SERVICES

ARCx Address The Research, Educational, Methodological, Organizational, and Societal Needs Necessary For High-Impact Ethical Data and AI Innovation.

ARCx

ARCx fosters dialogues, builds international and multidisciplinary teams, and creates knowledge and tools to address the research, educational, methodological, organizational, and societal needs necessary for high-impact and ethical AI innovation. We work closely with academics, entrepreneurs, investors, public authorities, civil society, and industries. Some of our clients and partners include The City of New York, New Lab, NYC Economic Development Corporation, the New York Academy of Sciences, Columbia University, NYU Gov Lab, Cornell Tech, a network of cities in Portugal, Catholic University of Portugal, the Brazilian Judiciary System, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Global Futures Group and Kazakhstan’s Academy of Public Administration.

Artificial Intelligence

While large consulting firms like PwC and McKinsey predict that artificial intelligence will add tremendous wealth to the global economy ($16trn and $13trn respectively), Boston Consulting Group and MIT found that for seven out of ten businesses AI projects have generated little impact so far and PwC recently reported that the number of executives planning to deploy AI across their firms dropped from 20%, in 2019, to 4%, in 2020 (a figure that could drop further noting the strain that COVID-19 has placed on businesses and economic activity). This disconnect underscores the need for sustained investment and a consistent regulatory framework if we are to achieve AI’s promise. We have the track record, the method and the passion to help organizations build their own AI/ML voice, mission, strategy and action plan.

Previous and Current Clients, Partners and Collaborators include

Smarter Cities

Innovation is often presented as being in the exclusive domain of the private sector. Yet despite widespread perceptions of public-sector inefficiency, government agencies have much to teach us about how technological and social advances occur. Improving governance at the municipal level is critical to the future of the twenty-first-century city, from environmental sustainability to education, economic development, public health, and beyond. In this age of acceleration and massive migration of people into cities around the world, we help cities build innovation agendas from within city agencies and administrations to make the urban systems that shape our lives smarter. Challenging the usefulness of a tech-centric view of urban innovation, we bring together a multidisciplinary and integrated perspective to imagine new possibilities from within city agencies. We help municipalities and cities map and understand their innovation ecosystems and then channel innovation drivers strategically to help them build development agendas incrementally building upon what exists.

Institutional Innovation

Institutions – local, national and international — impose elements of order in the context where they operate and they affect the distribution of preferences, incentives, and outcomes. A better understanding of the constraints imposed by institutions on individual satisfaction and organizational performance could allow governments to prioritize interventions for institutional development given the very scarce resources available. These could have the interacting effect of increasing the capacity of public authorities, local and national, to contribute to the development of their communities and provide positive signals to encourage further development.

Previous and current clients, partners and collaborators include

Capacity Development

Though we talk of an overabundance of data, it is often still not visible or tactically wielded at the local level in a way that benefits people. The abundance of data available, the vast differences in capacity across organizations to handle it, and the growing complexity of development challenges provides an opportunity to test how principles of circular data or data collaboratives can help to establish new forms of public and private partnerships that make municipalities and organizations more economically prosperous, livable, and resilient. Data, IoT infrastructure and talent matter because, while data abounds, resources to make sense out of it are scarce, people’s needs are not being met, development challenges are getting more complex, urban inequality is widening, and the world is in deep need of smarter ways of collaboration capable of establishing the local, regional, and global partnerships needed to build new and sustainable social, economic, and environmental models.

Previous and current clients, partners and collaborators include

OUR
METHODOLOGY

1 Research & Discover

Identify opportunities and challenges for AI innovation

2 Learn & Evolve

Learn how to augment AI opportunities, mitigate challenges and mobilize/upskill AI talent

3 Decide & Innovate

Craft and decide on an AI innovation agenda and make strategic decisions
(ex. implement vs. scale-up)

4 Deploy & Add Value

Train, Test, Validate and Deploy AI algorithms, build public and private partnerships and mobilize other resources

5 Evaluate & Improve

Identify opportunities and challenges for AI innovation

6 Disseminate & Impact All

Identify opportunities and challenges for AI innovation