This initiative is just Phase One of the city ’ s partnership with SmartWAVE . Moving forward , Simon is excited to confirm that his team are in the early stages of evaluating a Phase Two to the project . Phase Two will consider implementing free Wi-Fi within certain parts of the downtown business district .
“ We ’ re looking forward to finishing the execution of Phase One and then getting the metrics around usage and adoption of Wi-Fi and the types of traffic that we see ,” he says . “ SmartWave Technologies has the ability to provide us with those reports .”
Embracing a digitally transformed world Moving forward , St . Louis shows no signs of slowing its digital transformation efforts . According to Simon , the city is more than prepared to take on the challenge as business and citizen needs evolve .
“ We ’ re definitely excited about what gains we can achieve from different technologies ,” he says . “ Right now , we are in a very cautious phase of ensuring that we have the right guardrails in place before we widely adopt various tools .
“ The challenge with unrestricted access to these productivity tools is understanding how that data is being used , where it ’ s being stored and understanding the risks involved with the utilisation of these tools .”
When it comes to the inevitability of AI , Simon indicates that the city is prepared to confront the technology when it comes their way .
“ I think the promise of AI is just fantastic in terms of helping us with certain processes that today require a lot
“ If we do not address this , the divide will only grow larger and limit access to education , job opportunities and all the online systems the city and its businesses offer ”
SIMON HUANG CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICIER , CITY OF ST . LOUIS
of manual intervention ,” he highlights . “ We are working on guidance frameworks to help educate our user base about the use of these tools .
“ We haven ’ t come out with a definitive AI policy yet , but we have been exploring potential use cases for its application . For example , to provide better response for user and resident questions , to improve permitting processes in our building division and for project documentation .”
“ It ’ s definitely going to have an impact , but all of the right policies need to be in place before we leverage this exciting technology .” 324 September 2024