Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

AI4Cities brings together major European cities at the intersection of "Smart Cities" and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction, in order to accelerate and drive the creation of new, disruptive solutions in how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can support cities' strategic plans to become Carbon Neutral.
The purpose of this Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) process is to support the transition of cities towards carbon neutrality, applying the use of AI and related enabling digital technologies to address the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cities. city.

The project is divided into five main phases:
• a preparatory phase (0),
• three phases for the creation of PCP standards (1-3)
• and a final phase of impact evaluation and follow-up (4).
During the preparation phase (phase 0), contracting cities will organize a series of activities - roundtables, workshops and matchmaking events, aimed at ensuring that the open market consultation is an ambitious co-creation exercise.
The PCP process will consist of a solution design phase (phase 1), a prototype phase (phase 2) and a prototype testing phase (phase 3).
AI4Cities will reach the supply side, selecting and financing a minimum of 40 contractors (20 for the energy challenge and 20 for the mobility challenge) who, during Phase 1, will present a concept design, the results of their feasibility studies and the conclusions. Subsequently, a minimum of 20 contractors (ten for each of the two challenges) will be invited to develop their prototypes in Phase 2. Finally, a minimum of six contractors (three and three) will enter Phase 3, where a series of projects will be undertaken large-scale pilot.

Through AI4Cities, these cities and regions will go through a Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) process, an innovation procurement tool that allows the public sector to steer the development of new solutions directly towards their needs. First, purchasing authorities will define the needs and requirements for the energy and mobility solutions they would like to see developed in order to move towards carbon neutrality. Then, they will challenge start-ups, SMEs, larger companies and other relevant stakeholders to design innovative solutions by applying the use of AI and related enabling technologies, such as 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and big data applications.
Through these actions, the project will create innovative, European-wide and scalable solutions for these specific needs, and therefore lead to an immediate, concrete and measurable reduction in emissions.