At a busy urban crossroads, infrastructure is easy to see. Cars move through lanes. Buses stop and start. Pedestrians wait at crossings. Traffic lights guide the flow of movement through the city.
But much of what can make that crossroads work better is less visible.
Sensors can monitor traffic flows in real time. Adaptive traffic signals can respond to changing demand and reduce travel times. Data can help improve bus reliability, enhance road safety and support better decisions on road maintenance. With the right technology, an ordinary intersection can become a smarter, safer and more efficient part of the urban system.
The same principle applies across infrastructure sectors. Whether in energy, transport, water or health, technology can help infrastructure perform better, adapt more effectively to changing conditions and deliver greater benefits over its lifetime.
This is the key message of AIIB’s new report, Creating Impact through Technology-enabled Infrastructure. The report asks a practical question: How can technology help infrastructure deliver greater development impact?
This question is becoming increasingly important. Across AIIB members, infrastructure systems face growing pressure: congested roads, strained power grids, water losses, climate-exposed assets and rising demand for quality public services. Meeting these challenges requires more than building new infrastructure; it also means making existing and future infrastructure more efficient, sustainable, responsive and resilient throughout its life cycle.
Technology-enabled infrastructure is one of AIIB’s four thematic priorities under its corporate strategy, alongside green infrastructure, connectivity and regional cooperation, and private capital mobilization. Technology-enabled Infrastructure reflects a clear approach: technology should help infrastructure deliver better outcomes, whether through higher efficiency, stronger resilience, improved service quality, greater transparency or better long-term asset performance.
The report shows that this approach is already being translated into investments. From 2016 to 2025, technology-enabled infrastructure was incorporated in 93 AIIB-approved projects, representing about 32% of the Bank’s total approvals in this period. These projects span 21 members and cut across sectors, from energy and transport to health, water, digital infrastructure and multisector investments.
Technology has the potential to create value in different ways to address specific development challenges. In Türkiye, AIIB financing supports the Enerjisa Enerji Sustainability Linked Corporate Loan for Network Modernization, Expansion, and Reconstruction, enabling electricity network modernization through digital tools, automation and advanced grid equipment, in turn strengthening reliability, reducing losses and supporting the integration of renewable energy.
In Indonesia, the Modernization of the Health System project shows how technology can improve both access to and quality of health care services. Medical equipment, digital systems and training are helping health facilities provide better services closer to the communities that need them.
In India, the Maharashtra Climate Resilient Distributed Renewable Energy Access Program combines distributed solar energy with real-time dashboards and decision-support systems to provide farmers with more reliable daytime power while helping agencies make more informed decisions on groundwater management, grid upgrades and agricultural energy use.
AIIB also supports companies and funds developing the next generation of infrastructure technologies beyond individual infrastructure projects. Through its investment in NIO Capital Eve ONE Fund II and the Venture Capital Investment Program for Green and Technology-enabled Infrastructure, the Bank helps channel capital to early- and growth-stage companies advancing innovative infrastructure solutions. Such efforts help move promising technologies toward wider deployment and adoption.
AIIB’s contribution also extends beyond project financing. Through knowledge products and initiatives such as the InfraTech Portal, the Bank helps connect infrastructure clients, technology providers and investors, promoting greater awareness of proven solutions and facilitating their adoption across sectors and countries.
Technology creates the greatest value when it is closely linked to a clear infrastructure objective. Digital solutions, advanced equipment and intelligent systems are most useful when they can help clients make better decisions, strengthen operations, manage risks and deliver better services over the life of an asset.
As AIIB enters its second decade, technology-enabled infrastructure will remain central to its mission of financing Infrastructure for Tomorrow. The goal is not technology for its own sake but technology that enables infrastructure to deliver stronger development impacts – for people, for economies and for the environment.
