This blog is a preview of our session at Sirus Connects on October 9, 2026, where we share practical, human-centred use cases of computer vision and image data from our work with cities, municipalities and other organisations.
Speakers:
How can we harness the power of automatic annotation and computer vision to help organisations work smarter, while maximally supporting their day-to-day operations?
This question has repeatedly been the starting point during first meetings with cities, municipalities and other organisations at the beginning of a collaboration. Because let’s be honest: manual, repetitive work is still very much a fixture within organisations.
The hours of image data reviewed minute by minute, frame by frame, by operators looking for anomalies often add up to more than we initially thought. As a result, sometimes only a “sample” can be taken, and in practice not all issues can be addressed.
On top of the fact that this can leave organisations feeling overstretched, these tasks aren’t exactly the ones that energise employees the most. We therefore strongly believe there is an untapped opportunity here — both for the consultants and for the organisations themselves.
Supporting people, not replacing them
Yet the power of image and video data should not be underestimated. And no, that doesn’t immediately make us think of “replacing people” or “automating everything”.
On the contrary: automatic annotation and computer vision allow employees to focus on the essence of their task without getting lost in the repetitive steps of the process. After all, analysing and interpreting the annotations and predictions is many times more valuable — and, on top of that, much harder for computer systems to do.
The challenge is rarely technological
The challenges in this kind of automation are, in fact, rarely technological. Just think of the enormous, here-to-stay power of large language models: the technology is there, companies have entire hard drives full of data, and the use cases are mostly well described and documented.
Digital transformation really starts with the people themselves. Because it’s the organisations and local governments who have to use — and trust — the technology. “Is this analysis reliable?” or “What about privacy?”
These are very important questions, and the last thing we as technologists should do is avoid them. On the contrary: that trust is precisely the foundation of a sustainable and widely adopted journey.
Small, targeted improvements within existing flows
So we always start from supporting the organisation, and certainly not from replacing certain roles or services within it. We try to plug into teams’ existing flows as much as possible.
It is always better to make small, targeted improvements within processes than to replace them entirely with technology. There is often low-hanging fruit within such processes that can reduce repetitive work without technologically forcing or completely changing the actual processes. This approach helps build trust, and takes people along in the story, step by step.
What we'll share at Sirus Connects
During the talk, we’ll walk you through several concrete examples of how we’ve used image data together with organisations, cities and municipalities to solve real problems. We won’t overwhelm you with futuristic concepts or abstract models, but with practical, tangible use cases from the field.
We’ll also pay due attention to our architectural choices, because time, budget and technical expertise were invariably factors to take into account in each of our cases. And we’ll be honest about the complexity, challenges, and the privacy and ethical hurdles we encountered along the way.
What can you expect? Practical insights you can immediately place in your own context, recognisable situations, and hopefully a different perspective on digital transformation.
What shouldn’t you expect? The “everything must change” pitch that ignores the authenticity and the individual within an organisation.
Curious how we approach this concretely? Come meet us live at Sirus Connects on October 9 — we look forward to sharing it with you.
Want to follow this live?
Join this session at Sirus Connects on October 9, 2026, from 14h15 to 15h. Register and secure your spot.
Can’t make it? Reach out to us, we are happy to share our experience and discuss how image and video data could support your organisation’s day-to-day operations.
