The tech incubator partnered with The Computational Democracy Project, Innovation Engine, a local strategy consultancy, and Bowling Green’s local leaders to launch “What Could BG Be?,” a month-long online conversation allowing residents to share ideas about their hometown’s future.
The case study was an expansion of the BG 2050 Project, a 25-year vision document led by Innovation Engine on behalf of the Warren County government, where Bowling Green is located. It also doubled as a marketing campaign to attract more participants.
What Could BG Be? received input from over 7,800 local residents who shared over one million ideas on the county’s future. Jigsaw then used Sensemaker to simplify and categorize the results for the city’s leaders, who saw a push for improvements on infrastructure and transportation, arts and culture, and economic development, for example.
“The local leaders embraced the AI,” said Goldberg. “They trusted this process because they had co-designed it with us. 96% of [them said] that this AI-generated report made it easier for them to understand and accurately represent their community’s needs.”
Jigsaw’s next step is to build its brand and promote its tools to further demystify AI for civic use.
