From potholes to personalization: What Abu Dhabi is teaching us about AI-powered smart cities

If you ask many city government leaders how to win the hearts of citizens, the answer might very well be “potholes,” or, more specifically, fixing them.

“Potholes not only tell you about the state of your infrastructure,” noted a Harvard researcher in 2019, “they also tell you about the nature of participation in your city.”¹ A city that fixes a pothole promptly is not just responsive, its constituents feel empowered to engage with government.

In recent years, expectations have only risen on what governments need to deliver, leaving many cities struggling to deliver services in ways people prefer while also running a gauntlet of budgetary, regulatory, and societal challenges. On the one hand, citizens want to access great city services on par with how they do their banking or shopping—that is, secure, personalized experiences on smartphones and computing devices, rather than exclusively in-person. On the other hand, governments face unprecedented pressures in terms of funding, regulations, staffing, and cybercrime.

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To bridge this gap, more and more city governments are looking to use the force-multiplying power of generative AI. Its ability to converse in natural language and reason over vast stores of data, then find answers, compose messages, and orchestrate actions is not only solving longstanding modernization challenges, it’s also opening incredible new frontiers in city services.

Helping city governments evaluate, explore, and successfully deploy high-impact solutions with AI is now the primary focus of our work at Microsoft for government. In cities around the world, we have seen dramatic acceleration in generative AI innovation, with new solutions that are helping cities to:

Deliver personalized services.
Empower the professionals who serve the public.
Derive better insights and greater value from data.

The future of the smart city is already here—in Abu Dhabi

The President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, launched an ambitious drive around 15 years ago to make government services more accessible and service-oriented. In Abu Dhabi, the nation’s capital, those efforts took a giant leap with the advent of AI, accelerating innovation that led to the launch of a new AI-powered government services platform in October 2024.

Aptly called TAMM—which in Arabic translates to “consider it done!”—the platform began as a centralized portal several years ago and was revised to expand service offerings. With the application of new AI capabilities, it is now a one-stop digital hub, offering access to nearly 950 government services for citizens, residents, visitors, and investors.

Built on Microsoft Azure OpenAI service, TAMM uses advanced AI to deliver new classes of benefits. The platform offers real-world examples of how AI can transform smart cities by unifying services and inviting engagement in new and powerful ways.

Here are three noteworthy ways that TAMM improves city service delivery.

1. Serve people as they like, with personalized interactions

TAMM is designed to remove barriers between government services and the people who need them. In many cases, that means no longer forcing them to go to government buildings to get things done.

The new TAMM includes a generative AI assistant that provides every day service, offering personalized access to services such as license renewals, utility bill payments, permit applications, healthcare, and more. There’s even a new photo reporting app, where people can take a snapshot of a problem they come across (including, yes, a pothole) and the assistant helps to fill out a report and later sends updates on the progress of repairs.

TAMM also helps to untangle bureaucracy to simplify common yet complicated tasks. The process of registering a car, for instance, was dramatically simplified. What previously required days of visiting buildings and standing in lines can now be done quickly through the app—which also recommends the right type of insurance policy and synchronizes it with registration.

2. Deliver better results with a more energized and empowered workforce

Because TAMM handles so many more routine tasks than before (such as responding to basic questions on services issues or applications), city employees can focus more on high-value service delivery. With live services including video and audio options, agents can deliver high-touch assistance while still maintaining user privacy.

A good example of this is the case of a foreign worker who lived in Abu Dhabi for 10 years and was told by an immigration agent that she couldn’t leave the country due to visa issues. In tears, she opened the TAMM app on her phone and was connected to a helpline, where an agent quickly eased her anxieties. “I said I don’t know what to do, and the agent was literally amazing,” the woman said. “[The agent] said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s getting updated now’—and I was on my way.”

The approach to innovation behind TAMM also reflects an important trend: equipping public servants to work like product teams so that city services evolve like platforms. The TAMM organization operates in a unique “factory” in Abu Dhabi that operates like a startup—agile, data-driven, and obsessed with user satisfaction. The city’s employees don’t just execute services; they co-innovate with citizens and stakeholders to create them. Real-time dashboards, productivity-enhancing agents, and a culture of continuous iteration are driving success and proving that empowering the workforce is the foundation of smarter cities.

3. Keep cities moving with services that listen, learn, and protect

TAMM is designed to help people better navigate government services by understanding and responding to user needs almost instantly. It recognizes multiple languages and offers the option for spoken conversations, intelligently walking people through a broad range of complex processes. For example, for a family with a person who has a disability, TAMM can help navigate special services, significantly streamlining a qualification process that previously took weeks.

TAMM not only remembers previous conversations and knows the status of an issue or process, it is also deeply integrated across major government entities in the city. Service can be coordinated with in-person service centers or agencies who help housebound people in their homes.

The TAMM platform is powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI service and G42 Compass 2.0, a next-generation enterprise AI platform that provides sovereign cloud services. It also uses open-source models, including JAIS, a high-performing Arabic Large Language Model, and Azure OpenAI GPT-4.

The TAMM app now assists Abu Dhabi’s 2.5 million citizens to conduct than 10 million transactions a year. Helping to protect data and ensure privacy within these transactions is the world class cloud security provided by the Microsoft platform—reflecting our commitment to security above all in delivering AI services, as codified in our Secure Futures Initiative.

Keys for building a foundation of success with AI

The noteworthy innovation happening in Abu Dabhi is a great example of a city realizing the transformative potential offered by generative AI. Many others are following the trend, and the results are exciting.

As we look across the global landscape, we note a set of common factors that consistently underpin successful AI adoption. We would advise every city to consider the following:

A mission-first mindset drives smarter AI adoption. Cities that anchor AI initiatives in clearly defined public outcomes—such as reducing response times to citizen queries or improving access to social services—are better equipped to prioritize high-impact use cases and rigorously measure results. Aligning AI innovation with policy goals improves clarity and can also boost community trust.
AI literacy must span the entire workforce. Successful implementations include investments to build AI literacy across all levels of the public workforce—from IT and data science teams to case workers and city clerks. With effective training and a culture of learning and sharing, cities have more empowered workforces and enjoy better outcomes.
Strong data foundations are critical. Cities that proactively clean, integrate, and govern their data estates—including structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data—are better able to operationalize AI faster, more securely, and at scale. A modern data platform emphasizes robust privacy and access protections as prerequisites for AI success, helping civic leaders avoid common pitfalls such as model bias, incomplete datasets, or compliance gaps.

Learn more about AI technology for governments

To help your city government make the most of modern cloud and AI technology, contact your local Microsoft representative or certified technology partner. Together, we can help you explore options, identify use cases, and transform your ideas into meaningful solutions.

For in-depth guidance and resources on designing, deploying, and sustaining AI-powered solutions in city government, visit the Public Sector Center for Digital Skills.
For workforce development and training resources and guidance tailored to cities and other government organizations, visit Microsoft Learn for Government.
For more on how Microsoft is helping to empower governments with AI, read our blogs.