Cristina Bueti is the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Focal Point on Environment and Smart Sustainable Cities. She is the Counsellor of ITU-T Study Group 20 “Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart Cities and Communities (SC&C)”, where she further serves as the Telecommunication Standardisation Bureau (TSB/ITU) focal point for Latin America.
Cristina Bueti graduated from the Faculty of Political Science, Law and International Cooperation and Development of the University of Florence, where she completed postgraduate studies in International Cooperation and Telecommunications Law in Europe. She also holds a specialization in Environmental Law with a special focus on Telecommunications.
As a Counsellor at the ITU, she has been working on various projects related to virtual worlds and AI, IoT, and Smart Sustainable cities for over 20 years. Her role involves developing and promoting international standards for IoT, digital twins and smart cities, and contributing to the development of policies and strategies for these areas.
She is passionate about leveraging technology to create positive social and environmental impacts. With extensive experience in digital transformation, corporate sustainability, and smart cities, Cristina has contributed to several initiatives and projects that aim to promote innovation, collaboration, and inclusivity in the tech industry. Her goal is to use her expertise and skills to help shape the future of technology and its applications in various sectors.
UNU-EGOV: Could you walk us through your professional journey and share some of the key moments that led you to your current role as Counsellor on Smart Sustainable Cities, AI-enabled Citiverse & Virtual Worlds at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)? We can tell that everything started on the “wrong floor”…
Cristina Bueti (CB): My professional journey has been guided by one conviction: technology has meaning only when it helps people and communities thrive.
I joined ITU in 2004 with a simple dream: to serve the United Nations. At the very beginning, I was looking for the library on the 6th floor, but stepped out on the 2nd floor by mistake. That “wrong floor” led me to a supervisor who listened, believed in me, and opened a door that changed my life. What began almost by chance became a 20-year journey of purpose, service and belief in international cooperation.
Through missions around the world, I have worked with governments, cities, regulators, industry, academia and international partners. These experiences showed me that digital transformation is not about technology alone. It is about people, dignity, resilience, inclusion and opportunity.
A key part of this journey has been my work on smart, sustainable cities, where I have seen how international standards can help cities address real challenges, from climate action and infrastructure to public services and quality of life. This naturally led to our current work on AI-enabled citiverse, which we see as the next frontier of urban transformation. But to realize this potential, we need trust, cooperation and shared standards.
As Counsellor for ITU-T Study Group 20, I see international standards as a powerful form of multilateral cooperation. They help transform ideas into shared foundations, build trust, and ensure that innovation can be scaled for the benefit of all.
Looking back, I may have stepped onto the wrong floor, but I found the right mission: helping shape a digital future that is inclusive, sustainable and built together.
UNU-EGOV: In your perspective, what are the main challenges cities face today in their transition towards becoming smarter and more sustainable?
CB: Cities today are facing a defining moment. They must respond to climate change, rapid urbanization, ageing infrastructure, growing pressure on public services and rising expectations from inhabitants, while ensuring that digital transformation remains inclusive and sustainable.
One of the main challenges is interoperability. Many cities already use digital solutions across mobility, energy, buildings, waste management, public safety and public services. However, these systems often cannot communicate effectively with each other. Without interoperability, cities struggle to integrate services, scale solutions, and make decisions based on a complete picture of urban needs. This is why international standards are essential. Interoperability is not only a technical matter; it also requires a trusted data framework, cybersecurity, sound procurement, institutional capacity and long-term cooperation across sectors.
Another major challenge is ensuring that smart city development remains people-centered. Technology should not be deployed for its own sake. It should help cities improve the quality of life, reduce inequalities, support climate action, strengthen resilience and deliver better services for all residents. The real measure of a smart sustainable city is not how many technologies it deploys, but whether it improves quality of life, reduces inequalities, strengthens resilience and creates opportunities for everyone.
The cities of the future must be more than connected. They must be interoperable, trusted, inclusive, sustainable and designed around people.
UNU-EGOV: In addressing these challenges, how can digital technologies effectively support more inclusive and sustainable models of urban governance?
CB: Digital technologies can help cities move from reactive administration to more anticipatory, participatory and evidence-based governance. When used responsibly, tools such as IoT, Artificial Intelligence (AI), digital twins and citiverse can help cities better understand urban needs, simulate future scenarios, improve public services and engage citizens in more meaningful ways. For example, real-time data can support better decisions on mobility, energy, waste management, climate resilience and emergency response. Digital twins can allow cities to test policies and infrastructure choices before implementing them in the real world. AI can help identify patterns and improve service delivery, while virtual worlds can create new spaces for consultation, planning and citizen engagement.
However, technology can only work if it is built on the right foundations. This is where international standards play a critical role. Through ITU-T Study Group 20, ITU supports the development of international standards for the Internet of Things, digital twins, smart sustainable cities and communities, and the AI-enabled citiverse. These standards help cities ensure that digital systems are not only innovative, but also interoperable, secure, scalable and aligned with long-term public needs.
Collaboration is equally important. Initiatives such as United for Smart Sustainable Cities, coordinated by ITU, UN-Habitat and UNECE and supported by 20 UN entities, including UNU, provide a global UN platform for cities and other stakeholders to exchange experience, measure progress and translate global objectives into local action.
Ultimately, digital technologies should help cities govern with greater intelligence, transparency and empathy. The goal is not simply to make cities more connected, but to make urban governance more inclusive, sustainable and centred on the people it serves.
UNU-EGOV: This brings us to the concept of the AI-enabled citiverse, which is gaining increasing attention. How would you define it, and what sets it apart from more traditional notions of the metaverse?
CB: The concept is well captured in the deliverable AI-Enabled Citiverse: A Strategic Blueprint for Cities in the Age of AI, developed under the Global Initiative on AI and Virtual Worlds – Discovering the Citiverse. It presents the AI-enabled Citiverse as part of the next phase of urban digital transformation, in which AI, spatial intelligence, digital twins, and immersive technologies come together to support better planning, decision-making, public service delivery, and quality of life.
It is important to be clear: the Citiverse is not the metaverse applied to cities. It is not about creating a virtual copy of a city for people to enter or escape into. While the metaverse is often associated with immersive social, entertainment or commercial experiences, the AI-enabled citiverse is focused on real urban outcomes. Its value lies in helping cities anticipate challenges, test policies before implementation, improve infrastructure management, strengthen climate resilience and engage inhabitants in more inclusive ways.
For city leaders, this means moving beyond visualization towards actionable urban intelligence. The AI-enabled citiverse can help connect fragmented systems, support evidence-based decisions and create new ways for people to participate in shaping their communities. Most importantly, the AI-enabled citiverse must be built on trust from the beginning. It requires interoperability, shared standards, cybersecurity, privacy protection and inclusion. If developed responsibly, the AI-enabled citiverse can become a powerful tool to help cities and communities become more anticipatory, resilient, sustainable and human-centred.
UNU-EGOV: In practical terms, what do you see as the most promising use cases of the AI-enabled citiverse at the urban level?
CB: The most promising use cases are those that help cities move from seeing the city to understanding it, and from reacting to problems to anticipating them. Urban planning is a clear example. Through AI-enabled digital twins and immersive environments, cities can test different land-use, transport, housing or infrastructure scenarios before decisions are implemented in the physical world. This can make planning more evidence-based, more transparent and more inclusive, especially when inhabitants are able to better visualize and participate in shaping future projects.
Another promising use case is climate resilience and disaster preparedness. The AI-enabled citiverse can help cities simulate flooding, heatwaves, evacuation routes, infrastructure failures or service disruptions. This allows public authorities to anticipate risks, coordinate responses and communicate more clearly with inhabitants.
There is also strong potential in infrastructure and service management. Cities could use the AI-enabled citiverse to monitor assets, optimize energy and water systems, improve mobility flows, support public safety, and make public services more responsive to real needs. In this sense, the AI-enabled citiverse can become a tool for better daily governance, not only for long-term planning.
There are also strong use cases in mobility, public safety, health, education, tourism, city administration and citizen participation. This is why the publication AI-Enabled Citiverse: Use Cases for Cities in the Age of AI is important. It helps translate the vision into practical, replicable and measurable applications across key urban domains. For me, the most valuable use cases are not necessarily the most futuristic ones, but those that help cities become more resilient, inclusive, sustainable and responsive to the people they serve.
UNU-EGOV: As this space continues to evolve, the ITU’s 2nd Citiverse Assembly reflects growing global momentum. What are the main objectives of this initiative, and what impact do you hope it will have for cities and stakeholders?
CB: Citiverse Assembly serves as an annual gathering of the Global Initiative on AI and Virtual Worlds – Discovering the Citiverse. This initiative, launched by ITU, UNICC and Digital Dubai, is supported by more than 70 partners. It reflects a growing recognition that the AI-enabled citiverse cannot be shaped by one city, one organization or one sector alone. It requires a global, multi-stakeholder effort.
The main objective is to bring together cities, governments, the UN system, industry, academia, standards bodies and civil society to shape the AI-enabled citiverse in a way that is trusted, inclusive, interoperable and centred on public value.
As AI, digital twins, spatial intelligence and immersive technologies advance rapidly, cities need more than inspiration. They need practical guidance, a common language, shared standards, real use cases and opportunities to learn from one another.
The impact we hope to see is very practical: helping cities move beyond fragmented approaches, reduce duplication, build confidence, and develop solutions that can be replicated and scaled. The AI-enabled citiverse should not be seen only as a futuristic concept. It can already help cities and communities today by improving planning, strengthening resilience, supporting more inclusive participation and enabling better decisions. Ultimately, its value will not be measured by how advanced the technology is, but by how effectively it helps cities serve people, unlock human potential and create measurable public value.
UNU-EGOV: How can cities ensure that the Citiverse remains inclusive, ethical, and centred on people’s needs?
CB: Cities need to ensure that the AI-enabled citiverse is designed around people from the very beginning. Inclusion, accessibility, privacy, cybersecurity, transparency, accountability and human oversight cannot be added later. They must be embedded into the architecture, governance and standards of the citiverse from the start. This begins with a clear principle: the AI-enabled citiverse should serve public value.
International standards are essential in this regard. They provide common foundations for interoperability, trust, accessibility, safety and responsible innovation. Without shared standards, cities risk building fragmented systems that are difficult to connect, govern or scale.
At the same time, cities cannot do this alone. The future of the AI-enabled citiverse should be shaped through multistakeholder collaboration, bringing together public authorities, technical experts, standards bodies, civil society, academia, industry and residents. People should not only be users of these systems; they should have a voice in how they are designed and operated.
This is also why the report No One Left Behind in the Citiverse: A Blueprint for Accessible AI-Powered Virtual Worlds, developed under the Global Initiative on AI and Virtual Worlds – Discovering the Citiverse, is so important. It reminds us that inclusion should not be treated as a technical add-on. The citiverse will only be meaningful if it is accessible, trusted and useful for all people.
Ultimately, a human-centred citiverse is not defined by the sophistication of its technologies, but by its ability to build trust and improve people’s daily lives.
UNU-EGOV: Finally, what role does Artificial Intelligence play in enabling and scaling Citiverse solutions for cities?
CB: Artificial Intelligence is the enabling layer that makes the citiverse dynamic, predictive and scalable. With AI, digital twins and immersive city environments can move beyond visualization to help cities analyse data, detect patterns, simulate scenarios, anticipate risks and support better decisions across planning, infrastructure, mobility, climate resilience and public services.
AI also helps cities move faster from ideas to pilots, and from pilots to solutions that can be replicated and scaled. As AI converges with digital twins, world models, agentic AI, physical AI and immersive environments, cities can move from static data to real-time intelligence and from reactive services to more proactive and coordinated action. At the same time, AI should augment urban governance, not replace it. Human oversight, accountability, transparency, cybersecurity, interoperability and public trust remain essential.
This is also why the new Focus Group on AI for Smart Sustainable Cities and Communities is timely. As an open global platform, it will advance pre-standardization work to help AI-enabled urban systems interoperate coherently, safely and effectively with IoT, digital twin and smart sustainable city systems at scale.
In this sense, AI is not just another technology for cities. It is becoming the intelligence layer of the citiverse. The true promise of the AI-enabled citiverse is not a more virtual world, but a better real one.
