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The emergence of smart cities, metropolises that integrate physical infrastructure, digital technology, and data analytics, and that focus on urban sustainability, have profoundly changed urban development. In the modern digital era, robust infrastructure has become an indispensable catalyst for urban advancement. Kuwait is dedicated to the integration of diverse renewable energy technologies in the development of smart cities that enhance energy security, promote innovation, and contribute to global climate change mitigation efforts. Focusing on smart cities within Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, a review is presented of how successfully they have effectively combined technology, infrastructure, and sustainability to serve as models for new global and regional developments. Insights into what makes a city smart are provided in different settings.

Technology and a gig economy have affected how people are employed, with shorter-term, more flexible, and technologically mediated work arrangements increasingly becoming the norm. The digital platform, which acts both as a marketplace and a “shadow employer,” makes this possible, with workers provided with unprecedented autonomy and flexibility. The authors examine the interplay between the gig economy and the concept of the smart city – an urban environment reliant upon information and communication technologies – and focus on how technological integrations such as blockchain, the collective network of connected devices, and the technology that facilitates communication between devices and the cloud, as well as between the devices themselves (Internet of Things [IoT]), and 5G, bolster opportunities for gig workers to carve out an existence in a perpetually changing landscape. Examples are provided for the global giant Amazon and the regional businesses Talabat and Raha in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Application of real-time tracking, precision-driven management, and decentralized transactions, provides gig workers new opportunities for employment in their evolving digital smart-city environment.

This introductory chapter lays the foundation for a Holistic Smart City framework organized around five pillars namely: Smart City Governance – Strategy – Utilization – Technology – Infrastructure (GSUTI) model. Smart cities governance establishes the overarching structure for effective management, emphasizing data integrity, regulatory resilience, and civic engagement. The strategy pillar integrates vision, mission, and strategic initiatives aligned with sustainable development goals, ensuring resource allocation and innovation resilience. The Utilization Framework encompasses diverse domains like transportation, energy, and healthcare, thus prioritizing initiatives and monitoring impact, enabling technologies that drive smart city innovation, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) (Chui et al., 2018), Internet of Things, blockchain, and cybersecurity to enhance efficiency and service delivery. Infrastructures and capabilities encompass physical and data ecosystems, from buildings and transportation hubs to big data streams and social media content. The chapter sets the context for the scientific discussion, offering practical insights into strategic consultation, performance monitoring, technology management, and data governance. It outlines directions for smart city development in the Gulf Region, including bold visions, megaprojects, national-level initiatives, data-driven services, and AI-driven excellence. This holistic framework provides a roadmap for smart city development, fostering sustainability, innovation, and societal well-being across the Gulf Region and beyond.

In this introductory chapter, we collaborate on how digital transformation (DT) supports a value-driven educational approach, emphasizing the need for regular assessments of stakeholder needs, enhancing students' abilities to solve complex problems, applying learned knowledge effectively, nurturing creativity, and boosting employment prospects through skill development. Strategic considerations for implementing DT include creating a shared vision through collaborative strategy development, establishing clear objectives, designing a detailed action plan for DT initiatives, encouraging active participation from all educational community members, and maintaining the DT strategy through continuous evaluation and adaptation. By interweaving DT with these strategic educational priorities, higher education institutions can not only improve the learning experience but also equip students to succeed in a rapidly evolving future.

This chapter explores the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on higher education, particularly in the context of accelerating technological and societal changes. As higher education institutions face the need to offer more flexible, adapted and relevant academic programmes, AI presents significant opportunities and challenges. In the first part of this chapter, the authors elaborated on characteristic the evolution of AI including characterizing the emerging AI landscape. One of our contributions in this concluding chapter is to conceptualize the next areas of deployment of AI in higher education considering the novel, innovative services that will disrupt the entire market in the next few years. The strategic proposition for deployment of AI in higher education highlighted six pillars, namely large language models, research.AI, content creation.AI, personalised learning.AI, skill building assistants.AI and education out of the Box.AI. The authors presented opportunities to harness AI to enhance teaching, learning and research under each pillar, along with a detailed list of potential application areas and services. Universities are exploring innovative ways to use AI-driven solutions to improve research, teaching and learning experiences, and the authors also developed indicative scenarios for the use of AI in higher education based on the six pillars. One of the bold contributions in this chapter is the structured framework for understanding the evolution and use of AI in higher education, utilizing a matrix to map the intersection of market penetration and product development. Finally, the authors discuss future directions and strategies for Higher Education 2030 in light of advances in AI technology.

This chapter delves into the pivotal role of digital transformation (DT) strategies in fostering educational innovation, particularly through the lens of transformative learning (TL). By outlining a five-stage TL model, we explore how DT strategies can not only support but also significantly enhance educational reforms. Actions and multipliers, constituting the core elements of this model, interact dynamically to advance TL within academic institutions. Actions, such as strategic initiatives and the development of learning environments, account for the tangible steps toward transformation. Meanwhile, multipliers amplify these efforts, emphasizing the importance of strategy, commitment and the sustainable impact of educational transformations. We also highlight the emerging influence of artificial intelligence (AI) in reshaping learning contexts, demonstrating its capacity to personalize learning experiences and foster problem-solving skills. Additionally, we envision the future trajectory of higher education (HE) toward 2035, emphasizing the integration of AI and DT in creating a responsive and adaptive educational ecosystem. This chapter argues that DT is not just a tool but also a catalyst for active and transformative learning, proposing a holistic approach to integrating technology in education that addresses current challenges and anticipates future needs.