Thoughts from the CEO – The future of cities, governance and empowered citizens
- August, 2019
- Thoughts from the CEO
- Ivan Caballero

At Citibeats, because we’re dealing in the world of AI and groundbreaking technology, we’re surrounded by a lot of facts, numbers and data. And while these are all extremely important and essential components of our mission, we believe that it’s extremely important to harness data for development and inclusion —as a critical cross-sectoral urban issue for the next decade and beyond.
We work daily with the vision of envisioning the future of cities, governance and empowered citizens in an ideal future –beyond the facts and figures. What “utopia” does our collective imagination conjure? We’re in alignment with some of the most progressive and, in our opinion, most brilliant thinkers and innovators of our time.

Impact report
Do you want to know how we have helped to create better policies, more effective budgets and earlier interventions with Artificial Intelligence?
The automation of our society
- As the automation of our society continues –and will continue– to grow, we like to focus on the positive outcomes. Instead of the “gloom and doom,” we see every time we read the latest news headline, we recognize the incredible advancements made in the last couple hundred years that have, in fact, made our world safer, healthier, wealthier and better than it’s ever been before.
- Many focus on the fear-based belief that automation will take away jobs and salaries with machines replacing human beings. But if you look back throughout history, this simply isn’t true. Machinery made the mining industry more efficient –and more importantly– safer by doing the heavy lifting once dependent on human labor. Automobiles made transport time faster, allowing people to allocate their time to more productive things.
As automation increases productivity, the common standard of living rises –and with it, the opportunities of laborers to take on more productive roles. Companies flourish when leaders are able to step away from day-to-day operations to take a big-picture view, and laborers produce more value when they can use their skills in more efficient ways.
- So, yes, on a granular level, people likely lost their jobs. But that led to the development of skills and innovation in other areas. When you look at the big picture, automation isn’t a scary, unknown thing. These perceived “setbacks” are temporary. Humans and society evolve, and they advance.
We will soon have the ability to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman, and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp.
What does a world of abundance look like?
Another radical concept growing in popularity in Europe and certain academic circles is the “degrowth movement” and the concept of a “guaranteed universal income.” With this system, all citizens have the right to an unconditional and automatic income that’s sufficient enough to cover basic living costs. As part of the degrowth movement, people, in general, would need less stuff – and with a guaranteed basic income and an increase in free public services – people won’t need to make as much money.
This does not require endless growth; it requires sufficient growth –in other words, growth up to a point of sufficient income. It's not growth as such that matters, but sufficiency.
- Under these conditions is when human flourishing thrives the most.
“Human flourishing” in action
The distinction of a good person is to take pleasure in moral action. In other words, human flourishing occurs when a person is concurrently doing what he ought to do and doing what he wants to do.