Initiative overview
The initiative addresses the growing gap between the technical deployment of artificial intelligence in the public sector and the social legitimacy of its use. While public administrations increasingly rely on AI for decision support, service delivery, and resource allocation, citizens often have limited visibility into how these systems affect rights, access to services, and fairness. The project creates a structured civic layer that complements legal and technical compliance with social and institutional evaluation. Its core objective is to integrate trained community panels into public-sector AI governance processes. These panels review real AI use cases, datasets, and deployment scenarios in collaboration with public authorities and technical experts. Their work results in formal reports and recommendations that support public procurement, regulatory sandbox activities, and ongoing monitoring of AI systems in sensitive domains such as urban management, social services, healthcare, and education.
The initiative is designed to align with existing regulatory and standards-based approaches, including risk-based governance models under the EU AI Act, data protection impact assessments, and international AI management and risk frameworks. By doing so, it provides public institutions with a practical way to connect formal compliance requirements with public understanding and trust, helping to reduce institutional, legal, and reputational risks associated with AI deployment. Over time, the framework is intended to scale through partnerships with municipalities, regional authorities, and national bodies. Standardised training modules, evaluation templates, and reporting formats allow the model to be replicated across different jurisdictions. The long-term goal is to institutionalise civic review as a regular component of public-sector AI governance, supporting more transparent, accountable, and socially grounded use of artificial intelligence.
Results, outcomes and impacts
The first community juries were launched in October 2025 and have generated strong citizen engagement and institutional interest at the local level. Early results include the production of structured civic impact reports and formal recommendations that have been shared with participating public administrations to inform AI-related decisions and pilot projects. Impact is measured through participation rates, diversity of jury composition, number of AI use cases reviewed, and follow-up actions taken by public authorities. Expected future outcomes include expansion to additional municipalities and the development of standard indicators for trust, transparency, and public acceptance of AI in government services.
