Rebuilding Trust Through Smarter Engagement
Client
A large public facing organisation responsible for essential services and long term community projects.
Challenge
The organisation was preparing to consult on a series of contentious changes: pricing updates, service redesign, and infrastructure projects that would affect multiple communities.
They faced several challenges:
- Consultation fatigue and low turnout from key groups
- A vocal minority dominating feedback channels
- Mistrust stemming from previous engagements that “didn’t feel heard”
- Difficulty turning large volumes of qualitative feedback into clear insight
Leaders knew that another generic survey and public meeting series would not be enough. They needed a way to listen more intelligently, reach underrepresented voices, and show clearly how input shaped decisions.
Approach
The organisation partnered with Ministry of Insights to use Engage Lab, an AI assisted environment for planning, analysing, and improving stakeholder engagement.
Working with the internal communications and engagement teams, Ministry of Insights:
- Mapped key stakeholder groups, influence, concerns, and likely engagement barriers
- Designed tailored engagement pathways for different audiences (residents, businesses, community groups, internal staff, etc.)
- Used AI to structure and analyse past consultation feedback to identify recurring themes, pain points, and trust gaps
- Simulated how different engagement approaches might affect participation, sentiment, and perceived fairness
Engage Lab did not replace human engagement specialists. It gave them a clearer, data-informed starting point and stress tested their approach before going live.
Outcomes
Through the Engage Lab process, the organisation was able to:
- Redesign its engagement approach to be more targeted and inclusive
- Increase participation from previously underrepresented groups
- Reduce the dominance of a small group of repeat submitters in overall sentiment
- Turn thousands of open text comments into a clear set of themes, risks, and priorities
- Show stakeholders a transparent “you said, we did (or did not), and here is why” narrative
Internally, leaders reported that decision making felt less like guesswork and more like a structured, evidence backed process.
Value Delivered
Engage Lab delivered tangible value across three areas:
For the organisation
- Clearer understanding of who was affected and how
- Better quality insight from the same or lower volume of feedback
- More confident communication with elected members, boards, and regulators
For communities and stakeholders
- More relevant, accessible ways to participate
- Increased clarity on how their input influenced outcomes
- A gradual rebuilding of trust in the engagement process
For internal teams
- Less manual coding and sorting of feedback
- More time spent on interpretation and strategy, not admin
- A reusable framework for future consultations
Why It Worked
This engagement succeeded because:
- AI was used to listen better and see patterns, not to automate or “spin” the story
- Human engagement specialists remained responsible for tone, channels, and relationship building
- The focus was on understanding and fairness, not simply compliance
