Microsoft showcased the strength and diversity of its partner ecosystem at Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) by organising its booth into four themed areas, each highlighting how cloud, AI and digital twin technologies are shaping the cities of the future. Across the space, partners demonstrated solutions designed to help governments and organisations operate resilient infrastructure, plan thriving cities, deliver personalised citizen services, and prepare for disasters.
In the area focused on resilient infrastructure, Bentley Systems showed how digital twins are transforming the way cities design, manage and maintain essential assets. Richard Vestner, vice president of Bentley Systems, explained that its “purpose is to advance infrastructure globally – ensuring that infrastructure works in an interoperable manner”. Bentley Systems’s iLab, led by Greg Demchak, vice president of emerging technologies, was showcased as a hub for rapid prototyping and collaborative innovation. Demchak described its mission as working with end users to design and test future scenarios using emerging technologies, summarising its purpose as “building tomorrow, today.”
Bentley Systems also highlighted reconstruction technology for ageing infrastructure, using transparent, thin cables, wires and drone capture to generate usable models that anyone can build applications around. A recorded demonstration using a bridge in Amsterdam showed how these technologies make it possible to analyse and improve real-world assets. Vestner emphasised the importance of collaboration in public projects while Demchak explained that their technology enables teams to bring photos, models and data together to see. This environment is multimodal, connecting construction models and enabling notes and comments, all running on the Bentley Infrastructure Cloud powered by Azure. Bentley Systems is also exploring generative AI for early site planning, enabling product managers to speak to chatbots that understand design engineering context and even generate elements such as parking lots. A live video of real-time modelling of Amsterdam illustrated the potential of these capabilities.
Bentley Systems’s Greg Demchak presenting on the Microsoft booth at SCEWC
Cyclomedia also featured prominently, highlighting the importance of accurate street-level understanding in digital twins.
“Cities usually look stunning from a bird’s eye view but on the streets there’s a different story,” said Szymon Ciupa, strategy and development director of Smart Factor by Cyclomedia. While aerial imagery provides valuable context, Ciupa emphasised the complexity of streets, which requires detailed LASER scanning, CAD and GIS analytics, as well as data from vehicles to fully interpret. Cyclomedia shared a case study from Rybnik in Poland, where the city faced challenges related to air quality, increasing traffic, limited parking and low uptake of public transport. By implementing a street-level digital twin, the city was able to experiment with and deploy better infrastructure such as more road signs and bus stops to improve traffic flow and citizen experience.
Cyclomedia provided a detailed digital twin for Rybink in Poland to improve its infrastructure
Another partner in this area, Sentient Hubs, focused on helping cities connect systems and expertise to support long-term strategic decisions. The company encourages cities to begin by defining the question they want to answer before building the data ecosystem around it. Managing director David Lucido noted that many important decisions, such as where to locate hospitals or schools, are still made on “paper-based plans in a static point in time.” Lucido argued that cities must move beyond the concept of being “smart,” explaining that they should instead aspire to become “sentient” because “smart hasn’t delivered on the promise.”
While many organisations focus on operational AI, Sentient Hubs sees a gap in executive decision support and provides tools that “harnesses” collective intelligence from multiple specialist partners to help cities make better choices. Johnson Controls was also featured within this area, demonstrating how its technologies contribute to efficient and resilient city infrastructure.
The Microsoft booth was split into different sections for attendees to meet with its partners
Moving into the section centred on planning and operating thriving cities, Microsoft partners demonstrated a range of tools that help urban planners and operators make better use of data. Esri showcased its powerful mapping and spatial analytics capabilities, including a compelling case study presented by Brooks, who highlighted how the city of Vilnius is using Esri technologies to advance urban sustainability.
Brooks Patrick, global business development manager at Esri, explained in a session called ‘The Sky’s the Limit’ how the firm has built out an extensive drone-monitoring programme for ID Vilnius in Lithuania to analyse imagery for roof-condition assessments and environmental maintenance tasks such as grass mowing and snow removal. The project also includes LIDAR scans of the underground drainage network. A “drone-in-a-box” concept has been deployed across multiple municipal buildings, enabling specialist pilots to remotely fly missions and monitor different city zones. According to Patrick, “tasking people to go out in person couldn’t be done,” making automation essential. The system feeds into a dashboard that generates work orders for on-site teams to resolve issues such as illegal parking, pavement crack detection and bin collection.
Alongside Esri, AMCS Group presented solutions that support resource management and circular economy operations. TomTom highlighted mobility and routing technologies that help cities understand and improve real-time movement patterns. SAS brought advanced analytics and AI tools that support decision-making in areas such as sustainability, transport and urban operations. Scenexus demonstrated monitoring and operational tools designed to streamline city management. Together, these partners showed how geospatial intelligence, data integration and predictive insights are essential for helping cities grow in sustainable and efficient ways.
Partners in this section of the Microsoft booth included AMCS Group, Esri, Scenexus and SAS
The Microsoft booth also featured partners focused on delivering personalised government experiences. These solutions emphasised how cities can improve service delivery and build stronger relationships with citizens. WSP showcased consulting and digital services that improve planning and citizen engagement, while KPMG focused on transformation and compliance for public sector organisations. Bravent demonstrated custom applications and AI-driven tools that help governments create more intuitive and accessible digital experiences. Plus, Honeywell highlighted its technologies that support safer, more efficient buildings and city operations, contributing to more seamless citizen interactions.
Partners in this section of the Microsoft booth included Bravent, KPMG, Honeywell and WSP
The final area of the booth centred on disaster recovery and prevention, a rapidly growing priority for governments worldwide – as told by Doug Priest, public transportation and urban infrastructure lead for worldwide government at Microsoft, in the Autumn issue of Technology Record.
Disaster Tech guided visitors toward its emergency management capabilities. Hexagon showcased tools that provide real-time situational awareness to enhance collaborated responses to events. Tomorrow.io demonstrated how cities can predict, prepare and protect against severe conditions with AI. Meanwhile, Parsons presented a system that unifies disparate and often outdated city data – including cameras, message signs, billboards, signals and tunnel sensors – into a single operational environment. The platform incorporates weather and traffic data and can generate automated response plans within seconds of an incident, suggesting actions such as changing road signs or closing bridges. It can also automatically send updates to external platforms like Twitter or Maps. Preston Judkins, senior director of engineering services for North America at Parsons, said: “The public has more visibility than they realise.”
A demonstration involving a one-way road showed how Parson’s system uses cameras and agentic AI to detect a wrong-way vehicle and alert police within one second. The company suggested that cities could even install road arms that automatically drop when a vehicle appears to be heading in the wrong direction.
Parsons demonstated how disprate city data can be brought to together to create safer roads
3AM Innovations also contributed to this area with a clear and direct message: “just get it done,” reflecting its focus on delivering practical, effective tools for emergency response.
Taken together, the technologies shown on the Microsoft booth illustrated how cloud platforms, digital twins, AI and powerful analytics are converging to help cities operate more effectively, plan more intelligently and respond more rapidly to emerging challenges.