At the workshop “Legitimacy Conditions for AI in Democratic Participation”, participants were invited to collectively reflect on the opportunities and challenges of AI-mediated participation in cities. Participants explored how AI may support democratic processes, including by providing new accessible formats of communication, scaling deliberation and improving access to meaningful information.
The discussions emphasized that current digital participation platforms still face significant limitations in making participation more inclusive and representative. Participants also reflected on how the integration of AI features, or the reconceptualization of participation through AI-driven tools, does not necessarily lead to more inclusive and representative processes and outcomes. In particular, participants highlighted that such developments do not automatically enable policymaking and urban futures to be co-constructed through shared power dynamics. In the final activity, participants drafted questions directed at different stakeholder groups while contributing to a collective reflection on the conditions required for legitimate and inclusive AI-mediated participation in cities.
The Responsible AI Forum 2026 was funded by the European Union. More on alignAI.
