Smart cities are forecast to create ‘significant’ business opportunities with a market value of $2.46 trillion by 2025, new analysis finds.

An uncertain post-pandemic situation, according to Frost & Sullivan, will compel smart cities to focus on developing collaborative, data-driven infrastructure to provide appropriate healthcare facilities as well as public security services.

Smart initiatives

Investments in smart initiatives are also expected to rise over the next two years. Smart cities have already invested in contact-tracing wearables and apps, open data platforms, autonomous drones, and crowd analytics to fight the pandemic, notes the research and consulting firm.

“Smart cities will focus on data-driven and connected infrastructure, which will lead to higher adoption of technologies like AI and 5G,” said Malabika Mandal, visionary innovation group industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

“They will prioritise more digitalised services and a strong data analytics infrastructure, leading to increased spending toward technology.”

“Now more than ever, the strategy of being technology-first, optimistic, and focused on ‘smart’ is critical”

Post-pandemic, investment in smart projects like smart grids, intelligent traffic management, autonomous vehicles, smart lighting, e-governance services and data-enabled public safety and security will gain traction.

Frost & Sullivan’s key findings on smart cities include:

• Smart cities’ spending on technology in the next six years is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22.7 per cent, reaching $327bn by 2025 from $96bn in 2019. Technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and big data will be in high demand to combat the pandemic, with growing opportunities for crowd analytics, open data dashboards, and online city services
• There will be more than 26 smart cities by 2025, with 16 in North America and Europe
• More than 70 per cent of global smart city spending by 2030 will be from the US, Western Europe, and China. Smart cities in the US and Europe will continue spending on 5G and autonomous and robotic technologies Almost all smart cities in the US and Europe have already invested in open-data initiatives during the pandemic. In addition, China has renewed investments in 5G, smart grids, AI, data centres, and other smart city-related areas through the “new infrastructure initiative” introduced in 2018
• Growing demand for crowd management and monitoring in smart cities will lead the crowd analytics market to grow by 20-25 per cent by 2030. It had market revenues of $748.6m in 2020. Crowd analytics can be used to access collective real-time data. It can help ensure proper public healthcare services, traffic movement, and security and surveillance services across the smart city.

“Now more than ever, the strategy of being technology-first, optimistic, and focused on ‘smart’ is critical. While Covid-19 has largely been a health crisis, it has disrupted city ecosystems and infrastructure tremendously,” added Archana Vidyasekar, visionary innovation group industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

“Smart technologies offer innovative solutions that can reverse the damage and bring some respite, if not normalcy. For instance, digital contact-tracing can play a critical role in empowering citizens with knowledge of Covid-impacted areas and promote safer urban movement.”

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