I see therefore we are: the potential for aggregating individual future visions into a collective imaginary through artificial intelligence (AI)

Purpose This analysis draws on ethnographic research in a Northern UK city where a series of engagement activities produced hand-drawn sketches about the future. This paper shows how different groups revealed contradictory aspirations for the area with growth-focused politicians and planners projecting affluent prosperity rather than the modest, family-oriented social stability sought by local people. Design/methodology/approach Reconciling multiple perspectives is the greatest challenge of civic leadership. This paper considers how the emerging potential of artificial intelligence (AI) could support a structured imagining process for masterplanners to aggregate aspirational sketches at scale and so develop a closer relationship between citizen ideas for the future and civic decision makers’ own strategies and action plans. Findings This paper argues for a collective intelligence paradigm that aggregates individual futures thinking at city scale. Urban masterplanning strategies provide an organising structure to allow a city to emerge as a flourishing of multiple aspirations all at once. Research limitations/implications Rather than having individualism or collectivism as binary alternatives, generative AI offers an intriguing process for combining individual aspirations into a pluralist endeavour. Practical implications Engaging with citizens on the ground, in their homes and community spaces is the only way to uncover what is important to them. Ethnography provides that. Social implications Although AI’s use of aggregated data is collective, intelligence comes from nuanced and ethnographic engagement with the data. Originality/value The principle of the emergent city (Symons 2017) provides a conceptual approach to amalgamating the individual with the collective.