Seoul Museum, $3.52 million export consultation at Barcelona Smart City exhibition

The city of Seoul showcased its artificial intelligence (AI)-based city technology at the world's largest smart city exhibition, resulting in export consulting worth $3.52 million (approximately KRW 4.7 billion).

The Seoul AI Foundation announced on the 9th that it operated a Seoul pavilion at the 'Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) 2026' held in Barcelona, ​​Spain from the 3rd to the 5th (local time) and conducted a total of 398 export consultations.

SCEWC, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, is an international exhibition in the smart city field with over 1,000 cities from 130 countries around the world participating.

At the Seoul Pavilion, which was operated for the seventh time this year, 11 innovative companies located in Gangnam-gu and Seoul participated and showcased urban problem-solving technologies under the theme of 'AI City Seoul'.

At the approximately 180㎡ Seoul branch, AI technologies in various fields such as energy, urban safety, mobility, and spatial information were introduced.

Each company demonstrated technologies such as building energy optimization using AI, disaster site communication, facility abnormality detection, closed circuit (CC) TV video analysis, walking route guidance for the transportation vulnerable, and urban tree management.

Participating companies conducted an average of 36 consultations over three days, and the average consultation amount per company was $320,000, an increase of approximately 7% from last year ($300,000).

The average consultation amount per company has steadily increased from $150,000 in 2023 to $210,000 in 2024, $300,000 last year, and $320,000 this year.

During the exhibition period, investment information sessions (IRs) for each company were also held for overseas buyers, investors, and city officials.

Some companies have also expanded opportunities for overseas expansion, such as conducting follow-up business discussions with local organizations.

The city of Seoul also promoted cooperation between international forums and overseas cities that discuss local smart city policies.

At the 6th Smart City Seoul Forum held on the 4th, domestic and foreign experts discussed urban nighttime safety, AI governance, and ways to apply citizen-centered public services under the theme of ‘City led by AI: From AI policy to public services.’

During the event, Kim Man-ki, chairman of the Seoul AI Foundation, met with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Digital Strategy Department and officials from Saint-Men-desi, east of Paris, France, to discuss ways to cooperate between cities, and looked at cases of smart city technology application in major cities and companies such as Microsoft (MS) and Dell Technologies.

Chairman Kim said, “Competitiveness in the AI ​​era depends on how many opportunities are created through technology rather than how much technology one has,” and added, “We will expand our global cooperation network so that innovative companies in Seoul can gain new business and growth opportunities in the global market.”