How municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia and beyond can successfully use artificial intelligence
The new white paper, "Using AI to Turn Data into Action in Your Municipality – The Path from Theory to Practice," offers municipalities a practical introduction to the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Published as part of the "URBAN.KI" project by "Gelsenkirchen – The Networked City," the publication uses real-world application examples to demonstrate how AI can contribute to solving municipal challenges – from urban planning and climate protection to administrative processes and citizen participation.
Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institutes IAIS and FOKUS are providing methodological support for the project and implementing concrete use cases. The goal is to motivate municipalities to understand and use AI as a practical tool. The white paper presents 64 detailed project ideas from 98 municipalities, which can be categorized into seven technical areas – including intelligent geodata analysis and AI-supported voice assistants.
Examples from North Rhine-Westphalia, such as the districts of Recklinghausen, Leipzig, and Solingen, demonstrate how AI is used to recognize surface types, provide municipal geodata via chatbot, or automatically assess IT security. A key objective of URBAN.KI is to make these solutions available as open source via the OpenCode platform.
An accompanying webinar with experts from the Fraunhofer Institute will take place on July 11, 2025, as part of the "NEGZ – Competence Network Digital Administration." It offers municipal employees the opportunity to network and learn more about the next steps in the project.
Source: portal.nmwp.de
