Disruptive Technologies: The Public Sector’s Role

In this brief session at PRIMA’s 2018 Annual Conference, Jose Peralta, ARM – Director of Public Sector Practice – Aon, highlighted the involvement of smart cities and the need of risk management to be consistently and intimately involved in the research, development, and execution of technology advancement initiatives.

As urbanization in the U.S. and globally continues to grow, the strain of resources grows as well. Smart City technology describes the efficiency in identifying and delivering services and resources to communities through technology advancements.

Common urban issues such as traffic congestion are being improved with advancements such as electronic car share vehicles, smart parking applications that direct visitors to open parking, and freight coordination that establishes entry plans and timetables. Public Safety is being addressed with smart street lights that are motion enabled: only in use when necessary and able to detect aggressive behaviors and responding with flooding of light and immediate call for law enforcement to area.

As AI runs these applications and advancements, it will also provide the data and analytics that risk managers can use to evaluate the effectivity and efficiency of programs and their impact on the sector. It will be critical for risk managers to demand a seat at the table to help establish how these applications will integrate/replace current current procedures, how they can be regulated, and how vendors can be held accountable for keeping applications working.