AI4Deliberation_D1.1 – Demystify digital Deliberative Processes

This deliverable provides a basic foundation for future activities of the AI4Deliberation project, based on activities within WP1 - Demystify digital Deliberations tasks. By providing a comprehensive understanding of deliberation processes and their translation into the digital context, a starting point can be created that clarifies how AI-enabled tools can be meaningfully and sustainably integrated into these deliberation processes. In particular: Task 1.1 delivers a systematic literature review, examining the normative foundations of deliberation, the affordances and challenges of digital platforms, current tools on the market, and an assessment of potential use cases for AI to enhance processes. It also explores evaluation methods, the potential role of Argument Mining, institutional conditions, and best practices for integrating such technologies. Task 1.2 conducts a forward-looking technology foresight exercise using the Delphi method, identifying plausible future scenarios and socio-political shifts that mayshape the development and impact of digital deliberation technologies. Task 1.3 involves a comprehensive needs assessment based on surveys and interviews with stakeholders across diverse pilot contexts, producing key user insights, use cases, and a preliminary product backlog to guide a user-centered agile development. The synthesis of these three interlinked tasks of WP1, provides a strong basis for the development of corresponding AI tools, as we can be sure that they represent innovations, that they are strongly oriented towards the normative design principles of deliberative processes, that they can be set up in a crisis-proof manner and that they are not dictated from the ivory tower, but rather take the design recommendations of potential users and practitioners seriously.