Lichtensteig,Switzerland
Living Cities Earth
living cities. earthhumaning well together
Global Mayors Academy
Online · Global · Starts October 30 · World Cities Day weekend

Global
AI Summit
for Cities

AI as the City Intelligence Amplifier.Intelligence the city owns, integrating citizens, business, government and civil society, so the whole city thrives.

October 30 - December 12, 2026Opening Days October 30 - November 1
World-class experts from 25 countries
Countdown to World Cities Day
01  Speakers · Who is at the table

People who have run cities, ministries and city networks, and the teams putting AI to work in cities today

Mayors and ministers, city technology leaders from Helsinki to Jakarta, and the researchers and builders who stand behind the tools. New speakers join every week.

Mathias Müller

Mathias Müller

Mayor of Lichtensteig since 2012, the summit's host city

Lichtensteig, Switzerland
Violeta Bulc

Violeta Bulc

Founder of Ecocivilisation; European Commissioner for Transport 2014-2019, former Deputy Prime Minister of Slovenia

Ljubljana, Slovenia
Alec von Graffenried

Alec von Graffenried

Mayor of Bern 2017-2024, Vice President of the City of Bern

Bern, Switzerland
Marilyn Hamilton

Marilyn Hamilton

Creator of the Integral City methodology and the four voices of the city; Chair of Trustees, Findhorn Foundation

Findhorn, Scotland
Vesa Silfver

Vesa Silfver

Acting CEO, Helsinki Region Transport (HSL), bringing AI into everyday public transport

Helsinki, Finland
Cüneyt Yılmaz

Cüneyt Yılmaz

Head of Information Technology, Bağcılar Municipality: AI services for every resident

Istanbul, Türkiye
Sam Majid

Sam Majid

Former Founding CEO, Malaysia's National AI Office

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Alejandro Quinto Ferrández

Alejandro Quinto Ferrández

Head of Innovation, Communityai: AI-powered geospatial tools that match investment to community need

London, UK
Rasmus Ry Nielsen

Rasmus Ry Nielsen

Head of Digitalisation, Technical and Environmental Affairs, City of Aarhus

Aarhus, Denmark
Pedro Alessandri

Pedro Alessandri

Former Undersecretary of Smart City, City of Buenos Aires; led Boti, the city's AI assistant

Buenos Aires, Argentina
Anneloes Smitsman

Anneloes Smitsman

Founder of EARTHwise, lead author of the Participatory Framework for a Global AGI Constitution

Mauritius
Jaap Vink

Jaap Vink

Responsible AI in government decision-making, four decades with ministries and municipalities

Netherlands
Paddy Pampallis

Paddy Pampallis

Founder, Integral Africa Institute; Academic Director, Global Mayors Academy; leadership maturity in the age of AI

Cape Town, South Africa
Juan Intan Kanggrawan

Juan Intan Kanggrawan

Digital and AI, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Asia-Pacific; formerly Jakarta Smart City

Jakarta, Indonesia
Dastan Dogoev

Dastan Dogoev

Former Minister of Digital Development, Kyrgyz Republic

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Pavel Luksha

Pavel Luksha

Founder of Global Education Futures

Valencia, Spain
Anton Kolonin

Anton Kolonin

Senior AI researcher, SingularityNET Foundation; Novosibirsk State University

Novosibirsk, Russia
Kriton Arsenis

Kriton Arsenis

Member of the European Parliament 2009-2014, founder of reLife Earth

Athens, Greece
Paul van Schaik

Paul van Schaik

Architect, author of the Urban Hub series on cities

Cape Town, South Africa
Darrell Gooden

Darrell Gooden

Chief Operating Officer, Global Mayors Academy

Los Angeles, USA
Lev Gordon

Lev Gordon

Founder, Living Cities Earth

Seattle, USA
+30 experts
in conversation now, from
Valencia · Delhi · Bogotá · Rotterdam · Aarhus · Manchester · London · Glasgow · Amsterdam · Hamburg · Madrid · Bilbao · Stockholm · Paris · Brussels · Rome · New York · Los Angeles · Boston · Baltimore · Rio de Janeiro · São Paulo · Riyadh · Abu Dhabi · Dubai · Seoul · Nusantara · Sydney · Perth · Auckland
02  Purpose · One table, five voices, and the people who build AI

Five voices of the city at one table. One question: what can AI do for each of them, and for the whole city.

A city is its government, its citizens, its business, its civil society and its young people. Each hears its own part of the whole. The summit joins them around the intelligence the city owns, and gives the people who build and provide AI a sixth seat at the same table, so that every side gains and the city thrives as a whole.

Government

Brings the mandate, the data, and the responsibility to serve everyone.

Takes away ownership of its own AI, and the language for the regulator.

Citizens

Bring everyday reality: what a bus route means in a family evening.

Take away services that listen, and a city that finally hears them.

Business

Brings capital, speed, and tools already built and ready to use.

Takes away an equal seat with government, and a strategy for its city.

Civil society

Brings universities, foundations and media, keeping watch over the whole city.

Takes away an open venue, co-authorship, and access to real city practice.

Youth

Brings the decades ahead: school, a first job, the city they will inherit and run.

Takes away AI literacy that employers recognize, a first project of their own, and a seat held by right.

AI builders and providers

Bring the tools, the research, and an honest conversation about what they mean for public services.

Take away the conditions of entry into a city, signed together with the city, and a room of decision-makers.

GovernmentCitizensBusinessCivil societyYouth AI city intelligenceamplifier
03  Themes · Ten themes, and the space between them

What we talk about, from ownership to action

Each theme has its own place on the map of the whole city, and its own voice there. Partners bring their frame into the shared space, and the program grows around what they bring. At each table sit the ones who did it, the ones who studied it and the ones who built it. A case has a city, a year, what was put in place and what measurably changed. A rollback counts as a result.

01

Intelligence the city owns

Data, goals and the charter: the conditions under which a city’s AI belongs to the city, and what cities and providers sign together.

02

AI in city services

Mobility, utilities, health, education, permits: what already works in cities, what it cost, and what measurably changed.

03

Business and the local economy

From a one-person shop to a corporate team: AI strategies for a city’s businesses, and the seat of business at the city’s table.

04

Citizens, participation and trust

Listening at scale, deliberation, the resident who turns up to meetings, and what a city may know about its people.

05

Work and skills in the city

The city’s labor market in transition: which jobs change, which appear, and how a city retrains its own people.

06

Data, privacy and rights

The line a city draws: surveillance, consent, open data, and public oversight of the systems that steer decisions.

07

Regulation in practice

The EU AI Act for municipalities, and the frames outside Europe: what a city has to do this year, and how to do it well.

08

Energy, data centers and climate

AI’s footprint on water, energy and land, and AI for climate action and regenerative cities.

09

Youth and future leaders

Schools and universities as the city’s AI classroom: from eight to twenty-five, a way in and a certificate at the end.

10

Cities in action, city to city

Live cases, failures included, and the network where cities see each other, compare maturity and exchange directly.

The practitioner

The city team, the company or the agency that put the system into a real service and lived with the result.

The researcher

The university or institute that measured what it did for people, for rights and for the budget.

The builder

The lab or the company that built the tool, ready to say plainly what it does today and where its limits are.

The public voice

The council member, the union, the journalist or the resident whose questions shaped the system, and what the city changed in answer.

04  Register · Free, online, from any city

Get on the first list. Your personal Zoom link arrives right away.

One form for everyone: participants, partners, speakers and hub hosts.

October 30 - November 1The Opening Days
Through December 12Sessions with new speakers
OnlineFrom any city, every session recorded
You are on the first list. A confirmation is on its way to your inbox.

Opening Days run 30 October to 1 November.

Add to my calendar

Other calendars: Apple · Google · Outlook · Outlook 365. New sessions arrive in the calendar by themselves.

05  When and how · Online, from any city

Three Opening Days, then sessions through December 12

The summit opens online over the World Cities Day weekend. Practitioners speak from their own cities and time zones, and the sessions continue through December.

October 30 - November 1Opening Days

Talks by city teams and practitioners, twenty minutes each with time for questions, across time zones.

Through December 12Sessions

New speakers and new cases join the program through the season.

OnlineFrom any city

Register once. Your Zoom link arrives right away and works for all three days.

RecordedEvery session

Every session is recorded, so a city team can return to it with colleagues.

06  Who convenes · Hosts and the summit team
The summit team · who does what
Lev Gordon

Lev Gordon

Founder, Living Cities Earth

lev.gordon@aiforcities.earth
Lena Mazura

Lena Mazura

Head of Strategic Partnerships

lena.mazura@aiforcities.earth
Anton Aparin

Anton Aparin

Chief Information Officer

anton.aparin@aiforcities.earth
Alexander Maneev

Alexander Maneev

Products and program architecture

alexander.maneev@aiforcities.earth
Viktor Kunshin

Viktor Kunshin

Director of Strategic Partnerships

viktor.kunshin@aiforcities.earth
Hosted by
Lichtensteig,Switzerland
The host town, winner of the Wakker Prize for the way it renewed itself.
Living Cities Earth
living cities. earthhumaning well together
Living Cities Earth Association, Bern. A Swiss-registered nonprofit, the legal home of the summit.
Global Mayors Academy
A global faculty for city leaders and the program engine of the summit.

Lichtensteig, Toggenburg. The finale gathers here in December, and the town itself is a case: a small administration that does what only metropolises could before.

The program fills through October: city teams with a measured result, the researchers who studied it, and the providers who built it. Take a seat at the table. A person from the team writes back.