In future, it may be possible for a municipality to employ artificial intelligence (AI) as a municipal official to inform better decision making. The City of Cape Town has laid a foundation that could create such a possibility, an AI-driven city in the future.
The city has launched its data strategy, with the aim of improving service delivery. Data is an important element in the process of using AI to solve challenges. In the absence of quality data, the city would not be able to create an AI-driven city.
It is not the first time the city is attempting the use of data as part of its weapon in addressing service delivery issues.
In its first attempt a while back, the municipality launched an Open Data Initiative and later, a data portal. The initiative experienced challenges with the process of getting quality data. It’s also important to note that the initiative had limited capacity in terms of staff to implement the data initiative. As a result of challenges experienced with the Open Data initiative, the city changed its approach and tried to resolve internal data issues.
In 2018, the City created an internal administrative data strategy. Since taking the crucial step, a lot of work has gone into turning administrative data into useful and pertinent business information that supports decision-making and boosts efficiency and transparency.
The newly launched data strategy is designed to enable better services through evidence-led decision-making, as well as inform better planning for the future.
The City of Cape Town is not alone in the implementation of its data strategy. The City has secured three-year technical advisory services with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, to support the implementation of the first data strategy. Since the establishment of the partnership, the City has developed internal capacity and has established a data science team. Now the city has a Chief Data Officer, Hugh Cole, to oversee the implementation of its data strategy.
The city seems to be getting benefits from changing its approach. Some projects that have benefited from the better use of data are the data-driven approach to the Covid-19 response, and data-driven infrastructure asset management. This is a step in the right direction by the City of Cape Town.
However, this is just one part of addressing the data challenge. It will not be easy to get quality data from township communities. Speaking during the launch, Lungelo Mbandazayo, the City of Cape Town Manager indicated that township communities are not reporting their challenges through channels created by the city.
Speaking during the launch, the City of Cape Town manager indicated that township communities were not reporting their challenges through channels created by the City. In the absence of data from township communities, it could be difficult to effectively use data in addressing service delivery issues. The reality is that it’s one thing to have a data strategy and executives in the data space, but something else altogether to ensure that residents share data with the municipality.
In order to succeed with data, there’s a need to create data communities that can enable the city to extract data beyond the government environment. Part of the process would have to include working with businesses and the broader start-up community.
More importantly, part of the process would have to include genuinely working with township communities. As the City of Cape Town restarts the process of engaging the public about using data to address service delivery, may it inspire more cities to do the same. Hopefully, this will one day create AI-powered cities.
Wesley Diphoko is the editor-In-chief of FastCompany (SA) magazine. He is also a founder of Lunttu, a community platform designed to turn townships into smart-townships.
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