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Global AI CITY Innovation Summit: A Catalyst for AI Governance

The recent Global AI CITY Innovation Summit, hosted at HUAWEI CONNECT 2026, marked a significant milestone in artificial intelligence governance and urban development. Under the theme "Cities for Digitalization and Innovation: AI Adds Value to All Nations," the summit successfully convened over 500 participants, including industry experts, governmental representatives, and ecosystem partners. Together, they engaged in enlightening discussions on the role of AI and data in industrial development, governmental services, and urban governance.

As a highlight of the event, Huawei announced the launch of the Global AI CITY Innovation and Development Ecosystem Alliance in collaboration with 14 partners. This initiative aims to create an open and shared ecosystem to foster innovation and the advancement of digital and intelligent cities.

During the summit, representatives from Angola, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia, alongside delegations from Guangzhou and Shanghai in China, shared their experiences in AI CITY development. Tao Jingwen, Vice-President of Huawei’s supervisory board, delivered a welcoming address, while Yang Ruikai, President of Huawei's Government Public Services Digitalization division, participated in the discussions.

Tao noted the deep integration of AI into various aspects of urban development, enhancing the quality of public services and inspiring innovative governance models. Moreover, she emphasized the pivotal role of computing and data as key drivers for quality urban development. Huawei is committed to the principles of openness, inclusiveness, and mutually beneficial cooperation, focusing on enhancing computing infrastructure, building AI-ready data architectures, and optimizing commercial experiences.

AI Agents Transforming Urban Governance

From urban governance to administrative services, AI agents are now integral to city life. In his opening remarks, Simon Zou, Vice President of the Government Public Services Digitalization division and President of Marketing Solution Sales at Huawei, shared compelling success stories from Longgang District in Shenzhen and the city of Shantou. These stories illustrated how AI fosters safer and more efficient urban environments.

For example, urban governance agents enhance the visibility of city safety, minimize labor costs through intelligent computing, and bolster governance efficiency. Furthermore, the deployment of government service agents, utilizing a "Chat-to-Process" approach, revolutionizes municipal services—shifting from a traditional model where citizens navigate bureaucratic processes to a proactive, user-centered service model that directly addresses the needs of eligible individuals.

Local energy consumption and data retention within borders, along with the global export of AI services, strengthen local AI industries while promoting cross-border collaboration. Leveraging its extensive ICT capabilities, Huawei has partnered with cities and innovative collaborators to create a technical reference architecture for AI CITY, employing OpenHarmony as a unified foundation for various urban terminal types paired with Ascend AI's computational power. This collaboration enables intelligent interaction between devices, edge, and cloud, paving the way for large-scale implementation of various service scenarios.

Research Report on AI CITY Development

Additionally, Huawei and the State Information Center of China co-published the 2026 AI CITY Development Research Report, which serves as a roadmap for the overall digital and intelligent upgrade of cities. The report advocates for a shift from a "data-centric" era to one characterized by "super-urban agents". AI CITY aims to leverage intelligent computing and urban public clouds to support high-value smart scenarios while prioritizing capacity building over traditional value delivery.

Covered cases from Shenzhen, Wuhan, and Karamay further highlight reproducible pathways for smart city modernization. With the formation of the World Data Organization and the World AI Cooperation Organization (WAICO), global cooperation in AI and data sectors is on the brink of entering an exciting growth phase.

The journey of AI CITY innovation calls upon global partners to pool their collective wisdom, share insights, and collaborate closely. Conclusively, the summit resulted in the launch of the Global AI CITY Innovation and Development Ecosystem Alliance, spearheaded by Huawei and its 14 global partners. This alliance aims to foster IT collaboration, data circulation, and innovative scenarios, consolidating industry strengths to jointly construct an open, shared digital and intelligent urban ecosystem.

Focusing on the theme "Smart, Digital, and Innovative Cities: AI for Global Inclusion," Huawei looks forward to collaborating with more clients and partners to collectively build, share, and adopt the AI CITY concept.