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Transform Public Input Into Actionable Policy Insights

Sensemaking AI is a suite of Gemini-powered tools designed to help policymakers gather and understand public opinion at scale, quickly. By combining AI features such as adaptive interviewing and automated reporting, we bridge the gap between individual voices and actionable policy insights.

Are you a policymaker interested in using Sensemaking AI?

Why Use Sensemaking AI?

  • Gain Clarity

    Surface insights from millions of words in minutes, not months.

  • Build Trust

    Foster civic goodwill by giving everyone a voice and making leaders feel more accessible.

  • Reflect Your Community

    94% of participants in our pilots felt their opinions were accurately represented, compared to just 47% in traditional surveys.

How It Works

  • Adaptive Interviewing

    Dig Deeper

    Help participants explore the “why” behind their thoughts and opinions with adaptive interviewing – personalized, AI-generated follow up questions.

  • Automated Reporting

    Extract Key Themes

    Quickly categorize open-ended input into topics and opinions that capture the nuance of the conversation, then translate the major themes into easy-to-read summaries.

  • Predictive Agreement

    Uncover Consensus

    Generate novel statements and identify those likely to receive broad agreement based on participants’ prior input.

  • Panoramic Insights

    Surface Context

    Enrich citizen input and community conversation with real-time civic intelligence, synthesizing local public data, peer-city inspiration, and deep research to validate problem scope, feasibility, and actionable solutions.

Bowling Green’s 25-Year-Plan

Local leaders in Bowling Green, Kentucky, founded BG2050, an initiative to plan for the next 25 years of growth, and used Jigsaw’s Sensemaking AI to shape it.

Warren County’s government launched a month-long online conversation, What Could BG Be, open to all residents to hear what they really want and need for the future of their community. Our Sensemaking AI enabled local leaders to summarize, analyze and distill input from 8,000 participants. They shared over 4,000 proposals and 1+ million opinions, on things like riverfront development, which are already informing plans for the future.

The process also encouraged stronger confidence in leadership: 83% of participants believed that this will lead to a better plan for the future, and 96% of local leaders felt better equipped to represent their community.

Doug Gorman, Judge Executive, Warren County

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America’s 250th

In 2025, Jigsaw partnered with The Napolitan Institute to launch a nationally representative conversation, We The People, with 2,400+ Americans from every one of the 435 congressional districts, to weigh in on freedom and equality in America today. Sensemaking AI was used to explore Americans’ ideas more deeply, see and respond to their fellow participants and agree or disagree on statements that were likely to have broad support.

Over 1.6 million words were shared, and 26 summary statements generated - most of which had over 80% agreement from everyone who participated, and 94% of Americans felt that their opinion was represented here.

Oklahoma’s American Dream

Using Jigsaw's Sensemaking AI, and in partnership with Governor Stitt, Oklahoma launched a first of its kind state-wide survey with a representative group of 1,000 Oklahoma residents. Our AI follow-up questions helped residents unpack their thoughts about some of the state's most important topics, like, what future they envisioned for their families, and what support they’d need to be successful.

Some results from the conversation:

  • 91% of participants felt that our AI-generated questions helped them to explore their ideas further
  • 73% said state leaders felt more accessible
Governor Kevin Stitt, Oklahoma

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Jigsaw Partner Program

While our Sensemaking AI code is free and open source, we know that policymakers don’t always have the time, resources, technical tools, or participant panels needed to run large-scale AI civic conversations on their own.

Our Jigsaw Partner Program (JPP), is a collaboration between philanthropies and technology platform partners, to help more policymakers benefit from AI-powered civic conversations.

The JPP enables policymakers to use Sensemaking AI through three foundational platform partners. Each platform partner offers unique capabilities to help tailor Sensemaking AI to fit policymakers’ needs, get civic conversations up and running quickly, and do it all free of charge.

Our Partners

Our platform partners handle the entire process from start to finish, so leaders can focus on using the insights:

  • Participant Recruitment: They recruit balanced, representative panels or run broad public outreach to ensure all community voices are heard.
  • Custom Engagement Design: They help design questions tailored to your specific policy decisions, such as budgeting, housing, or long-term planning.
  • Built-in Sensemaking AI: They help run the conversation using Sensemaking AI features, including adaptive interviewing, automated reporting, predictive agreement, and panoramic insights.
  • Actionable Reports: They deliver clear summaries and briefings that are ready to share with councils and the public.

The JPP is made possible and available to civic leaders thanks to a collaborative fund that Jigsaw has enabled through Google.org, in partnership with leading philanthropic institutions—including Bloomberg Philanthropies and the David & Lucile Packard Foundation—who will support efforts to further explore the potential of expanding Sensemaking AI in municipal contexts.

Testimonials: What Civic Leaders Are Saying

Riverside’s future should be shaped by the people who call it home. As our city grows and evolves, we have a responsibility to find new ways to better understand what matters most in their everyday lives. Through this partnership, we have an opportunity to use innovative technology to hear from more Riversiders and turn community input into action. I’m excited to hear directly from our residents and ensure their voices continue to guide how we build a Riverside where people can live, work, and thrive.

Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson Riverside, CA

America’s future is already happening in Houston. We’re one of the most diverse cities in the country, and we’re on track to become the third-largest by 2037. The people who live here should decide what we become. Meaningful engagement gives every Houstonian the power to shape what government does—and gives local institutions clarity, foresight, and a public standard to deliver on. Through our partnership, Sensemaking AI will allow us to hear directly from Houstonians at a scale this city has never attempted, understand what our residents need most, and translate that into policy, investment, and action.

City Controller Chris Hollins Houston, TX

Kitchener is proud to be selected among international municipalities for the Jigsaw Partner Program. We know building trust starts with listening. That is why we have engaged more than 1,500 community members in our strategic planning process already. And now, we are pleased to expand both the reach and depth of these efforts with Sensemaking AI. As we develop our 2027–2030 Strategic Plan, this partnership will help us hear from even more voices across Kitchener and ensure our plan for the future reflects the real experiences and aspirations of the people who call this city home.

Mayor Berry Vrbanovic Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

As Bentonville grows, we’re thinking not only about how the city changes, but about what life here feels like for the people who call it home. Sensemaking AI gives us a new way to hear from more people, better understand what residents value, and see where there is common ground. The real opportunity is to turn that understanding into better decisions, so that as Bentonville grows, we grow stronger together.

Mayor Stephanie Orman Bentonville, AR

Gdańsk is the city where one of the greatest democratic movements in European history was born. This tradition compels us to constantly seek new ways of listening to our residents, now also through the most modern tools available.

Michał Zorena, Deputy Director of the Department of Social Development Gdańsk, Poland

Bring Sensemaking AI to Your Community

Are you a policymaker interested in using Sensemaking AI through our Jigsaw Partner Program?

FAQs

How do you select cities, states, or countries?

We review a variety of criteria to match localities to trusted platform partners best suited to meet their needs. This includes, but is not limited to, project scope & actionability, impact potential, and partner readiness.

What do policymakers get out of this program?

Sensemaking AI enables policymakers to process and synthesize direct public input at unprecedented speed and scale without flattening individual stories into generic statistics, allowing more informed decision-making. Through our platform partners, policymakers have access to advanced AI features, participant recruitment, data handling, and actionable policy reports, all free of charge.

How do you handle the data?

Data privacy is managed directly by the platform partner’s policies. For more information, please visit their websites.

When will I hear back and what is the average turnaround time for a Sensemaking AI-enabled conversation?

We will follow up on your application within five business days. It typically takes around three months to run the civic conversation from start to finish, and generate insights, including preparation, analysis, and reporting. For more complex processes that include multiple rounds of dialogue, the process can take up to six months.