Cities not ready for AI – even the world's smartest can't handle getting any smarter

No city in the world is ready for the disruption that artificial intelligence (AI) will bring. This is the conclusion of a new review by management consultancy Oliver Wyman, which considers the readiness of 105 cities to cope with AI-inspired digital change, and finds even the smartest need to make urgent and "significant improvements". The study ranks cities on four criteria: the quality of their plan (defined as'vision'); their ability to execute on it ('activation'); the quality of their talent and infrastructure ('asset base'); and how the interplay of these last two, their activation and assets, impact their overall momentum ('trajectory'). Singapore is most prepared overall, the report says, with an average score of 75.8 out of 100 across the four criteria. But the review states no city is even close to being fully prepared.