The article dwells on the issues of transformation of modern cities during implementation of the achievements in the sphere of AI with emphasis on the financial & economic and information components. The purpose is to study the influence and to determine the perspectives of the financial & economic and information aspects on development of “smart” city. The research object is Russian large and important cities and foreign cities. The authors use such methods as analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, observation, comparison, grouping, abstraction, and expert evaluation. The research results showed that 1. The notion “smart” city and application of AI constantly expands with development of information technologies and the growing needs of citizens in authentic and full information and high-quality and quick services. 2. Indicators of “smart city” could be divided into 7 directions: smart management, smart technologies, smart infrastructure, smart economy, smart finances, smart citizens, and smart environment. It is concluded that development of economy in Russia is impossible without “Smart city”, and only constant usage of the achievements of new information technologies will allow remaining at a competitive level in the global economy. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.