate and Datastax Langflow. These systems go beyond chat. They integrate into business processes, complete actions, and reduce the need for human intervention behind the scenes.

There’s a difference between telling a citizen their request has been received, and actually processing that request in real time. That’s where agentic AI delivers real value.

Start Where the Risk Is Low and the Benefit Is High  

We’ve learned to take a “start small, prove value” approach.

When deploying WatsonX Assistant in local government, we often begin with non-contentious but high-impact areas – like monitoring accounts payable -before moving into sensitive services like social care.

This builds confidence. Councils can see real outcomes early. And it opens the door to broader, deeper transformation.

It also echoes Chris’s point about linking the vision to achievable, measurable outcomes. It’s not just about trying new things, it’s about knowing why you’re doing them and proving they work.

Invisible Success Is Still Success  

The most powerful effect of AI in a smart city isn’t that it dazzles, it’s that things just work.

Whether that means automated housing queries, proactive maintenance alerts, or smoother payments, the end result should feel intuitive and simple. And when that happens, we know we’re on the right path.

That’s the bar: AI that disappears into the background, quietly powering better services, while letting people get on with their lives.

At KnowNow, our aim isn’t to build cities that seem futuristic, it’s to build ones that work better today, without shouting about it.