Deliberative Technologies in Youth, Peace & Security: Promise, Practice, and the Uptake Gap

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This report draws on experimentation to ask a grounded question: when peacebuilders and Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS) coalition leaders put AI-enabled deliberative tools into practice, what do they enable, what obstacles do they face, and how can we take forward their lessons learned? This paper does three things. First, it shares insights from practice—four concrete use cases showing how tools were selected, designed, framed, and how participation actually unfolded. Next it synthesizes 18 months of experimentation—highlighting both the promise and the friction points, especially the uptake gap that practitioners hit even when the tools ‘work’. Finally, it offers grounded recommendations—the enabling conditions that most strongly determine whether deliberation widens listening, strengthens inclusion, and supports real sensemaking.