Collective decision-making is hardly a perfect science. Broken processes, data overload, information asymmetry and other inequities only compound the challenges that come from large, disparate factions with different goals trying to work together. And the tools that often help with decision-making—data analysis, scenario planning, decision trees and so on—can falter in the face of the scale and complexity of the biggest problems that groups and leaders face.
This is where artificial intelligence (AI) can help, and is helping. With its ability to analyze vast troves of data about the status quo, understand group preferences, run sophisticated simulations to evaluate hundreds of future possibilities against those preferences and facilitate consensus-building among participants, AI can be a powerful tool for all leaders facing complex decisions, especially those that must be made collaboratively.
One field already taking advantage of AI’s collective decision-making support is city planning. Three years ago, we started working with the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) to understand how AI is helping cities solve their most pressing challenges. Along the way, we studied the story of the German city of Hamburg, which has addressed a housing crisis exacerbated by an influx of refugees.
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