IoT in the city: what’s next for smart cities
July 9, 2025
The idea of smart cities has been prevalent for much of the 21st Century.
At its core, a smart city is one that uses technology to connect people, information and infrastructure, with the goal of creating a technologically advanced and more efficient city with a higher quality of life.
Though the title of the world’s ‘first’ smart city is one for debate (more on that later), the direction of travel is perhaps not. The adoption of IoT solutions for city management has only been hastened by the rapid evolution of AI capabilities for swiftly assessing and acting on vast amounts of data collected from devices and sensors across sprawling urban areas.
Over half of the 250 cities surveyed in the 2025 AI-Powered Cities of the Future Report (by Deloitte, ServiceNow, Nvidia, and ThoughtLab) said they are already using traditional AI to manage issues. Within three years this is projected to reach 83 per cent.
But how did we get here? And more importantly, what are the emerging trends set to define the next decade of smart city innovation?
Adopting smart city thinking
New Songdo in South Korea, built on reclaimed land along Incheon's waterfront, is a particularly interesting case study. It is often cited as the world's first city to be built ‘from scratch’ according to smart city criteria - with a master plan that incorporated smart technologies and infrastructure from the outset.
Construction began in 2004 with an extensive use of technology, data collection, and automation in various aspects of urban life including:
Smart homes equipped with technologies that allow control of lighting and temperature (via sensors), and remote communication with building management.
Smart transport applications including traffic sensors that can adjust signal timing based on traffic flow, and real-time public transport information based on tracking devices in buses and trains.
An automated waste management system that uses underground tubes to transport waste directly from homes to processing centers.
Smart lighting via streetlights that only turn on when needed, conserving energy and reducing light pollution.
Enhanced public safety via sensors that can detect? severe risks (e.g., smoke) or environmental changes (e.g., air quality or temperature) to trigger responses from emergency services and city management.
These applications are far from unique to New Songdo, but their deployment in the initial design – and indeed the ethos – of a city was a step-change for how smart cities were understood as the future of city design.
Soon, other more-established cities would start to integrate smart city solutions into various parts of their infrastructure, with a particular focus on improving operational efficiency and sustainability. For example:
In the Norwegian capital, Oslo, they implemented adaptive street lighting in 2006 (and thus reduced energy use on lighting by around 50%).
Elsewhere in Europe, Dublin’s Smart Dublin Initiative has seen IoT-enabled waste management, flood sensors, and environmental monitors deployed across the city, and Amsterdam’s many IoT projects include smart meters, adaptive streetlights, and citizen-developed parking apps.
Singapore is often considered a leader in smart city adoption, building on the 2014 ‘Smart Nation’ platform. Now they’re entering Smart Nation 2.0, emphasizing AI and the role of technology in improving inclusivity.
In the United States, Dallas’ Red Cloud Neighborhood is cited as the region’s first ‘official’ smart community, adding Air Quality Environmental Monitors (AQMs) and AI-enabled situational awareness cameras at select locations via newly-installed streetlights integrated with wireless access points. On the East Coast, a central tenet of Boston’s 2030 ReVision initiative applies IoT data from residents to optimize city-wide public transport, reducing emissions and travel times.
Shifting expectations and capabilities
With the adoption of IoT now commonplace in large cities, there is an appetite for even greater integration of ‘smart’ solutions. While there is an obvious need to scale up the sheer number of connected sensors and devices, perhaps the biggest changes to smart cities will come from the pace of technological change (and capabilities) and the shifting demands of a modern city.
On the technology side, the evolution of AI and Edge processing allows for real time, local decision-making that is already critical for advanced traffic, energy, and environmental systems that can respond rapidly. The sheer amount of data that can be collected and processed to drive smart decision-making will be further aided by expanded 5G integration. With its ultra low latency and high throughput, we’ll see cities more able to lean on data-heavy solutions including connected vehicles, smart grids, and richer digital twins.
Those advanced digital twins are already being deployed in aiding cities in areas such as climate resilience – a growing concern for a number of local governments. Houston, Singapore, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Lisbon and Palermo are among those that already use IoT-powered digital twins to model flooding, pollution, and heat islands - with Reuters reporting that over 500 cities are expected to adopt such models by the end of 2025.
In terms of technological capabilities, the possibilities are near endless.
Protecting Citizens’ Privacy
But city planners have other issues to consider.
Trust will continue to be a big topic for the next wave of smart cities. Many local communities have expressed a desire to be more involved in decision-making around the deployment of IoT technologies and data. Responding to surveillance concerns, cities like Barcelona are prioritizing citizen data ownership through European project DECODE (Decentralised Citizen Owned Data Ecosystem). For developers of IoT solutions for cities, understanding the growing importance of privacy is a must.
Whether they’re deployed in city-wide mega-projects such as utilities, or more localized connected systems, IoT devices will be significant in shaping the future of urban life. As they become central to more and more critical systems, the focus will increasingly be on the reliability and safety of the devices and their components.
So, if you’re developing an IoT application for use in smart infrastructure, contact one of our expert team on energizeiot@saft.com to find out more about the range of battery options available to you.
