AI for Impact 
FREE ONLINE COURSE
Designing Democratic Engagement with AI: Practical Strategies for Public Participation
Designed for public professionals globally, the course responds to a common challenge in public service: many institutions know engagement matters, but lack clear guidance on how to do it well. Learners gain practical, design-focused skills for running engagement across contexts, including consultation, deliberation, co-creation, and other ways of listening to communities.
In partnership with:
ABOUT THE COURSE
This free, self-paced course equips public servants with the skills needed to plan, run, learn from, and institutionalize meaningful engagement with communities.
Who is this for
Designed for public professionals globally, the course responds to a common challenge in public service: many institutions know engagement matters, but lack clear guidance on how to do it well. Learners gain practical, design-focused skills for running engagement across contexts, including consultation, deliberation, co-creation, and other ways of listening to communities.
Modality
Delivered through short, accessible videos, the course focuses on concrete design choices, such as whom to engage, what to ask, and how to use public input in decision-making. Throughout, it shows how artificial intelligence can responsibly support public engagement by reducing time, cost, and complexity while improving accessibility, inclusion, and insight, without replacing human judgment.
Partners
Developed in collaboration with The GovLab and the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at Harvard University and a design and advisory board of 50+ global experts on public engagement
Course Curriculum
Why Engagement Matters Today
Why public engagement is essential for effective governance and how AI can make it easier to do well.
A Checklist for Planning Your Engagement
Introduces a framework for designing effective public engagement from idea to impact.
Defining Goals for Engagement and Action
How clear, realistic goals guide both participants and institutions toward meaningful engagement outcomes.
Ensuring Ownership, Accountability and Action
Why clear ownership is essential for turning public input into real decisions and lasting impact.
Identifying Participants
How to match participants to your engagement goals by combining different selection approaches.
Designing Outreach Strategies
How to design outreach that reaches beyond the usual suspects and lowers barriers to participation.
Designing Incentives for Participation
How to motivate participation through a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic incentives and reducing barriers to participation.
Defining the Tasks: What You Ask Participants to Do
How to define clear tasks, write effective instructions, and pick the right platform for your engagement goals.
Reviewing Inputs
How to organize, analyze, and evaluate public input so it can inform real decisions.
Using What the Group Creates
How to close the loop by acting on public input and showing participants that their contributions mattered.
Designing Your Project Plan
How to map the full engagement journey — from planning through implementation — into a clear, sequenced project plan.
Conclusion
A recap of the nine-step framework and an invitation to put these principles into practice.
Our Advisory Committee
Kent Aitken
Director
Canada School of Public Service, Government of Canada
Michael Baskin
Chief Innovation Officer
Montgomery County, Maryland
Aleks Berditchevskaia
Principal Researcher
Centre for Collective Intelligence Design, Nesta
Paula Berman
Director of Programs & Partnerships
RadicalxChange Foundation
Róbert Bjarnason
Co-Founder and President
Citizens Foundation
Hilaire Brockmeyer
Digital Services Manager
City of Portland, Oregon
Alisson Bruno
e-Citizenship Coordinator
Brazilian Senate
Dino Cantú-Pedraza
Founder and Director
Aceleradora de Ciudades
Damiano Cerrone
Co-Founder
CoPlanAI
Marjan Ehassi
Executive Director
FIDE – North America
David Fairman
Senior Mediator
Consensus Building Institute
Eyal Feder-Levy
CEO and Co-founder
Zencity
Cristiano Ferri
Legislative Official
Brazilian House of Representatives
Alex Fischer
Fellow
Australian Resilient Democracy Network
Monica Fonseca
Lider Técnico - Gobierno Abierto
Distrital TIC, Bogotá
Franziska Führer
Consultant
CIO’s Office, City of Vienna
Naiara Goia
Managing Director
Arantzazulab
Beth Goldberg
Head of Research & Development
Google Jigsaw
Mario Grubišić
Head of Sector – Future Lab
Directorate for Communication, European Committee of the Regions
Kristin Hansen
Executive Director
Civic Health Project
Marci Harris
Founder and CEO
POPVOX Foundation
Luukas Ilves
Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister
Ministry of Digital Transformation, Ukraine
Eve Klein
Senior Advisor for Public Engagement in Science
Association of Science & Technology Centers
Hiroyuki Kurimoto
Founder
Liquitous
Claudius Lieven
Head of the Urban Workshop and Participation Unit
Office for Regional Planning and Urban Development, City of Hamburg
Faye Liu
Assistant Commissioner - Craft and Learning
Australian Public Sector Commission
Jeffery Marino
Director
California Office of Data and Innovation
Jose Luis Marti
Associate Professor of Philosophy of Law
Pompeu Fabra University
Suzette Brooks Masters
Director, Democracy Innovation
Democracy Funders Network
Jonathan Moskovic
Research Lead Founder
European University Institute What about Dem
Geoff Mulgan
Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation
University College London
Aline Muylaert
Co-Founder & Head of Government Success
GoVocal
Ruthie Nachmany
Product Manager
New Jersey Innovation Authority
Tarik Nesh-Nash
Senior Regional Coordinator, Africa and the Middle East
Open Government Partnership
Evelien Nieuwenburg
Co-Founder & Innovation Scientist
Dembrane
Alex Parsons
Democracy Lead and Senior Researcher
My Society
Lex Paulson
Director
UM6P School of Collective Intelligence
Tiago Carneiro Peixoto
Senior Public Sector Specialist - Digital Government Coordinator for the EU and Western Balkans
The World Bank
Javier Pérez
Director
Political Watch
Ben Peterson
Executive Director of the City-County Planning Commission
Warren County, Kentucky
Ricardo Poppi
Technology Coordinator
Instituto Cidade Democrática
Giulio Quaggiotto
Strategic Advisor
Prime Minister’s Office, United Arab Emirates
Greta Ríos
Co-Executive Director
People Powered
Matt Ryan
Senior Fellow
The GovLab
John Sanborn
Chief Learning Officer
California Department of Human Resources
Bonnie Shaw
Chief Innovator in Residence
Municipal Association of Victoria
Davyd Smith
Director of Information Technology
Governor's Office of Information Technology, State of Colorado
Paula Starr
Chief Information Officer
Cherokee Nation
Silke Toenshoff
Head of Unit
European Committee of the Regions
Ireland Twiggs
Programme Manager
Cooperation Ireland
Aziza Umarova
Head of Delivery Unit
Agency for Strategic Development and Reforms, Uzbekistan
Antaraa Vasudev
Founder and CEO
Civis
Mark Warren
Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Emeritus Merilees Chair for the Study of Democracy
University of British Columbia
Micah Weinberg
Nonresident Scholar
Carnegie California
Bill Zipse
Supervising Forester
New Jersey Forest Service