BeLocal at the Smart Cities WhatsApp Hackathon: A Civic Algorithm for Redistributing Attention
At the Hackathon Soluciones WhatsApp en Smart Cities, organized under the #INCIBEemprende program in collaboration with WOZTELL and Ciudadano Conversacional, AImpacto Madrid Rotaract not only contributed through regulatory and AI governance discussions, but also competed as part of Equipo Lila with the project BeLocal. We are very proud of the team: Miguel Ornelas Silva, Olivia Vidal de Salazar, Yonatan Cuervo, Anna Shatalova and Stanislav Vynnytskyi! Together they developed a civic-oriented conversational solution designed to address a structural urban challenge: the invisible erosion of local commerce. As highlighted in the presentation, Madrid has experienced a -14% decline in neighborhood retail between 2020 and 2024, with 43,800 active retailers and 78,900 commercial businesses operating under increasing pressure.
BeLocal begins from a simple but powerful premise: personalization on social media is often conformity disguised as choice. Algorithms concentrate attention. Neighborhood identity erodes. Small businesses become invisible. Our response was to design what we termed a “civic redistribution algorithm” — a conversational WhatsApp-based system that prioritizes small commerce, favors neighborhoods with lower foot traffic, and increases visibility for vulnerable businesses .The prototype architecture combined structured routing, database layers and conversational automation, demonstrating that civic technology can be both technically viable and socially intentional.
Importantly, BeLocal was explicitly aligned with the Plan Estratégico de la Ciudad de Madrid 2023–2027, reinforcing objectives related to cultural decentralization, neighborhood revitalization, digitalization of municipal services and economic regeneration. The projected impact model suggested that, under reasonable adoption assumptions, the initiative could generate an approximate 10% potential increase in traffic to local businesses.
Beyond the pitch, what made the experience particularly meaningful was the quality of the feedback received from the judging panel, including Enrique Barcos and Ignacio Azorín, Digital Strategy Director at Comunidad de Madrid since 2023, whose insights emphasized scalability, institutional alignment and the importance of embedding civic logic into algorithmic design. The core message of BeLocal was summarized in one sentence from our final slide: If algorithms concentrate, BeLocal redistributes so that wherever you are, you can feel part of the city.
For AImpacto, participating in this competition reinforced a central conviction: AI in Smart Cities should not merely optimize efficiency; it should actively strengthen community, equity and local economic resilience. Responsible innovation is not neutral. It is directional.
Disclaimer: redacted with AI.