Cristina Bueti: AI, Accountability, and the Next Urban Era

Cristina Bueti, Counsellor on Smart Sustainable Cities, AI-enabled Citiverse & Virtual worlds at International Telecommunication Union, joins The Century of Cities to explore a new phase of urban intelligence. She traces the shift from cities that once operated without real-time awareness to systems that can now sense, learn, and adapt. Yet even as cities solve major challenges, they remain exposed when yesterday's solutions collide with tomorrow's risks. Cristina introduces a compelling vision of cities as living systems, where artificial intelligence acts as a coordinating layer across infrastructure, services, and decision-making. The opportunity is transformative, but not inevitable. It will depend on how cities embed governance, accountability, and human-centred thinking alongside technological progress.