Smart cities are no longer just about sensors and data. Today, artificial intelligence is helping cities worldwide improve urban life for its citizens in innovative ways while saving money and delivering services in faster, more efficient ways. Whether through government WhatsApp chatbots, graffiti detection or urban tree health monitoring, AI is reshaping the way cities work.

Back in 2019, the Buenos Aires city government launched Boti, a WhatsApp chatbot originally designed to share COVID-19 updates. Since then, Boti has evolved into a citywide digital assistant. It now processes images sent by users (such as license plates for parking violations), alerts citizens of any real-time event, and allows residents to report crimes directly from WhatsApp. With its conversational tone, Boti is designed for locals but also supports English, making it also useful for visitors.

Its success demonstrates how AI-powered communication tools can strengthen trust and streamline services in urban environments.

Meanwhile, cities like Lisbon and Tempe, Arizona, are piloting AI-powered vision models to detect and map graffiti. By analyzing real-time data from cameras mounted on vehicles or drones, these advanced systems can spot new graffiti in real time, geo-tag affected areas and help city teams respond more quickly. This means city workers no longer must rely solely on citizen reports; instead, they can prioritize areas based on data-driven insights.

This proactive use of AI not only saves time and resources but also contributes for cleaner and safer cities. 

Tokyo is leveraging AI to monitor and protect its urban trees through the Plant Doctor system, developed by Waseda University and Ryukoku University. Using advanced computer vision powered by YOLOv8, DeepSORT and DeepLabV3+, the system analyzes images of street trees to detect signs of disease or pest damage.

Mounted on drones or vehicles, Plant Doctor tracks the health of individual leaves and enables proactive care. This ensures healthier urban forests, reduces costly maintenance and enhances the quality of public places in the city. 

In New York City, an AI company uses crowdsourced dashcam imagery for crosswalk inspections, enabling its model to analyze the conditions of individual paint lines and track conditions over time. Shanghai and Singapore have developed digital twins, allowing them to model the impact of urban planning efforts, such as new construction or mobility improvements. From the minute to the massive, AI is proving to be a powerful ally in city management.