Innovation Heroes: How to build a smart city in just 4 months

Innovation Heroes: How to build a smart city in just 4 months:
How Vail, CO deployed wildfire detection, accessibility compliance automation, traffic intelligence, and a digital AI ambassador to transform citizen experiences.

Posted January 13, 2026

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Modern government leaders hear a lot of promises about AI and smart cities. It will cut costs, transform citizen experience, or turn years of manual work into minutes. But the real question is not whether AI can do these things. It’s whether governments can actually deploy it in time to matter.

In this episode of Innovation Heroes, host Ed McNamara tackles that question with leaders Jack Hogan, Vice President of Advanced Growth Technologies at SHI, Denise Collison, SHI’s Senior Vice President of Public Sector Sales, and Michael Sherwood, Senior Business Manager for State and Local Government at NVIDIA. All three of these guests are working directly with local governments to move AI from concept to reality.

Early in the episode, Hogan speaks to the challenge facing many municipalities.

“The town of Vail had a challenge of dealing with this massive explosion of people while also managing a city that’s got the same problems as every major metro city,” he said.

That urgency to modernize, to improve safety, and to deliver better services is exactly what we explore in the full episode below.

1. Smart cities start with what’s possible, not what’s perfect

Government leaders often struggle with knowing where to begin. With limited budgets and competing priorities, hesitation can stall innovation for months or years.

Collison emphasizes the importance of simply getting started.

“What I tell everyone is just get started. Pick one thing. Let us help you build a prototype. It goes really, really fast,” she said. “We can model it within six weeks.”

That guidance anchors SHI’s “Imagine, Experiment, Adopt” methodology, a framework Hogan’s team uses to reduce risk and accelerate deployment. In Vail’s case, it helped narrow 20 potential use cases down to four: accessibility compliance, document intelligence, a digital AI ambassador, and early wildfire detection.

The takeaway: smart cities do not begin with massive investments. They start with clarity and momentum.

2. The right ecosystem makes innovation possible and fast

No single vendor can deliver a smart city. Real transformation happens when infrastructure, software, and integration partners operate together from the start.

Sherwood explains the impact of NVIDIA’s full-stack approach.

“We build the models that really allow deployment to be, instead of two to three years, two to three weeks,” he said. “Providing really an end-to-end, fully integrated AI solution.”

For Vail, that ecosystem included:

NVIDIA accelerated computing and AI software.
ISVs specializing in wildfire detection, video restoration, and accessibility automation.
Solution validation from SHI’s AI and Cyber Labs before deployment.

Because the entire stack was tested and proven together, Vail moved from the first meeting to live operational AI solutions in just four months. For government agencies, that speed is a complete shift in what is possible.

3. AI is expanding what workers can do

One of the biggest barriers to AI adoption is not technical. It is cultural.

Collison points to the human side of modernization. “The thing that we all know is true, isn’t often talked about… is resistance to change,” she said.

SHI’s workshops help teams identify where AI can reduce tedious tasks, not jobs. Examples like automated document extraction or ADA compliance reviews do not eliminate staff. They unlock capacity. And when agencies witness that impact firsthand, adoption becomes much easier and far less intimidating.

The story of Vail is not just about one Colorado town. It is a template for any municipality facing rising expectations and limited resources. With the right framework, the right partners, and the willingness to start small, smart city initiatives can move from idea to implementation in months instead of years.

This episode is sponsored by NVIDIA.

NEXT STEPS

If you’re facing the complexities of enterprise AI deployment and generative AI implementation, you’re not alone. Listen to the full conversation here to discover how SHI and NVIDIA can help you with transformative smart city initiatives.

You can also find episodes of the Innovation Heroes podcast on SHI’s Resource Hub, Spotify, and other major podcast platforms, as well as on YouTube in video format.