A conversation platform between citizens and public servants
Anisha Bhatt Enzo Yen Yi Chiang Shuhei Okubo
Background
Increasing demand on public service from citizens*1
UK local authorities % of UK residents have gone bankrupt, with severe financial distress*2 reckon they cannot have positive impact on improving public service from their feedback*3
Why participation matters now for local councils in UK?
Local councils in the UK are now facing an increasingly challenging policy making landscape. In this context, engaging and understanding citizens through participatory processes is more important than ever. By involving residents in policy-making, councils can create more effective and efficient policies, manage expectations, and strengthen relationships with the community.
Our Project Aim
System
From Voices to local policies
In policy cycle, Agenda-setting stage offers potentials for citizens to influence to policy as it's less institutionalised.
The Funnel
Agenda-setting can be understood as a funnel-like process through which societal issues compete to be placed on the institutional agenda. We aim to expand the funnel to allow marginalised issues to pass through.
Who are the “Marginalised Voices”?
Many local councils in London represent diverse ethnicities. We’ve identified two main groups within these councils: fresh faces in the council and silent voices. Both groups have a strong interest in local affairs. However, their ability to influence policy is hindered by several factors: a lack of engagement capabilities, disorganised collective voices, and the council’s resource constraints.
“I don’t know anything about how council works and my communities in this area so it’s hard for me to bring my voices”
“...One of my challenges is reaching out to people who lack confidence in speaking and weak community ties. It s tough, but understanding their needs is crucial for building a more inclusive community....”
“I need my kid to helps me speak up when i have to interact with the council”
better advocate for the interests of under represented minorities to achieve more responsive and better policies for the public good?
enhancing accessibility to engage by
As a result, their voices are not heard, and their needs are overlooked in policy decisions. Addressing these barriers is crucial for creating a more inclusive and representative agenda-setting process.
while ensuring
organising collective opinions to present to the council
overcoming council’s resource constraints a collective decision through representative democracy a fact-based free exchange of information
The Silent Voices Baljd
An AI-assisted conversation platform that helps local council public servants to promote inclusive community engagement by facilitating resident involvement and integrating diverse perspectives. We create touchpoints for citizens to easily express their opinions, effectively gather voices from marginalised groups at lower costs, and analyse collected data to generate actionable insights for decision makers prioritising a comprehensive policy agenda.
Facilitator
This feature can assist council engagement staff by facilitating the collection of face-to-face conversations, automatically generating suggested questions to ask residents based on the conversation flow, and providing real-time translation for nonEnglish speaking residents.
Digital Assistant
This feature answers the questions residents have about council services and policies. It also actively asks follow-up questions about their feelings and views based on the topic of their inquiries to collect more indepth information for further analysis.
Dashboard
Council staff can query the residents’ opinion database to gather insights, which can then be visualized into diagrams and narratives using the power of generative AI. The insights obtained can be shared with stakeholders and colleagues across different departments within the council to assist in forming new agendas and policies.
How to deliver it?
Unison’s service for council staff involves two main phases:
Collecting Voices from Citizens
Collecting Voices from Conversation
A dashboard visualises the collected voices, aligning them with current policy programs. This helps identify biases, promotes cross department collaboration, and generates insights for new agendas. 1 2
Utilising AI facilitators and two way AI assistant to gather diverse voices, particularly from marginalised groups, at lower costs. This ensures inclusive research and high quality data on citizens’ needs.
Stages Build Environment for accessible communication Facilitating Collective Conversation / Collecting Opinions
Citizens’ Action
Know how to collect information on councils’ policy especially that is relevant to their life with using Unison.
Can know about their neighbours/ communities’ opinions and how their own opinion matters to councils policy.
Individually chat with AI assistant. Ask questions about what they want to know about councils’ service. Go to a community centre and come across a quick group conversation with council staff
Give consent for submit the voice to the council (while collecting necessary info for analysis)
Analysing / Synthesising Data
Communicating Insights / Informing Decision
Following up / Foster Accountability
Know how their opinions nurture agenda setting in a certain policy.
Check whether whole
Deploy Unison AI assistant in digital platform and physical places like community centres, Libraries or Council office.
Publish some of key stats on opinions collected in Unison.
Unison collects people’s needs from questions on the AI assistant.
Using AI features help council staff build capabilities for inclusive interview research at lower cost.
Plan the qualitative research and set ob ective/goal for it. Facilitate the interview with AI generated prompt and record it.
Unison AI Facilitator Tailor made question list based on research aim and context. Real time prompt generation to activate conversations.
Put all collected data into one place: Unison Opinion Database.
If we create chat/ prompt based dashboard, that would make it easier for council staff to use it and identify potential bias or lack of voice.
Council staff can ask any question about the current issue on Unison Dashboard to visualise the voices
Unison Opinion Database The opinions collected from assistant or conversation is stored as data with its collection process.
Unison Dashboard Visualise information on opinion database with query support by AI.
Connect the data with relevant existing policy in the council so that they can create insights(i.e. implications on the policy).
Council Policy Database Database of current policy. Documents on strategy, reports, policy papers or statistics.
We can use Unison Dashboard as a tool to foster cross department collaboration to create new insights and establish new agenda.
e need a cross division/ stakeholder governance model to make the most of insights gained by Unison.
If we can show citizens why certain agenda is set or not, that would foster trust in this system. If we connect opinion data and policy data, that would help council staff to identify the implication of opinions on policies.
Discuss the shared goal with stakeholders or teams in councils with using dashboard, aiming to create a convincing narratives.
Unison Dashboard Cross department insight sharing with Unison to generate new agenda.
Create a policy paper on identified issues in council as potential agenda. Share them with stakeholders.
Insights Reporting Team Cross department team for creating the policy paper.
Record the decision journey: showing what and how a certain agenda is set.
Make sure that the use of AI in whole process is ethical and accountable
Unison Open Dashboard for Citizens
Unison Opinion Database Data source shows how AI has been used in its collection process, making it accountable for citizens.
Business Model
How can we make it come true?
Key Partnerships
1. Government
• Local councils
• Local government association
• New Local
2. Technology
• Tech team
• Cloud service (verify?)
• Available APIs of existing services?
• Other council services: Library, schools, community groups
• Local service & communities related data acquisition
• AI Model Development
1. API and Databases
• API for GenAI features
• Cross departmental database on policies
2. Staff and Community Engagement
• Council staff: for citizens engagement team
• Access to local community dataset • Council staff with AI related knowledge
3. Cloud Services • Any cloud service? Key Activities
3. Data and Cost Reduction • High quality dat • Cost reduction
AI assisted conversation platfor create touchpoints that makes it easier for citizens to express their opinion to collect voices from marginalised group effectively at lower costs and analysing collected data and creating insight to inform decision makers who prioritise the agenda
Long-term partnership to pursue public good for the communitie Help build customer capabilities as a third-party organisation with feedback loop
Channels
1. Procurement and Support • Procurement contract with each council
• Support and use from different departments/ teams in the council
2. Trial Schemes • Trial schemes and AI application workshops
Council sta who wants to involve residents in policy proces and integrate diverse perspectives in order to shape a well-rounded policy agend find it difficult to promote inclusive community engagement due t lack of capability to engage disorganisation of collective voice council’s resource constraints
1.Operational Costs
• Cloud hosting, data storage, and computational power
• Policy database: Integrating policy information into one place
2. Development Costs
• Salaries for data scientists, developers
3. Support and Maintenance
• Ongoing support and infrastructure maintenance
Special Thanks to
Council staffs in Ealing Council and every residents we spoke to
1. Subscription 2. Freemium
3. Citizens’ Support/Satisfaction
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