The breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) continue to (re)shape possibilities in urban governance. These breakthroughs have prompted a renewed investigation of AI awareness and AI application as a functional capacity. However, the awareness-application relationship is not a given. This paper sheds light on urban governance actors' awareness and application of AI based on the technology acceptance model (TAM). The study used a mixed-methods approach to survey 27 respondents and 14 key informants to understand the awareness and application of governance actors in Wa Municipality, Ghana. The paper found that AI awareness is generally moderate, and the main governance activity leveraging it was urban planning/decision-making. It also revealed that, while 46% of the changes in AI application could not be explained by AI acceptance, 80.8% and 82.8% of the changes in AI acceptance and AI application were defined by AI awareness. For sustainable AI in urban governance, policies should focus on adopting AI technologies, and the choice of a particular AI technology should align with existing digital infrastructure, digital talent, and governance structures.
Okrah et al. (Thu,) studied this question.