Designing for Constructive Civic Communication: A Framework for Human-AI Collaboration in Community Engagement Processes

Abstract: Community engagement processes form a critical foundation of democratic governance, yet frequently struggle with resource constraints, sensemaking challenges, and barriers to inclusive participation. These processes rely on constructive communication between public leaders and community organizations characterized by understanding, trust, respect, legitimacy, and agency. As AI technologies become increasingly integrated into civic contexts, they offer promising capabilities to streamline resource-intensive workflows, reveal new insights in community feedback, translate complex information into accessible formats, and facilitate reflection across social divides. However, these same systems risk undermining democratic processes through accuracy issues, transparency gaps, bias amplification, and threats to human agency. In this paper, we examine how human-AI collaboration might address these risks and transform civic communication dynamics by identifying key communication pathways and proposing design considerations that maintain a high level of control over decision-making for both public leaders and communities while leveraging computer automation. By thoughtfully integrating AI to amplify human connection and understanding while safeguarding agency, community engagement processes can utilize AI to promote more constructive communication in democratic governance.