17th March 2026 — The decline in political participation, coupled with the widespread perception among citizens that they are distant from decision-making processes in Brussels, poses a significant challenge to EU institutions. Could digital tools and artificial intelligence (AI) help to bridge this gap? This question formed the basis of a study coordinated by DLR Projektträger in collaboration with IQIB (the Institute for Qualifying Innovation Research and Consulting) and Democracy X, a Danish non-profit economic foundation. The study was completed in January 2026 and presented on 12 March to the ‘Panel for the Future of Science and Technology’ (STOA Panel) at the European Parliament.

To obtain a comprehensive picture of the participatory landscape, the research team proceeded in three phases. It first analysed 94 digital tools from Europe and around the world and categorised them according to their functionalities. Building on this, eleven representative use cases were examined in depth, including the European Citizens' Initiative, the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) with the Decidim platform, and local participation processes in Austria, Denmark, and Canada. In a third phase, European experts validated the preliminary results during a foresight workshop and discussed possible scenarios for the use of AI in democratic participation processes.

AI in citizen participation: study identifies potential and sets clear boundaries

The use of AI in digital participation tools is still in its infancy. This study shows that, thus far, AI has predominantly been used as a background technology, for example for the automatic transcription of deliberative processes, the clustering of contributions, and machine translation. The potential of AI for multilingual participation processes at the EU level is promising. However, the study also highlights significant risks, such as a lack of transparency due to 'black box' effects, algorithmic bias, and inadequate data protection, which could undermine the democratic legitimacy of participation processes. AI should therefore always be used as an accountable and supportive tool, with clearly assigned human responsibility at the institutional level.

Institutional anchoring is the key to success

A key finding of the study is that the success of digital participation tools depends less on the technology itself than on the political and institutional framework. For citizen participation to be democratically effective, a clear mandate, transparent procedures and visible feedback are required; citizens must be able to understand how their contributions have informed political decisions. Without this feedback mechanism, digital participation could be perceived as purely symbolic, further eroding trust in EU institutions. The study recommends that the EU views digital citizen participation not as a technocratic tool, but as a strategic building block for strengthening the Union’s democratic foundations.