The Organizational Transformation of Artificial Intelligence in Smart Cities: An Urban Artificial Intelligence Governance Maturity Model

Source abstract

The transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in urban management is severely constrained by pervasive systemic fragmentation. While AI applications demonstrate high efficacy within isolated domains, they rarely achieve the cross-domain integration necessary for realizing systemic benefits. Our prior research identified this fragmentation paradox, revealing that 91.5% of urban AI implementations operate at the lowest levels of integration. While the Urban Systems Artificial Intelligence Framework (UAIF) offers a technical blueprint for integration, realizing this vision is contingent upon organizational readiness. This paper addresses this critical gap by introducing the Urban AI Governance Maturity Model (UAIG), developed using a Design Science Research methodology. Distinguished from generic maturity models, the UAIG operationalizes Socio-Technical Systems theory by establishing a direct Governance-Technology Interlock that specifically links organizational maturity levels to the engineering requirements of cross-domain AI. The model defines five maturity levels across five critical dimensions: Strategy and Investment; Organizational Structure and Culture; Data Governance and Policy; Technical Capacity and Interoperability; and Trust, Ethics, and Security. Through illustrative applications, we demonstrate how the UAIG serves as a diagnostic tool and a strategic roadmap, enabling policymakers to bridge the gap between technical possibility and organizational reality.