Amsterdam named one of the world’s five leading intelligent cities

The index assessed 61 cities across 39 countries, examining how effectively they use AI and digital technology to improve services, support economic opportunity and deliver better outcomes for residents and businesses.

Amsterdam joined London, Dubai, New York City and Washington, DC in the highest-performing group. But the five cities did not arrive there in the same way. While London led for resident outcomes and Dubai for technology adoption, Amsterdam achieved the highest overall score for the conditions that allow innovation to develop, what BCG refers to as ‘enablers’. 

Amsterdam good at testing new technologies in real urban settings

Amsterdam’s standout result came in living labs, places where companies, researchers, public organisations and residents can develop and test new technologies in real urban settings. This is a unique distinction because urban technology rarely arrives ready-made. A promising idea may work in a laboratory, but cities are considerably more complex. Streets are crowded, infrastructure is interconnected and the people affected by a new technology may use it in unexpected ways.

However, living labs allow those realities to become part of the development process. Rather than waiting until a product is finished, innovators can test early versions, learn from users and adapt the technology before trying to introduce it more widely.

From autonomous boats to circular solar panels

A great example is at Marineterrein Amsterdam, where new ideas can be tested on land, on water, inside buildings and on rooftops. The area functions as a real-world experimentation space for technologies intended to make cities more sustainable, resilient and liveable. 

One of the best-known examples to emerge from Amsterdam’s approach is Roboat. Originally developed through a research programme involving AMS Institute and MIT, the autonomous-vessel technology was tested on Amsterdam’s canals. The project explored how self-navigating boats could support urban transport, logistics and environmental monitoring in a city where water is an integral part of the transport network. Roboat has since continued as an independent company, moving the technology towards commercial applications. 

The city is also providing space to test a different kind of urban technology: solar panels designed to be easier to repair and recycle. Through the FAIR PV project, circular solar panels developed by Biosphere Solar and its partners are being demonstrated at Marineterrein. The panels combine repairable components with product passports intended to make their materials easier to trace, reuse and recycle. 

These projects address very different challenges, but follow a similar path, develop the technology, place it in a real setting and involve the organisations and people needed to determine whether it can work beyond a pilot.

The ecosystem behind the experiments

BCG’s analysis suggests that physical testing space alone does not explain Amsterdam’s position. The city also scored strongly for its startup community and access to venture capital. According to the report, Amsterdam has an unusually robust concentration of startups for a city with fewer than one million residents, supported by funding that allows companies to continue developing and deploying new solutions. 

It’s a symbiotic relationship. Test-beds are more valuable when companies have the expertise and investment needed to act on what they learn. Funding is more useful when entrepreneurs can demonstrate that their technology works outside a controlled environment.

Research organisations also play a central role. AMS Institute’s Urban Living Lab approach brings together government, businesses, researchers and residents to co-create solutions, test them in practice and identify what could be scaled. 

For businesses developing technology for cities, this creates an environment in which collaboration is not simply discussed at networking events. It becomes part of the product-development process.

Shortening the distance from prototype to practice

Amsterdam’s position in the Intelligent Cities Index is not simply about having the most advanced technology. BCG’s analysis shows that progress also depends on the conditions around it: strategy, governance, investment, infrastructure and cooperation. That is where Amsterdam’s living-lab culture matters. Not every experiment will succeed, and not every pilot should grow. But creating space to discover what works—and what does not—is precisely what allows technology to meet the realities of city life.