Scoping the use of AI to organise, synthesis and analyse a large scale community engagement and consultation exercise.

<ns3:p>Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly recognised as a transformative tool in qualitative research, promising to enhance both the scalability and efficiency of processes which are traditionally resource intensive. While qualitative research is valued for its capacity to capture rich, nuanced insights into complex phenomena, accelerating these methods to enable large-scale impact across public sector contexts is an emerging priority. Automation with AI has demonstrated clear potential to save time and reduce costs, yet human-led qualitative approaches remain essential for interpreting emotional nuance and intricate social interactions. Governmental strategies increasingly advocate for the adoption of AI in local government and public sector organisations to analyse qualitative data from various sources, with the aim of facilitating rapid extraction of meaningful insights and enabling prompt, evidencebased decision making. Despite the advantages of automating certain tasks, can AI match qualitative methodologies which are indispensable for revealing the contextual and granular nature of social and behavioural phenomena? literature review was conducted to inform recommendations regarding the suitability of employing AI software, specifically Microsoft 365 Co-pilot, for the initial synthesis and analysis of qualitative data gathered through a large-scale local council community engagement consultation exercise. The review considers issues of cost-effectiveness, practicality, and the ability to manage high volumes of responses within constrained resources, assessing the potential for AI to streamline and strengthen qualitative analysis in this context.</ns3:p>