Artificial Intelligence in the Digital Transformation of Smart City Governance: A Bibliometric Analysis

The rapid introduction of artificial intelligence into smart city management systems is changing approaches to urban planning, public service provision, and management decision-making, but scientific research in this area remains thematically and disciplinarily fragmented. The primary aim of this study is to systematically map the scientific literature on the role of artificial intelligence in the digital transformation of smart city governance. The paper uses methods of bibliometric and network analysis, including analyses of publication and citation dynamics, co-authorship, bibliographic coupling among organizations, and the co-occurrence of keywords. The selection of publications was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, and the construction and visualization of bibliometric networks were performed using the VOSviewer program. The initial data was obtained from the Scopus database on October 5, 2025. An initial search revealed 34,548 documents. After applying the criteria of the subject area, publication period, document type, and language, the final sample included 1,865 English-language journal articles published in 2015-2025. The largest number of publications is in China — 236 articles (12.7%), Great Britain — 230 (12.3%), and the USA — 216 (11.6%). Kazakhstan ranks 54th with nine publications. The most productive journal is Sustainability, with 254 articles, followed by Sustainable Cities and Society with 134 and Cities with 122. The results show a steady increase in scientific interest in the topic after 2019 and, at the same time, indicate a lack of development in interregional scientific cooperation and research on the ethical, institutional, and societal aspects of the use of artificial intelligence in urban governance.

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