You mentioned using artificial intelligence to manage road salt dispersal. That's not a narrow niche. Your product would be of interest to lots of people. Everyone needs to do some de-icing, whether on house laneways and walkways, access roads to parks or even municipal sidewalks and streets. You have hundreds of thousands of potential clients. From coast to coast, that would be millions of potential clients, not to mention those in northern countries.
Without giving away any secrets, how come you never got any support from a city?