The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, met on Tuesday with the new president of Microsoft Spain, Paco Salcedo, within the framework of the Mobile World Congress 2025 (MWC25), which is currently being held in the city.

The meeting took place at the Microsoft stand at the congress, and was attended by the Municipal Manager, Laia Claverol, and the director of the Municipal Institute of Information Technology, Emili Rubió. Also participating for Microsoft were the director of Public Sector in Spain, Natalia Escobedo, and the manager of Public Sector in Catalonia, Regina Solé del Barrio.

During the meeting, the mayor conveyed to Salcedo his wish to continue working together to improve municipal services through the use of technology. In fact, the City Council is currently rolling out the project Copilot, through which some 500 municipal employees will incorporate Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution in 2025, with the aim of improving productivity within the council. During the first half of the year, the installation of the AI infrastructure in the Microsoft cloud will be completed, enabling the deployment of new council applications based on this technology across the whole of the City Council.

Microsoft has maintained a close relationship with the city since 2021 when Barcelona was chosen as the location for an R&D hub specialised in AI technologies and deep learning. The hub is located in the 22@ technology district and employs around 100 people. It is one of eight research centres that the multinational operates around the world as part of its Web Experiences Team division, dedicated to improving user experience.

With these initiatives, Barcelona reaffirms its position as a city at the forefront of technological innovation and the application of AI for municipal management.