The recent Consul Conference 2025 in Gran Canaria has brought plans for a new AI assistant for the Consul platform. GFOSS took part at the conference with an interest to explore common ground with the AI4Deliberation project which aims to create robust and ethical AI tools for public deliberation The New Consul AI Assistant The Consul platform’s upcoming AI assistant seeks to transform civic engagement with ambitious goals: increasing citizen participation by up to 40% and tripling engagement from traditionally underrepresented groups like migrants and young people. Equally impressive is its target to reduce administrative burden by 30%, making participatory processes more sustainable for public institutions and civil servants tasked with managing day to day deliberation operations.
These objectives align well with our work on the AI4Deliberation project, where we’re exploring how multimodal AI tools can enhance democratic deliberation while maintaining human agency in the process. Key Features and Their Relevance to AI4Deliberation Voice Input Accessibility The Consul AI assistant will enable citizens to contribute verbally rather than solely through text. For our AI4Deliberation work, this multimodal functionality is expected to address a critical barrier that is the reluctance of many citizens to engage with text-heavy interfaces, particularly among older populations and those with limited digital literacy. Real-Time Translation The multilingual support features will allow diverse communities to participate equally in civic discourse especially in international settings. This capability is particularly relevant to our AI4Deliberation pilots, as we’re interested in creating more inclusive deliberative spaces where language differences don’t prevent meaningful participation. Proposal Creation Support The planned AI-powered guidance for creating well-structured proposals resonates strongly with our AI4Deliberation objectives as far as the quality of deliberation by helping citizens articulate their ideas more effectively is concerned. Analysis and Evaluation Tools The assistant’s capabilities for analyzing and summarizing citizen contributions will create more efficient feedback loops between citizens and public administration. In our AI4Deliberation work, we’re particularly interested in how these tools can make large-scale deliberation more manageable while preserving the nuance and diversity of public input. Evidence-Based Process Design The platform’s new recommendations for designing successful participatory processes align with our AI4Deliberation focus on thoughtful process design that encourages genuine deliberation rather than superficial engagement. OECD Insights on AI for Citizen Participation The Consul Conference also featured a compelling presentation from Giulia Cibrario Junior Policy Analyst – Innovative Citizen Participation OECD Public Governance Directorate on “Harnessing AI Tools for More and Better Citizen Participation in Policymaking.” The preliminary findings highlighted how AI tools can strengthen democracy by improving political agency which is identified as the most powerful driver of trust in government. OECD has developed a typology of AI applications for citizen participation, ranging from
information navigation and sense-making to multilingual dialogue support and visualization of possible futures. Examples like Pol.is for mapping citizens’ voices, Panoramic for connecting citizen assemblies to broader publics, and UrbanistAI for co-designing urban spaces, demonstrate AI’s potential to address key public participation challenges in the AI age. These insights are highly relevant to AI4Deliberation, as we consider how similar applications might inform our AI toolkit.
The recent Consul Conference 2025 in Gran Canaria has brought plans for a new AI
assistant for the Consul platform. GFOSS took part at the conference with an interest to
explore common ground with the AI4Deliberation project which aims to create robust and
ethical AI tools for public deliberation
The New Consul AI Assistant
The Consul platform’s upcoming AI assistant seeks to transform civic engagement with
ambitious goals: increasing citizen participation by up to 40% and tripling engagement from
traditionally underrepresented groups like migrants and young people. Equally impressive is
its target to reduce administrative burden by 30%, making participatory processes more
sustainable for public institutions and civil servants tasked with managing day to day
deliberation operations.
These objectives align well with our work on the AI4Deliberation project, where we’re
exploring how multimodal AI tools can enhance democratic deliberation while maintaining
human agency in the process.
Key Features and Their Relevance to AI4Deliberation
Voice Input Accessibility
The Consul AI assistant will enable citizens to contribute verbally rather than solely through
text. For our AI4Deliberation work, this multimodal functionality is expected to address a
critical barrier that is the reluctance of many citizens to engage with text-heavy interfaces,
particularly among older populations and those with limited digital literacy.
Real-Time Translation
The multilingual support features will allow diverse communities to participate equally in
civic discourse especially in international settings. This capability is particularly relevant to
our AI4Deliberation pilots, as we’re interested in creating more inclusive deliberative spaces
where language differences don’t prevent meaningful participation.
Proposal Creation Support
The planned AI-powered guidance for creating well-structured proposals resonates strongly
with our AI4Deliberation objectives as far as the quality of deliberation by helping citizens
articulate their ideas more effectively is concerned.
Analysis and Evaluation Tools
The assistant’s capabilities for analyzing and summarizing citizen contributions will create
more efficient feedback loops between citizens and public administration. In our
AI4Deliberation work, we’re particularly interested in how these tools can make large-scale
deliberation more manageable while preserving the nuance and diversity of public input.
Evidence-Based Process Design
The platform’s new recommendations for designing successful participatory processes align
with our AI4Deliberation focus on thoughtful process design that encourages genuine
deliberation rather than superficial engagement.
OECD Insights on AI for Citizen Participation
The Consul Conference also featured a compelling presentation from Giulia Cibrario Junior
Policy Analyst – Innovative Citizen Participation OECD Public Governance Directorate on
“Harnessing AI Tools for More and Better Citizen Participation in Policymaking.” The
preliminary findings highlighted how AI tools can strengthen democracy by improving
political agency which is identified as the most powerful driver of trust in government.
OECD has developed a typology of AI applications for citizen participation, ranging from
information navigation and sense-making to multilingual dialogue support and visualization
of possible futures. Examples like Pol.is for mapping citizens’ voices, Panoramic for
connecting citizen assemblies to broader publics, and UrbanistAI for co-designing urban
spaces, demonstrate AI’s potential to address key public participation challenges in the AI
age. These insights are highly relevant to AI4Deliberation, as we consider how similar
applications might inform our AI toolkit.