AI-supported conversations for participatory planning
Collect, structure, and analyze stakeholder input during design and planning processes.
Short Overview
This research prototype supports participatory processes in urban design and architecture by enabling structured conversations with residents and stakeholders.
The chatbot helps design teams collect qualitative input at larger scales than are usually possible through meetings or surveys alone. It can support stakeholder dialogue, summarize recurring needs and concerns, and help translate community input into design requirements that planners can review.
The system uses language-model and Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods to conduct and analyze conversations. It can be deployed in a browser or integrated with common messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, depending on the participation context.
Our research evaluates when chatbot-based participation is useful and where it remains limited. In previous studies, chatbot conversations produced rich stakeholder input and high user satisfaction, while also highlighting the need to combine digital participation with deliberative, face-to-face processes.
The goal is not to replace planners, workshops, or community relationships. Instead, the chatbot is designed as one component in a broader participation process, helping teams broaden access, document input more systematically, and make stakeholder reasoning more visible.
Benefits
- Improved public participation in planning decisions.
- Increased collaboration between the community and the planners
- Increased trust between the government and the citizens
- Faster and more efficient planning processes
- Automated communication with the community
- Better design solutions tailored to the needs of the community
- Accessible to people with disabilities and people who speak different languages
- Reduced bureaucracy and costs associated with public participation