(Yicai Global) March 19 -- A unit under China's biggest online search provider Baidu Inc. has partnered up with China Greatwall Technology Group Co. to develop an artificial intelligence service platform for smart cities.

Greatwall and Baidu Online Network Technology Beijing Co. penned the three-year agreement to integrate Baidu's AI, Big Data and Cloud technologies with Greatwall's software and hardware, the Shenzhen-based firm said in a statement.

The platform will adopt new-generation AI and Big Data technologies to provide a package of solutions for smart city construction and to boost key industries, the statement said. These solutions include Baidu's City Brain, which optimizes traffic systems, and IntelliSense.

The idea of smart cities is becoming ever popular across the world, although different sources view the concept in differing ways. US-based networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. defines a smart city as those which adopt "scalable solutions that take advantage of information and communications technology to increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and enhance quality of life."

Baidu and Greatwall will build industrial innovation centers for artificial intelligence and Big Data in order to seek out new applications for the technologies, facilitating the development of high-growth industrial clusters, the statement added.