The concept of smart cities integrates technological, social and environmental aspects to improve the quality of life of citizens. Smart cities are important in the context of sustainable development. They integrate innovative technologies, new social aspects and environmental principles to contribute to the well-being of citizens and improve the quality of life. For this research, data collected between 2023 and 2025 was used in which a complex and multidimensional questionnaire was applied. 314 responses were collected that focus on how residents perceive the effectiveness of smart city initiatives in urban contexts. Data was collected on the impact of social and educational infrastructure, urban mobility, safety and environmental quality. The innovative part of this research is the introduction of the Perceived Smartness Index (PSI), a composite indicator that measures the balance between technological innovations and the experience of citizens. The research results showed that there were medium to positive perceptions of smart transformations (PSI = 3.38/5.00) and urban mobility was the highest, followed by social infrastructure and environmental performance. The results highlight the gap between the human dimensions of intelligent urbanism and the perception of progress and progress. The chapter concludes with policy recommendations that emphasize the importance of transparency, citizen participation, and ecological visibility in the future management of smart cities. The main limitation of this study is the geographic focus on a single region, but the methodology and analytical model developed here can be replicated in other urban contexts for comparison studies.