Strengthening Participatory Law-Making through AI-Enabled Public Consultation
Case at a Glance
Impact
1,250+
public consultations conducted
32%–76%
of citizen feedback accepted in draft laws and policies
3,000+
hours of multilingual voice feedback analysed
About the organisation
Civic Innovation Foundation (CIVIS) is a nonprofit organisation that enables structured, inclusive dialogue between governments and citizens on draft laws and policies. Through its technology-driven consultation platform, Civis supports governments to design, manage, and analyse public consultations at scale, ensuring citizen voices meaningfully inform democratic decision-making.
Problem Statement
Despite public consultation being central to democratic governance, existing mechanisms relied on fragmented and manual processes such as emails and written submissions. Governments struggled to manage large volumes of unstructured feedback, ensure inclusive participation, and translate citizen inputs into actionable policy insights, limiting the effectiveness and credibility of consultations.
Solution
Civis developed an AI-enabled, end-to-end public consultation platform that supports governments across the consultation lifecycle. The platform enables structured citizen engagement, multi-channel and multilingual feedback collection, and advanced analysis of qualitative inputs, helping governments efficiently synthesise public feedback and translate it into clear, actionable policy insights.
Quick Facts
Organisation Name
Civic Innovation Foundation
Organisation Website
Visit Site
Founding Year
2018
Number of Beneficiaries served
Served 8,24,306+ citizens engaged since inception
Geography Served
777+ cities and towns, Pan-India
Focus Area
Programmatic Impact
Functions Impacted
Partnerships & Stakeholder Engagement Technology & Data Management
Service Provider
Developed in house
Contact Email
partnerships@civis.vote
SDG Addressed
Full Case Study
Challenge
Fragmented consultation processes, unstructured feedback, and limited analytical capacity constrained meaningful citizen participation
Public consultation is a foundational pillar of democratic governance, yet the mechanisms used to engage citizens on draft laws and policies remained fragmented and difficult to scale. Governments often relied on emails, written submissions, and manual processes to gather public input, creating several systemic challenges:
Inconsistent Structure of Feedback: Citizen responses were received in free-text formats with no standardisation, making it difficult to categorise inputs or compare feedback across clauses, themes, or stakeholder groups. The absence of structured frameworks limited the ability of policymakers to extract actionable insights from large volumes of qualitative data.
Limited Accessibility and Inclusion: Existing consultation methods favoured citizens who were comfortable with written submissions and formal policy language. Individuals who preferred voice-based inputs, spoke regional languages, or had limited digital access were often excluded from the process.
High Administrative and Time Burden: Manual moderation, synthesis, and reporting of feedback required significant government resources. As consultations scaled, the effort required to analyse submissions increased exponentially, slowing decision-making and reducing responsiveness.
Weak Feedback Loops and Trust Deficits: Even when consultations were conducted, governments struggled to demonstrate how public inputs influenced final policy outcomes. This lack of transparency risked reducing consultations to a procedural requirement rather than a meaningful democratic exercise.
Together, these challenges limited the effectiveness of public consultations and weakened the link between citizen voices and policy decisions. Civis recognised the need for a solution that not only digitised consultations but fundamentally improved how governments listen, analyse, and respond to public input.
Solution
An AI-powered consultation manager enabling governments to listen, understand, and act at scale
To address these systemic challenges, Civis built an AI-enabled Consultation Manager that supports the full lifecycle of public consultations. The platform integrates multiple AI components to process complex qualitative inputs while preserving the nuance of citizen voices.
At the core of the solution is an AI-based Policy Draft Analyser that uses Named Entity Recognition (NER) and clause-mapping engines to break down draft laws into understandable components. This allows citizens to engage with specific clauses rather than opaque legal documents.
The Response Analyser leverages a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline with reranking to synthesise large volumes of feedback across text and voice formats. Multilingual and multi-channel inputs including WhatsApp voice notes are transcribed using Whisper v3 and analysed using open-source large language models such as Llama 3.1 (distilled for reasoning and summarisation).
Moderation and control tools ensure safe, relevant, and policy-focused engagement, while dashboards and reports provide governments with structured insights, trends, and summaries of public sentiment.
Civis’ solution is modular, open-source, and designed for scalability, enabling deployment across varied policy contexts while remaining cost-efficient and adaptable to government needs.
Outcomes & Impact
Greater inclusion, stronger policies, and demonstrable influence of citizen voices.
Civis’ technology-enabled approach has strengthened both the reach and effectiveness of public consultations, translating citizen participation into measurable policy outcomes.
- Expanded Participation Over 8,24,306 citizens engaged across 1,250+ consultations spanning 777+ cities and towns, enabling truly pan-India representation
- Improved Policy Outcomes Between 32% and 76% of citizen feedback collected through Civis has been incorporated into draft laws and policies.
- Voice-Based Inclusion More than 3,000 hours of multilingual voice feedback analysed, lowering barriers for citizens who prefer speaking over writing.
- Government Adoption Supported 40+ government partners in designing and managing consultations more efficiently and transparently
One notable example occurred in 2024, when proposed amendments to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules were paused after Civis-facilitated feedback highlighted risks of rural exclusion, stigma, and implementation challenges. Citizen inputs directly reshaped the legislative process
Technology Stack
| Name of the Tool | Where it was used | What it enabled | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Draft Analyser with NER (Name Entity Recognition) | Government Consultations | Clause-level understanding, structured citizen engagement | Open-source |
| Response Analyser (RAG Pipeline + Reranker) | Citizen feedback analysis | Thematic synthesis, prioritisation of insights | Open-source |
| Whisper v3 Speech-to-Text | Voice-based consultations | Multilingual transcription and accessibility | Open-source |
| Llama 3.1 Distilled Model | Reasoning and summarisation | Efficient, scalable analysis of qualitative data | Open-source |
Key Project Learnings
Civis’ experience demonstrates how AI, when thoughtfully deployed, can strengthen democratic processes:
- Human-Centred AI Design: Voice-first, multilingual engagement ensured inclusion without compromising analytical rigour.
- Scalability with Trust: Open-source models and transparent workflows-built credibility with government partners
- From Participation to Influence: Structured analysis and clear reporting closed the loop between citizen input and policy decisions.
Potential for Wider Adaption
| Sector | Adaptability of the Solution |
|---|---|
| Government Systems | Applicable across common law countries seeking scalable, transparent public consultation mechanisms. |
| Civil Society Organisations | CSOs can use modular components to engage stakeholders on policy, regulation, and reform initiatives |
| Collaborative Projects | Multilateral and Global Programs Suitable for large-scale, cross-country consultations requiring multilingual and qualitative analysis. |
Additional Details
The information provided here is created as a community resource and is not intended as professional advice or a recommendation by ILSS or Koita Foundation. While we strive to ensure the accuracy of the content, we do not take responsibility for any errors or omissions. Users should use their own discretion before making any decisions based on this information. ILSS or Koita Foundation assume no liability for any actions taken based on the information provided.