From traffic management to smart trash cans, Raleigh, N.C., is quickly moving to introduce artificial intelligence tools into smart city platforms and projects.
Before the first plastic water bottle or paper napkin gets tossed into a smart garbage can, brimming with artificial intelligence, it needs some data.
Raleigh, N.C., is exploring the use of smart trash cans, which can decide if an item is recyclable or not.
“And it’s using visual analytics and AI. And it learns,” said John Holden, Raleigh smart city manager. “So again, that’s a very contained data set, and we are teaching the model ourselves.”
Holden was part of a July 14 panel discussion organized by TechConnect to discuss the evolution of artificial intelligence tools in cities.
Whatever the use cases and AI-enabled tools cities turn to, the success of these projects is centered on data, said Jonathan Minshew, chief technology and innovation strategist at Dell Technologies, focused on state and local government.
“You’ve got to have clean data. And you have to have your data in a location that is easy to access,” Minshew said.
He noted that the data can stay where cities already store it. AI tools are generally able to access the metadata and conduct their analysis or calculations without the need to migrate the data to another location.
Raleigh recently released a new AI-powered online portal known as Ask Raleigh, which makes it easier for residents to report issues or ask questions about some of the city’s utility poles, streets or other municipal infrastructure.
“It’s designed to identify the right problem, the right solution, the right person — staff — to send a message to, to get the answer, and keep in touch with the person who asked it,” Holden explained. The project is currently in beta mode and is intended to replace the current SeeClickFix tool.
When it comes to developing new AI tools to improve city services or build efficiencies, start with goals and benchmarks already in the city’s strategic plan, Holden advised. In Raleigh that means projects focusing on areas like Vision Zero or sustainability. (Smart trash receptacles fit within the sustainability bucket.)
For example, AI has proven to be effective for analyzing video imagery, Minshew said, pointing to the video streams coming from traffic cameras.
“We can use that existing data to help your traffic flow, pedestrian flow, pedestrian safety. AI can tell you at which intersection in the city are people jaywalking the most,” he said, noting this can then lead to an analysis around why the jaywalking is occurring. “AI is really good at that.”
For its part, Raleigh has introduced AI tools into its traffic management, using video analytics “all for the purpose of improving traffic, but more importantly, improving safety,” Holden said.
But when the city then added more data related to pedestrian crossings and bicycle traffic to the AI model, it lost accuracy, he added.
“You have to be really careful and test these things,” Holden said. “One of the things from a public entity is having accurate, correct data that the model can use.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Skip Descant
Quelle/Source: Government Technology, 16.07.2025
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