Rebooting Democracy in the Age of AI

While the West races toward artificial general intelligence, Vietnam is charting a different path with “Applied AI,” using tools like ChatGPT to overcome language barriers, limited budgets, and institutional bottlenecks. At the Academy of Public Administration and Governance in Vietnam, civil servants are building AI literacy and shifting to adaptive, tech-savvy governance. With 136 AI-assisted case studies developed in one summer, a new handbook on AI for development, and plans for an AI-powered support chatbot, Vietnam shows how even modest experiments can spark a culture of curiosity, collaboration, and public sector transformation.

A report on a recent workshop cohosted by RAND, the Stimson Center, and the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change explores how AI can support more effective policymaking. AI shows promise for automating routine tasks and democratizing access to analysis tools, but there are significant structural barriers to realizing AI's potential in policymaking. To move forward, we need more real-world case studies of AI use in governance and strategic adoption focused on maintaining human oversight and building the skills to deploy these tools responsibly.

Public engagement has long been too time-consuming and costly for governments to sustain, but AI offers tools to make participation more systematic and impactful. Our new Reboot Democracy Workshop Series replaces lectures with hands-on sessions that teach the practical “how-to’s” of AI-enhanced engagement. Together with leading practitioners and partners at InnovateUS and the Allen Lab at Harvard, we’ll explore how AI can help institutions tap the collective intelligence of our communities more efficiently and effectively.