Al Madinah: A Smart City Governance Model with Abdulrahman Ibrahim

How Al Madinah is leading human-centered smart cities, solving real-world challenges with data and AI while preserving its rich cultural heritage

As cities worldwide grapple with the challenges of modernization, Al Madinah stands out as a shining example of how smart city governance can combine cultural heritage with cutting-edge technology. The city’s approach, under the leadership of Abdulrahman Ibrahim, Chief Data and Innovation Officer, demonstrates a forward-thinking governance model that prioritizes human-centered planning and data-driven decision-making. What makes Al Madinah particularly remarkable is its focus on solving real-world challenges before introducing technology—an approach that many cities fail to adopt. Through my conversation with Abdulrahman Ibrahim, it became clear that Al Madinah offers a blueprint for how cities can integrate innovation while maintaining a deep respect for their cultural and historical roots.

In this interview, Abdulrahman Ibrahim shares his insights into how Al Madinah is leveraging platforms like FIWARE, breaking down departmental silos, and using data to guide decision-making, all while preserving the city’s unique character.

TSCJ.- Al Madinah is undergoing rapid transformation. How are you leveraging platforms like FIWARE to ensure scalability and open standards in your smart city projects?

AI.- The Al Madinah Smart and Sustainable City Strategy is very much human-centered. We start by identifying the challenges residents and visitors face, rather than focusing on technology first. Once we know the problems, we choose the appropriate technologies to address them. Many cities take the opposite approach—they focus on imposing technology, but we work from the ground up.

One major challenge we face is the siloed nature of various city departments. Each department uses its own systems and processes, and they aren’t synchronized. To address this, we’ve developed Raseel, our smart city platform. It pulls key data from each department and integrates it, allowing us to manage the city more efficiently. Interoperability between systems is key, and that’s why we’re partnering with FIWARE. Raseel uses FIWARE’s context broker as a core component to enable that synchronization.

TSCJ.- Al Madinah is a city with deep cultural and religious roots. What challenges have you faced in implementing smart city technologies in such a historical city, and how do you balance innovation with cultural preservation?

AI.- It’s definitely unique to be working in a city like Al Madinah, where cultural and religious heritage is so important. Many wouldn’t expect such a city to be a leader in technological adoption, but we believe that culture and innovation go hand-in-hand, as long as the goal is to improve the quality of life for residents and visitors.

We’ve involved citizens in workshops and focus groups and surveyed international visitors to understand the challenges they face. From there, we’ve identified six priority sectors: well-being, tourism, environment, mobility, economy, and old neighborhoods. These are the areas we focus on, ensuring that any technology we adopt enhances the cultural fabric of the city rather than disrupting it.

This method is outlined in what we call the Madinah Smart City Playbook, where we invite vendors to solve our challenges, instead of letting them dictate solutions. This approach ensures that technology serves the city’s needs while respecting its heritage.

TSCJ.- As Chief Data Officer, how has data governance impacted decision-making in Al Madinah? What innovations have had the greatest impact?

AI.- Data is key to everything we do. But instead of simply making data available to stakeholders, we focus on delivering insights that drive decision-making. These insights revolve around three core concepts: quality of life, sustainability, and resilience.

We issue periodic reports that are data-driven and evidence-based to support decision-makers in sectors like transport, health, and education. For example, we’re the first city in Saudi Arabia—and one of the first in the Arab world—to publish a Voluntary Local Review (VLR) of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This isn’t based on marketing or emotion; it’s based on data. We pinpoint exactly where we stand in terms of the SDGs and identify areas for improvement.

In October, we’re also releasing two important reports: the Madinah Livability Report and the Madinah Resilience Report. These reports provide clear data-driven insights on how livable and resilient the city is. It’s all about ensuring that our city can thrive in the face of future challenges.

TSCJ.- That’s impressive. How are you incorporating AI into your city’s infrastructure, and what benefits have emerged from this integration?

AI.- We use AI only when it’s necessary. It’s not an objective in itself, but rather a tool we use to tackle complex problems. For example, in our decision support center, we’ve built an AI engine that models different scenarios using a variety of data sources—raw data, open data, geospatial information, and more.

One of the challenges we’re currently addressing is water scarcity in the Madinah region. The AI engine helps us simulate scenarios, such as how population growth might impact water availability. We’re preparing to host 30 million visitors annually by 2030, and AI helps us understand how this growth will affect the city’s infrastructure, including water consumption and drainage.

But again, AI is a tool we use based on the problem we’re solving. It’s not the solution in and of itself. If you don’t have a clear challenge, AI won’t magically fix things for you.

TSCJ.- Al Madinah is setting an example for smart cities around the world. How do you see the city evolving in the coming years?

AI.- We aim to be a model for other cities, both in the region and globally. Our focus will remain on improving the quality of life, ensuring sustainability, and building resilience. Through data-driven governance, selective use of AI, and close collaboration with technology partners like FIWARE, we’re setting the foundation for a future where Al Madinah can thrive—both as a modern city and a cultural and religious hub.

Al Madinah’s transformation offers a powerful example of how smart city governance can be both innovative and culturally respectful. Under the leadership of Abdulrahman Ibrahim, the city is using data, AI, and open standards like FIWARE to address key challenges while enhancing the quality of life for its residents and visitors. This human-centered approach, driven by real-world problems rather than technology for its own sake, is positioning Al Madinah as a model for smart city governance worldwide.

By Esther Fuldauer, The Smart City Journal