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AI trailblazers meet in Sunderland at first AI CityXchange workshop
Digital leaders from across the UK attended the first AI CityXchange workshop in the city of Sunderland, run by SmartCitiesWorld and sponsored by Microsoft.
At a glance
Who: Sunderland City Council; Microsoft; SmartCitiesWorld.
What: SmartCitiesWorld, Sunderland City Council and Microsoft collaborated on the UK-first event in March, bringing together digital leaders from the public and private sectors to discuss opportunities for artificial intelligence in cities.
Why: The AI CityXchange workshop series is designed to help cities accelerate the practical adoption of artificial intelligence.
When: The event took place in March with future events to be held in London in June and Dublin later in the year.
SmartCitiesWorld, Sunderland City Council and Microsoft collaborated on the UK-first event in March, bringing together digital leaders from the public and private sectors to discuss opportunities for artificial intelligence (AI) in cities.
Sponsored by Microsoft, AI CityXchange is SmartCitiesWorld’s dedicated home for exploring how artificial intelligence is shaping the future of cities – from early experimentation through to large-scale, embedded deployment across services and systems. The AI CityXchange workshop series is designed to help cities accelerate the practical adoption of artificial intelligence. Future workshops take place in London in June 2026 and Dublin in September.
Inaugural AI CityXchange event
As a leading UK smart city, Sunderland was selected to host the first AI CityXchange event. Around 50 senior-level attendees convened for the lively, inspiring one-day workshop which featured several keynote speeches and breakout sessions.
“This was an inspiring day. With a roomful of the UK’s leading policymakers, city practitioners and partners, it was a chance for Sunderland to be at the heart of conversations about innovations in AI and data analytics,” said Liz St Louis, director of smart cities and enabling services at Sunderland City Council. “We’ve come away from the workshop reinspired and ready to make further impact.”
“Even AI leaders are learning every day. We’ve all come such a long way on an even longer journey”
SmartCitiesWorld senior editor Luke Antoniou added: “We had a fantastic day at the first AI CityXchange workshop. We were heartened by both the calibre of attendees and the openness of conversation – sharing knowledge and ideas was one of the driving motivators for establishing the AI CityXchange platform. It was a pleasure to host the first event in the smart city of Sunderland.”
Discussions covered potential uses of AI in the UK’s public services, where the technology is already beginning to transform contact centres, social care workflows, transport, policing, and multi‑agency collaboration. Speakers from local and combined authorities across the North East – including Sunderland City Council – brought this to life, showing how AI is improving services by creating faster responses and better deployment of resources. They also highlighted the biggest barriers, such as the quality of data and the significant resources required for data modelling, and how these can be mitigated in future.
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The North East is rapidly establishing itself as a national AI leadership region, according to speaker Jamie Hardesty of the North East AI Growth Zone. He explained how it boasts strong digital infrastructure and assets, such as two major data centres, and has a solid baseline for skills, innovation and AI uptake.
Another key theme from the event was the need for AI to be adopted responsibly to earn trust and create impact. Currently, pilot projects are taking place in many areas of public services, but cities are now looking to scale successfully and ensure positive impact without leaving people behind or overstepping on their data.
While the potential benefits to residents and communities are huge, the journey to deployment is long and complex. According to Robin Denton, director for local public services at Microsoft, AI transformation must be seen through four lenses: employee experience, citizen engagement, business processes, and innovation. The adoption journey will be long and phased, starting with employees using personal AI assistants, while later humans will set direction and AI agents will run processes end-to-end.
Liz St Louis added: “It’s clear that discussions have provided a lot of reassurance: many digital leaders feel they’re behind on the AI journey, but the workshop has shown how we’re all facing similar challenges, and even AI leaders are learning every day. We’ve all come such a long way on an even longer journey.”
Find out more about AI CityXchange workshops and Sunderland’s Smart City programme.
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