Proptech has a big role to play in the development of a smart city. Smart cities are a new concept derived from the desire to use technology for good to improve the human existence within the environment of a city. It lies at the intersection of technology, government and policy. It requires technologies focused on transportation, built environment, and natural resources. Understanding that the main driver of a smart city is a municipal government, we should expect different adoption rates across the US. I believe though as cities compete with one another for residents, the pace to adopt smart city initiatives will accelerate.
There are three main components to smart-city infrastructure that are required to sustain the operations:
First, at the heart of any smart cities, proptech solutions or business enterprises is its broadband communications network. You can not have a smart city without a robust network. Our recent Proptech Genius podcast with Todd Thorpe highlights some of the issues – https://youtu.be/edrcfW2A6kw?si=wU43mtTecekP7w9B
Second requirement is a robust data center infrastructure. An developing issue is the lack of available power. Data centers are becoming more and more prevalent and our aging electrical infrastructure isn’t able to keep up. According to DigitalBridge CEO, Marc Ganzi, power will run out in two years. This article highlights this point: https://www.lightreading.com/ai-machine-learning/data-centers-to-run-out-of-power-in-two-years-says-digitalbridge-ceo
The last requirement is AI. You can’t really have smart cities if some form of artificial intelligence isn’t used. The millions of points of data and decision-making ability an infrastructure needs to make to have an agile, smart city requires an AI engine. This article showcases the need for AI: https://technologymagazine.com/articles/how-iot-and-ai-are-driving-more-sustainable-smart-cities
I believe that smart cities are the way of the future. We just have some challenges to get there.
