Article
Artificial Intelligence: The Parking Industry has a Choice to Make
Taranto’s AI Journey from Concept to Reality
By Simon Bradley, Taranto Client Services Director
We have all been reading about the potential of AI and the changes it will introduce to our working and personal lives. Many people are excited about the possibilities, others are more anxious about its impact. At Taranto, we are embracing AI and putting it to work in practical areas of our business.
The parking landscape is shifting. Local authorities are under pressure to do more with less. Private operators want smarter insight, faster. Citizens expect digital-first experiences. The question is not whether AI will shape the way we deliver parking services. It is who will be leading when it does.
From Buzzword to Working Capability
During the past year, at Taranto, we have moved AI from a slide deck into our operations. Not as a gimmick, not as a roadmap item, but as a real, deployed capability. Three production-ready AI solutions are running today across our platform – automating the repetitive, extracting insight from data that previously sat dormant. Freeing our people to focus on the work that actually matters. These are not pilots. They are not demos. They are in production and being actively used by clients. More solutions are in development.
To help us on our AI journey, we have been able to draw, not just on our own knowledge, but have tapped into the resources of the wider Modaxo Group, which has been looking for some time at best practice in AI adoption.
Technology is Only Half the Story
Tools alone do not change outcomes. The people using them do. One of the things I am proudest of this year is the bespoke AI training programme we have built for the Taranto team. A tailored curriculum that meets people wherever they sit in the business – technical consultants pushing the boundaries of what is possible, support engineers resolving cases faster, project managers sharpening delivery.
The result is a workforce that does not just understand AI conceptually. They use it daily, in ways that make a difference. Every capability we build into our team becomes a capability that we can deliver for our clients.
Taking it to our Clients
We have taken a deliberately proactive stance on AI engagement. We are not waiting behind a support desk for feature requests. We are taking our AI solutions out to our clients. Focused visits to understand the specific pressures, workflows and ambitions of each organisation we serve. Because the right AI solution for a London borough managing high volume PCN processing looks very different from the right one for a private landowner managing a coastal car park.
As well as those individual client sessions, we are running multi-client workshops, bringing together organisations facing similar challenges to co-design what comes next. The quality of thinking in those rooms has surprised me. When you put practitioners from completely different organisations around a table with our technical team and ask the right questions, the ideas that emerge are sharper, more grounded and more likely to actually solve something than any roadmap built in isolation.
Where the Real Opportunity Lies
The race for AI in our industry will not be won by whoever invests the most money into AI or shouts loudest about transformation. It will be won by the organisations that combine three things:
- Genuinely deployed technology
- Genuinely skilled people
- Genuinely collaborative relationships with clients
At Taranto, we are leaning into all three.
I am not going to pretend we have everything figured out. The pace of change in this space is extraordinary and anyone claiming certainty is either exaggerating or not paying attention. What I can tell you is that Taranto is treating this as the defining technology shift of our generation. We are building the capability, the culture and the client partnerships to meet the challenge.
Let’s Talk
If you are a client, a partner or someone in the parking industry who recognises the same inflection point we do, I would love to hear from you. The best conversations I have had this year have started with someone saying: “We have been thinking about how AI could help with…..” – and us saying: “Let’s work out how to do this.”
Get in touch at sales@tarantosystems.com to find out more about our AI-enabled solutions, book a session with our team, or join one of our multi-client AI workshops. In my next article, I will be looking at the practicalities of how we have incorporated AI tools into our business and what we have learnt. There’s a lot to be learned from shared experiences.
The parking industry has a choice to make.
We’ve already made ours.
Simon Bradley, Client Services Director
Simon Bradley is Taranto Systems’ head of Client Services, leading a dedicated team focused on providing outstanding service to clients across public and private sectors. With over 20 years’ experience in technology services and support, Simon’s knowledge and expertise enable him to drive continuous improvement and strategic initiatives to enhance client engagement and ensure service excellence.
