About the Waves programme
This section is designed for anyone with a general interest in the Waves programme. Other FAQs on ‘data privacy’ and ‘the use of AI’ are available below for those considering taking part in their Council context during the Waves trial 2025-2026 and wanting more detailed information. For our Waves Data Privacy and AI Ethics policy see here.
In a few lines, what is Waves?
Waves is the largest trial of digital democracy in Britain, pioneering new technology in local democracy to bring people together, tackle contentious local issues, and strengthen trust in local government. Throughout 2025 and 2026, thousands of local people will have the opportunity to shape local government policy on an issue affecting their area.
Who are the partners involved?
Waves is being delivered by a coalition of partners, including Demos, a cross-party think tank; New Local, a think tank and network of forward-thinking councils, Camden Council and South Staffordshire District Council; technology innovators, CASM Technology; and digital democracy platforms, PSi and Remesh.
How is Waves different from existing forms of deliberative democracy?
Waves is different to other forms of deliberative democracy in two ways:
- Unlike more traditional models of deliberative democracy, Waves has both at-scale and in-depth engagement stages with local people. So participation is as inclusive as possible on a mass scale (i.e. including as many local people as possible e.g. 1000+), combined with the benefits of more detailed in-depth deliberation (with a smaller representative group e.g. 60-100 local people).
- Waves uses new, innovative technology to enable both those at-scale and in-depth elements, which can therefore allow deliberative democratic processes to include more people, be more transparent, affordable, and, ultimately, better.
We hope Waves will enable more local governments to use deliberative democratic methods and for more people to be able to take part than typical processes.
How will Waves benefit the public?
Waves is a process by which local authorities can address wide-ranging policy problems by bringing in the voices of thousands of people in their area.
For the public, this means they have a greater opportunity to have their say on local challenges.
How will Waves benefit local councils?
By engaging with the public through Waves, councils’ decision-making processes will be better informed and better reflect local people’s views.
Waves allows councils to run deliberations in a way that is more affordable than ever before, leading to better local policy and greater trust among residents.
What about people who are not online or lack confidence using devices and online platforms?
We are working with council partners (our Community of Practice) to identify what additional support can be put in place for those who are not online or lack confidence using devices and online platforms. In some cases, this may be through the councils existing digital inclusion programmes and/or partnerships with community organisations, as is being done in Camden. We are using the trial to identify where gaps remain and how best and at what cost these can be supplemented in conversation with our Learning Network of councils.
How will it work in practice – what will councillors be asked to do? What will members of the public recruited to partake, be asked to do?
Waves works across 4 stages, alternating between at-scale and in-depth public engagement.
At-scale, participants will be asked to share their views and opinions, independently of others before then voting on one another’s ideas. This is to gather as many perspectives as possible from local people and to identify consensus. No expertise, prior knowledge, or experience is required – this is all about getting a clear picture of local people’s views. This stage will be quick and easy – no more than 15minutes- but participants will be able to take part at a time that works for them over a 2-4 week period.
In-depth, participants will discuss their ideas with each other at the same time, deliberating and understanding their different values and assumptions, exploring trade-offs, and finding consensus in some areas. At this stage, participants will have access to expert insight, information and lived experience testimony. This will last longer than the at-scale stages (5-8 hours spread over a week), and participants will be remunerated.
How would participants be recruited / selected?
Initially, participants will be recruited from local residents on a mass scale, to reflect as diverse and representative a range of views and experiences as possible. It will be advertised to everyone we can, be it bus stops, local newspapers, Facebook pages and through community and religious organisations the public trust.
For the in-depth stages of Waves, a representative sample (reflecting the demographic and socio-economic make-up of the local area) will be recruited via from the initial at-scale group. In Camden, we will do this via a ‘sortition’ process which means that people are selected through a kind of lottery system that blindly selects participants while maintaining a representative mix. We are working with the Sortition Foundation to help us do this.
Does Waves have its own interface / something users “log in” to?
The overall Waves process will have a web-page on the Council website where councils will share links for taking part and updates on the results from each stage. This will be visible to everyone – not just those who have or will be participating.
This same webpage is also where participants will be able to access the different stages of Waves. Depending on the stage, participants will then be taken to different web-pages that reflect the tools used at that specific stage e.g. for the ‘at-scale’ stage, the Remesh platform or for the ‘in-depth’ stage, the Psi platform.
Is it a first in the UK? In Europe? In the world, outside of Taiwan?
Waves is the first project of its kind in the UK.
To what extent is it similar or different to pioneering digital democracy being carried out in Taiwan?
Waves takes inspiration from a Taiwanese digital democratic initiative called vTaiwan. Like vTaiwan, Waves uses platforms that deliberately try to make more ‘consensual’ statements i.e. the statements where residents agree, more visible and more divisive statements i.e. those with less agreement, less visible.
Also like vTaiwan, Waves is concerned with turning deliberations into concrete outcomes of government that really affect peoples’ lives.
Waves and vTaiwan are not identical however: vTaiwan was used by the national government whilst Waves is dedicated to local government. vTaiwan primarily produced new law and regulation, whilst Waves will – as a local government tool – likely influence local government policy.
Why did Waves take inspiration from vTaiwan?
One of the most important examples set by vTaiwan was how powerful consensus-seeking technology can be. By surfacing statements that brought people together and making divisive statements less visible, the process was able to make progress on very polarised topics, such as the regulation of the use of Uber. It showed that large-scale deliberations were possible, and that they increased trust in government. Most of all, however, it worked: people have so far shaped over twenty pieces of law and regulation thanks to vTaiwan.
Can we expect more digital democracy in the future, including around the world?
Deliberative democracy is growing in use around the world, and many places are only just beginning to explore its potential.
Governments on local, regional and national scales are increasingly turning to forms of deliberative democracy (eg. citizens’ assemblies and panels) to tackle complex issues. This “deliberative wave” has been growing since the 1980s and gained real momentum in the past decade, with nearly 300 examples studied by the OECD.
New digital tools now make it easier than ever to have large-scale, meaningful conversations, reach more voices, and feed ideas directly into decision-making. As awareness grows and the technology becomes more accessible, we’re likely to see more councils and governments around the world embracing it.
What are the risks (if any) of this type of digital democracy, and how do you tackle them?
The use of new technology in this process is part of what makes Waves so different and exciting, but people will have understandable concerns and questions about who might be excluded from the process by it moving online as well as questions about data security and the use of AI.
The main risk is for people who do not have access to digital devices, connections of skills and motivation to go online to opt-out of taking part. We’re using the Waves trial to further identify the costs and strategies for how we can tackle this, including in partnership with our Learning Network.
For those with questions and concerns about data security and the use of AI, we have provided as much information as we can further down to help explain how the digital platforms and the role of AI works and the steps we’re taking to keep your data and identity safe and private.
We are committed to providing transparency on how the digital tools work and are being used. We are also taking robust measures to protect participants’ data. Minimal participant information will be collected, all of which will be anonymised and will not be shared with anyone external to the Council and its partner organisations conducting Waves. When the process has concluded (or if a participant decides to drop out) the data will be deleted.
In addition to the responsible officers for data privacy at the councils, we are also advised by an independent AI Ethics board, made up of experts, who have informed the design and use of our rigorous AI and data ethics procedures.
What is the timeline for the roll out (roughly)?
Waves will kick-off in Camden Council in September 2025, then in South Staffordshire District Council in Spring 2026.
Councils are also able to join the Waves’ Learning Network to follow and learn how to introduce Waves in their own councils. They can contact New Local here if this interests them.
By the start of 2027, we hope many local authorities will be launching their own Waves deliberations.
Could Waves ever be used for national issues, or is it better suited to local issues? Why?
The toolkits we’re developing alongside the Waves process are specifically designed for local governments, but there is no reason why the Waves process could not also be used by national governments/ on national issues or within other jurisdictions. We hope that Waves will be used in other countries soon.
What is the long-term ambition for Waves?
We believe strongly in the power of deliberative democracy to create better policy and support greater trust. In the long term, the Waves process should be ubiquitous – adapted and deployed flexibly by councils all across the country to reflect their own contexts and resources, on all sorts of issues, inspiring similar digital democracy innovations across the world.
Who is funding Waves?
Waves received €1 million from Google.org in 2024 to fund the design and trial of the process. However, participating councils are also investing their own staff resources and time into co-designing and responding to the deliberative processes.
Will the use of digital technology replace the chance to invest in human relationships and meeting people at the council or in my community face-to-face?
The council is using digital tools to enable additional deliberative processes i.e. to add to, not replace existing face-to-face conversations. It is intended to provide additional opportunities to connect and understand one another in the local community and not to replace any existing human or face-to-face interactions. This technology allows more people to take part in a deliberative process including those who can’t easily attend sessions in-person or during a particular time of day, and helps to gather ideas quickly, transparently, and at scale – so discussions can be richer and more focused.
Do I need to know anything about the policy being discussed to take part?
No, the deliberation is open to anyone who lives in the local area and you do not need to know anything about the topic before taking part.
About the technology and the use of AI
Do I need to know anything about AI or technology to take part?
No, Waves is deliberately designed to be as easy and accessible as possible for everyone, regardless of their familiarity with technology or digital tools.
If someone is digitally excluded, they will be provided with different opportunities for in-person support and access to devices and an internet connection at any stage of the process.
What are the names of the technology-enabled tools being used during the deliberation?
There are three technology-enabled tools being used throughout the Waves process:
- KnowMore – a tool to help participants ‘KnowMore’ about the policy area being discussed
- PSi – a deliberative platform that is used in Stage 2 and Stage 4 of the process
- Remesh – a deliberative platform that is used in Stage 1 and Stage 3 of the process
How is AI used within KnowMore?
AI is used in the KnowMore tool as a way of summarising and simplifying vast amounts of information. By feeding a large library of datasets and documents into the AI, participants can ask questions about existing facts and figures, different suggested policy proposals, current legislation, etc. and receive a balanced summary from KnowMore, with links to the relevant passages in the original documents so participants can read the full background versions for themselves. It is impossible to expect people to read hundreds of documents before participating – so the KnowMore tool acts as an expert that has read the documents for you, and can answer questions regarding their content.
How is AI used within Remesh?
In Remesh, AI is used to help enable a higher volume of participants to participate in the process than would be possible if offline and face-to-face. It uses AI in the following ways.
Everyone (1,000s of people) can submit their ideas in their own words and have their ideas voted on by other people. However, it’s not possible for every participant to vote on every single person’s ideas as this would take too long. So, Remesh:
- Groups all of the different ideas together (‘response grouping’) using AI (a combination of LLMs and various clustering techniques) so that there are groupings of very similar ideas.
- Uses AI (an LLM with a latent factor model) to use the votes a person gives to a response in each group to predict how they would vote on the ideas that have been shared. This is called ‘elicitation inference’. It provides an estimation of every participant segment’s agreement with every response.
- Uses AI (LLMs) to summarise the 1000s of different ideas so that they can be analysed quickly
How is AI used within Psi?
AI is used for different purposes across the PSi platform.
- It’s used for real-time translation so that participants who speak, for example – Somali – can see a real-time translation of what is being said in English and in Somali.
- For transcription – so that when people are answering a question, what they are saying is transcribed quickly. This means that discussions (which could be 40 at the same time) don’t need note-takers.
- For analysing the themes of the ideas that are shared by participants in the discussions and allowing analysts to understand many hours of conversations in detail.
- For analysing the data, it uses AI-based techniques called: semantic embedding, dimensionality reduction, clustering (Hbdscan) and retrieval augmented generation (RAG).
- For summarising discussions in a way that allows those moderating the discussion to understand the detail of the key topics quickly. For this, the tool uses: LLM summaries and grounding, LLM highlights and grounding and LLM chat and grounding.
What exactly is KnowMore being used for during the process?
At the moment, it can be difficult for participants who don’t know a policy area very well to feel confident participating in discussions about it. Participants can feel this way even if they are given further information by experts or the opportunity to ask questions during the session. This can be a barrier for some participants wanting to participate in discussions as they feel they ‘don’t know enough’. It can also create a power imbalance where participants feel dependent on ‘experts’ or the information summarised by others in order to know more about an issue. Participants may not trust the experts in the room or want to ‘know more’ than what they’re being told in the time available.
‘KnowMore’ allows participants to know more by allowing them to ask questions about a policy area and to get answers to their questions without needing to rely on an expert or to read hundreds of documents.
- The tool uses a large library of documents about a policy that has been quality checked by the Council and the Demos team. Participants can view the list of documents that are included.
- The tool uses AI to summarise these documents into small sections that relate to particular topics.
- The participant can then ask any question and the AI will be used to answer this question using simple language and drawing on the documents it has access to.
What exactly is PSi being used for during the process?
We want more Councils to engage (more) citizens in decision-making and for that process to be simpler and less expensive as well as for the analysis and feedback to communities to be easier and better quality i.e. easier for residents to see where there was consensus and therefore why a decision has been made. We think this will encourage more Councils to use these processes and to open them up to more people.
The Psi platform allows up to 120 people to participate in a discussion at the same time online in a way that:
- Doesn’t need lots of staff members to facilitate the discussion – though they can listen and learn about what the participants are saying
- Analyses where participants agree and disagree quickly so that participants can then focus on the things they agree on faster. It does this in a way that is visible to participants and can be shared with residents after the process is complete so they can trust the results more.
- This makes the process easier to run. We hope this will encourage more Councils to conduct these processes so that more citizens can be a part of decision making.
What exactly is Remesh being used for during the process?
It can be difficult for a high volume of residents to participate in discussions that involve sharing ideas about how to solve a policy problem because not everyone can give feedback on everyone else’s ideas. For example, if 1,000 people submitted an idea each, this would mean each person had to give feedback on 1,000 ideas. That would be too time-consuming for each person! It would also be very time-consuming to analyse all of the ideas!
The Remesh platform allows thousands of people to share their ideas to a policy problem or question. Then each person is asked to vote on a small number (e.g. 5) of other people’s ideas that have been shared before them. Using how someone has voted, the technology then predicts how you might vote on the other ideas that have been shared. Based on performance testing over the last 10 years, this technology can do this with very high accuracy. This allows the Council to then see which ideas that have been shared by residents have achieved the greatest consensus among residents, including across different people who might typically disagree, and therefore which they should take forward.
How does technology determine what ideas go to the next stage?
The technology identifies ideas that lots of different people like, not just those popular in one group. This is called bridge-based ranking – it spots suggestions that “bridge” between different viewpoints. It finds areas of super-consensus: ideas that get an unusually high level of agreement from almost everyone. This is so the ideas that go forward are the ones most people can get behind, even if they don’t agree on everything else, or rather than just a simple 51/49 majority in favour of an idea that would alienate a substantial group or groups of residents.
Will I be interacting directly with technology, or is it working in the background?
A bit of both! As you interact with other participants and feedback on ideas, AI is working in the background to identify consensus. With the KnowMore tool, you will directly interact with it on your own to find out more about something.
Can I ask the AI questions during the session?
Absolutely. KnowMore is available to respond to participants’ questions before and throughout the in-depth stages of Waves. During Stage 2 and Stage 4 deliberations, participants will also be given additional access to different videos and briefings from people with lived experience and expertise in the policy area too and will also be able to ask these experts questions.
Is the AI influencing how the conversation unfolds?
No – participants will have their own ideas and conversations. The Psi or Remesh platform will publish a question that has been designed by humans and is being asked of everyone and the platform will also share those ideas that participants have shared and need to vote on. There is also a fixed amount of time for the discussion which the platform will help maintain. AI will also be used for some non-English speakers for live translation. But the AI will not be used to influence or nudge the conversation in any direction.
Does the technology only work in English, or can it handle other languages?
At the moment, Remesh and Psi can work in a range of languages, such as French or Arabic, but not all languages. The KnowMore tool is presently only available in English.
Do I need to log in or download anything to take part?
You will not need to download anything to take part. For Stage 1 and 3, you do not need to log-in or share any personal details about yourself if you do not want to. If you would like to participate in Stage 2 and 4, you will need to share personal details about yourself such as your age and gender, and if accepted to take part, you will need to log-in to the platform with details that we will share with you.
These details are being asked for Stage 2 and 4 so that we can make sure this stage includes a group of people who are representative of the area.
Can I participate on my phone or do I need a computer?
You can participate on a phone, tablet, computer, or any other device that has access to the internet. If you do not have a device or access to the internet, the Council can support you to participate through libraries and/or community centres.
Do I have to type, or is there a voice to text function?
Participants in Stage 1 and 3 using Remesh will need to type their responses. Participants in Stage 2 and 4 using the Psi platform will use their voice as if a face-to-face conversation, but faces/video will not be shown.
What if my internet connection drops off mid-session?
The platforms will work as with any other websites. You will need to reconnect and either rejoin the live session on Psi or start your Remesh response again.
Is the technology helping facilitate the conversation, or is that still a human role?
The platform will include pre-scripted questions much in the same way that a typical online survey platform currently works. If you are participating live in Psi, there is also a time limit for how long the session lasts and therefore how long you can speak for. There will also be human facilitators available during the Psi conversation to support the conversation.
Can I go back and change or add to something I said earlier?
You cannot go back and change an answer, but you can contact us to tell us if you would like to withdraw your answers from the whole process.
Does the technology help with the analysis, or is that done manually?
The Remesh and PSi tools both use AI to support the analysis of the data. However, this analysis is then checked by human analysts to make sure it is accurate.
Will I have access to the full results of the deliberations afterward?
After each stage, we will be publishing the results of the deliberation on our Common Place webpage. These results will then be used to inform the council.
What happens after my participation?
We will be explaining which decisions the deliberation is informing so that it is also possible for you to then view this council decision to see how the deliberative process has informed it.
The results will not reveal who exactly participated – this will remain anonymous – but we will share how many people and the key attributes of those who participated e.g. what proportion and how many were from different genders, age groups, parts of the community, minority ethnic groups etc.
After your participation in Stage 1 and 3, if you have shared your personal details with us, you will be entered into the prize draw. After your participation in Stage 2 and 4 you will receive your cash payment.
Who developed the tech? Why were they chosen for the Waves trial?
The three tech tools were developed by tech developers CASM Tech, PSi, and Remesh.
Only the KnowMore tool was developed by CASM Tech as part of the Waves programme. This technology is being developed open source so it is free to use and adopt by others.
Psi and Remesh as platforms had already been developed and tested.
The tech partners were chosen because they aligned with the values and requirements of Waves: creating high-quality, safe, effective technological tools that are used and developed ethically; ensuring accessibility for and representation of participants involved; the power of deliberative democracy to connect people with decision-making.
However, it is not required for these platforms to be used when deploying the Waves process in the future.
How do you check whether the KnowMore tool is summarising and interpreting what we as participants are saying accurately?
The KnowMore tool is currently being tested with experts based on a number of different criteria, including: accuracy, reliability, fairness and ‘meeting its intended purposes’.
Participants are being given guidance on how to test the accuracy of what the tool is sharing with them, including how to check the original source of what the tool shares. We are inviting participants to also give feedback on the tool. We will use this feedback to improve the performance of the tool.
The full library of documents, from which the KnowMore tool gets its ‘knowledge’, is available for participants at all times. They can see what has been summarised from the larger documents.
All of the documents have been manually approved for inclusion in the tool by humans (at the Council and Demos). These documents do not include any personal data of residents. No-one can add or remove documents from the collection unless they have an ‘admin’ log-in. This means we can be sure of their quality, accuracy and safety.
What decisions are being made using AI?
Humans participating in the deliberative process will still make their own decisions regarding their perspective about a policy area. The KnowMore tool will be used to summarise the information that will help inform the humans’ decisions, but it does not make any decisions itself.
Out of the deliberative process, analysts and the local authority will draw conclusions based on the results. These results and conclusions will be published and available for the public to view. Participants can also query and ask for additional detail regarding how the results have been produced. AI will not be made to automate any decisions.
How do you ensure transparency in how the technology is being used?
We’re open about how the platforms work; what data is collected and why; and how people’s contributions feed into decisions. Participants in all stages will be asked to sign a consent form which shares exactly how their data will be used and can also ask further questions of Demos (the data controller at any time). Data processing and sharing agreements between Waves partners are publicly available on council websites.
The process and results are shared publicly, and the methods used to identify ideas with the most support are explained. This means everyone can see how their input was considered and what happened as a result.
Can the tech be hacked or manipulated by outside actors? What steps are being taken to ensure that this doesn’t happen?
For Stage 1 and 3, participants will be asked a specific question to assess their eligibility. For Stage 2 and 4, participants will only be able to gain access to the platform if they have been pre-registered and confirmed as having been invited to take part. There are a number of additional measures that are taken by both platforms to assess the authenticity of the participation.
If any inauthentic behaviour is identified, we can remove it from the dataset and ensure it does not interact with any other discussions or results.
Could the technology reinforce stereotypes if it has been trained on human-generated content which has inherent biases?
The PSi and Remesh tools are unable to reinforce any biases as they only process how participants actually come to consensus amongst themselves.
KnowMore has been fed a large library of documents that have been reviewed by experts, so there shouldn’t be any bias in the information that it shares.
About participants’ data and protecting your privacy during the process
How is my privacy protected throughout the process?
During Stage 1 and 3, participants will be entirely anonymous to one another participants during the discussion.
However, during Stage 2 and 4, because participants will be spending an extended period together, participants will not be anonymous and will be asked to share a name with other participants.
At the end of Stage 1, participants will be asked if they would be happy to share additional information about themselves, and if they would like to be entered into the cash draw and/or to take part in Stage 2 and 4 of the process, to give their name and email address. If participants do not want to participate in the cash draw or the next stage of Waves, then they do not have to share this information with us. Participants who do share their name, email address and other information about themselves will be asked their consent for sharing this information with us and have the right to withdraw this consent at any time. This data will be stored securely by Demos and will not be shared with other participants. It will be used to help us analyse patterns in the results, to identify who has won cash in the draw and to select participants for Stage 2 and 4 of the process.
This data will be anonymised and will not be shared with anyone external to the Council and its partner organisations conducting Waves (Demos, Remesh, Psi and the Sortition Foundation). When the process has concluded (or if a participant decides to drop out) the data will be deleted.
Who owns the data generated during this deliberation? Who will have access to my data?
Demos is ‘data controller’ i.e. is responsible for the data if given consent by the participant to access and store it. This data is then shared, again only with the participants’ consent, with the Council and Demos, and – depending on which stage the participant has taken part – Remesh, Psi and/or Sortition Foundation.
Where does my data go at the end of the deliberation?
Demos will store the data for a maximum of 1-year on an encrypted Microsoft Workspace. After this date, it will be deleted. If anyone withdraws their consent over this period and lets Demos know, the individual’s data will also be deleted.
Could this data be used in other contexts without my consent?
No. Your data will only be used for the purpose of the deliberation. It will not be shared or used beyond the Waves process itself, 1-year after which it will be deleted.
Will anything I say be used to train future AI systems?
No. Your contributions will only be used for the process that you are a part of.
How were the tools being used in the deliberation developed?
Demos, New Local, Camden Borough Council, South Staffordshire District Council, and the tech developers (CASM Tech, Remesh, and PSi) all collaborated and workshopped the bespoke asks of the tools, considering functionality, accessibility, and how the stages of Waves fit together smoothly.
On the technological side, the tools were created by the tech developers and tested by members of the Waves consortium.
The Waves AI ethics board independently provided advice on the procedures being used to test and safely use the AI tools as well as the councils’ senior officials with oversight responsibility for the safe use of resident data and privacy.