These portable devices, similar to a mobile phone, enable real-time conversation translation. Current technology provides voice translation in 82 languages, text translation via the keyboard in 96 languages and photograph translation in 112 languages, with further languages to be added through regular updates.

The initiative, costing less than €55,000, helps overcome language barriers in the initial interactions between members of the public and municipal staff. The technology is designed solely as a support tool for municipal teams during the early stages of information and guidance, and always under the supervision of municipal professionals, whose intervention it never replaces.

The project, coordinated by the Barcelona Municipal Institute of Innovation and Technology (BIT) through its Artificial Intelligence Office, began with a preliminary study phase and several pilot tests carried out in 2024 and 2025. Eighty-five per cent of the 201 devices have already been delivered. Full deployment is scheduled for completion in September, once staff training has finished and the service has been activated in each of the designated units.

This initiative forms part of the Municipal Strategy for the ethical, democratic and sustainable adoption of artificial intelligence, which aims to harness the technology to create public value, improve the quality of municipal services and strengthen citizens’ rights. These goals also align with the Barcelona Fàcil plan, the City Council’s roadmap for making the relationship between the Council and the public more agile, comprehensible and accessible.