- | 9:00 am Why Saudi Arabia’s urban future is about livability. Not just smart systems The country has become one of the world’s largest smart city laboratories—testing technology, infrastructure, and urban design across its national landscape. In Saudi Arabia, about 84% of its population now lives in cities, putting significant pressure on urban systems. Population growth, climate challenges, traffic jams, and higher expectations for quality of life are all adding to the strain. To address this, Saudi Arabia has launched a broad smart city plan to improve everything from traffic flow to energy use. The groundwork for this transformation was laid in 2015, when the government unveiled plans to upgrade 17 cities, including Riyadh, Makkah, and Jeddah. A year later, Vision 2030 was launched, marking the kingdom’s first blueprint for smart city development. Today, these plans are becoming a reality. Riyadh is launching a smart city program that includes planting more trees and introducing self-driving transport. Al Khobar is using AI-powered traffic signals to reduce congestion, and Makkah is developing into a smart city ready to handle 30 million pilgrims each year by 2030. THE RISE OF THE COGNITIVE ECOSYSTEM The smart city model has now moved beyond simple connectivity and automation toward the “cognitive city”—urban environments that not only collect data but learn from it and respond in real time. Digital twins—virtual replicas of physical environments—anchor this vision, allowing operators to simulate traffic flows, monitor infrastructure, and optimize resource use. “Digital twin technology is creating tangible value in areas such as urban planning, infrastructure optimization, and predictive maintenance by enabling simulation and real-time operational insights,” says Mosab Erar, vertical business director at Hikvision MEA. Yet the path forward is not without hurdles. “Key limitations often stem from fragmented systems and data silos, which require strong data governance frameworks