Melbourne and Tampere Explore How AI Can Work for People in the City

How can cities ensure that digitalisation serves people rather than becoming an end in itself? During Melbourne’s study visit to Tampere, representatives from the two cities explored this question through discussions on artificial intelligence, the “Citiverse” and the governance of increasingly digital urban environments.

The City of Tampere has been addressing this challenge for more than a decade, developing approaches that place citizens at the centre of digital transformation. As part of their ongoing IURC study visit, colleagues from the City of Melbourne continued to learn from Tampere’s experience and consider what these developments could mean for future city management and service delivery.

Tampere’s work in this field led to it co-hosting, together with UN-Habitat and the International Telecommunication Union, the Forum on AI and the Citiverse: Building the Foundations for Interoperable and Scalable Urban Innovation. The Melbourne delegation joined the opening session of the Forum and gained further insight into the concept of the Citiverse and its role in framing the rapidly evolving use of AI in cities.

At the heart of the Citiverse concept is the idea that citizens should remain central as physical and digital environments increasingly converge. This means ensuring that digital processes and resources are inclusive, accessible and designed to serve people across different groups and generations.

For cities, the question is therefore becoming less about whether digital technologies and AI will shape urban life, and more about how they should be introduced and governed. This is particularly relevant as younger generations increasingly move between physical and digital environments as part of everyday life.

Tampere representatives also emphasised the importance of governance. As the use of AI expands, cities face a growing responsibility to develop processes that protect the public interest and ensure that digital systems are fair, inclusive and accessible to all citizens.

For Melbourne and Tampere, the exchange adds another dimension to their IURC cooperation, connecting technological innovation with a broader question of public value: how cities can make use of rapidly developing digital tools while keeping people at the centre of urban transformation.