Experts Talk: Public Involvement in the World of AI with Nicole Moon

Experts Talk is an interview series with technical leaders from across our transportation program.

Balancing AI Innovation with Human-Centered Public Engagement

From customer service chatbots for internal and public audiences to automated comment analysis tools that can process hundreds of public comments in seconds, artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the landscape of communications and public involvement work. These changes are showing up in meaningful ways that may ultimately transform when, where and how public transportation agencies engage and communicate with their communities. 

Nicole Moon, with our strategic communications team, has over 25 years of experience as a communications leader, and over the last few years, she has studied trends, tested AI applications on transportation projects, and educated others about the importance of approaching AI responsibly and ethically. 

In this interview, Nicole talks about how communications professionals find themselves at the start of a transformative moment , actively figuring out how AI tools can enhance public engagement even while humans still need to guide meaning and connection.  

Q. How are transportation communications and public involvement professionals currently using AI? 

A. Many transportation communications and public involvement professionals are in an exploration phase — either working with or learning how to use AI in their daily work. AI technology brings opportunities to automate workflows and create better experiences for the public. For example, AI tools can assist communications practitioners to create media targeting plans that reach the right people with the right messaging at the right time or involve key stakeholders in a project in a way that is powerful and meaningful. 

For one of our highway projects, we are developing a dashboard that uses AI-powered comment analysis, combined with community demographic and geospatial data, to show which communities are engaging with the project and what their concerns are. This unprecedented approach allows us to quickly see gaps in our outreach and identify concerns so they can be addressed early. 

On another project, we’re helping our client team develop an internal AI tool that will provide guidance for their staff as they develop project-specific public involvement and outreach plans. This tool will not only help the client create consistency across the format of the plans, but it will also offer ideas and best practices to better engage communities and share information.

Communicators are using generative AI to accelerate the creation of outlines and first drafts for fact sheets, press releases and public meeting materials. It’s also helpful for idea generation. Recently, we used an AI tool to generate creative name options for a public outreach event we hosted for a roadway project. While we ultimately selected a name that we came up with ourselves, the AI-powered brainstorming session helped us formulate and decide on a great name faster. 

 Other AI use cases have focused on: 

• Accessibility and translation, e.g., live translation or closed captioning at meetings; 
• Customer service, e.g., chatbots for both internal and public audiences;
• Research, e.g., looking at historical or contextual data for message or strategy development; 
• Administrative tasks, e.g., meeting minutes, report writing and editing
• Structuring online information to be more likely to be accessed by AI tools

In all of this, given the very human nature of the work we do as public involvement professionals and communicators, we should not lose sight that these tools are here to assist us with performing our work, but not to replace the intuition and experience of the people using them. Also, while AI tools can be valuable, we use them only with client permission and are transparent about how they are applied. 

Q. How can AI tools balance efficiency while still leveraging human expertise? 

A. We've had success developing AI tools that do repetitive, predictable tasks that we often find tedious or time-consuming — things like drafting meeting minutes, responding to routine public questions or coding public comments. 

But, when using AI to do those tasks, we should not take humans out of the loop. Oversight and judgment can’t be automated. AI tools are only as reliable as the data and information they are trained on, and we don't always know what's underneath the hood.

Public involvement is built on relationships and trust. Empathy matters. Nuance matters. This is especially true when working with underserved communities or impacted residents and businesses. AI can support the work, but humans still need to guide the meaning and the connection. The best outcomes come from partnership and relationships, not solely from the speed of automation.

Q. What misconceptions about AI use in public engagement do you correct most often?

A. When I talk with other communications professionals about AI, I often hear both curiosity and uncertainty. They understand AI could make our work easier, but there's a reasonable fear that AI will make communicators less essential if others feel they can do the work themselves.

I'd like to argue for the opposite. Communicators are needed now more than ever. While we can't deny that AI tools make it easier to generate content, analyze data, and draft responses, the need for professionals to interpret, guide, and take responsibility for that work is critical. 

If public involvement work were only about producing public meetings, materials or summarizing feedback, we would have figured out how to automate it years ago. 

Really, the core of public involvement is building trust and helping decision-makers apply community feedback in a way that meets the needs of both the public and the project. AI cannot replace human intuition and empathy. I have spent a lot of time in the field working directly with residents and businesses impacted by construction. The AI tools I use regularly help me track my conversations, anticipate potential concerns and prepare materials, but they struggle to understand human nuance and cannot replace face-to-face conversations with stakeholders and project teams needed to resolve issues.

Q. How are you measuring the cost vs benefit of integrating AI into your team’s workflows?

A. The metrics that I’ve come across most often when talking about the benefits of AI tools are time savings and workflow efficiencies – both of which are real and measurable. We’ve seen client transportation agencies report  staff time savings of up to 12 hours per week after implementing generative AI tools like Microsoft Copilot. 

But I prefer to think of this as time gained, rather than time saved. 

For example, using AI, our HDR team developed a comment analysis tool that can process hundreds of public comments in seconds to count, organize and summarize themes and trends. This work normally takes hours. The tool was designed specifically for a transportation client for whom we provide public involvement services for multiple construction projects. Each project runs a regular community survey to gather feedback on construction and outreach activities. These surveys can generate dozens to hundreds of comments and in the past, they were manually reviewed, categorized and analyzed. While the output data from the AI tool still needs to be reviewed and verified by a team member, the tool now allows us to do the analysis work in a fraction of the time the fully manual process took. Our team uses the time gained to develop improved outreach strategies and materials and provide additional engagement opportunities with communities and stakeholders. These activities add more meaningful value to our clients and the communities they serve.

Since developing the tool, we’ve been able to strategically expand its use to other roadway, transit and aviation projects around the country, including some that have received tens of thousands of public comments. 

I predict that we will find similar results in time gained as we move forward with a pilot of a public-facing customer service chatbot for a transportation client’s project website. The chatbot uses generative AI tools trained on specific, relevant information to answer common questions about the project, like the project’s location, scope and schedule. This frees up team time to answer more complex questions about project design and impacts. It also provides consistency across answers and tracking the questions for trends will help the team spot potential issues early.

AI is unequivocally the industry’s biggest buzzword right now. Many practitioners and agencies want to use AI. However, in communications, because our work is so human-centric, it’s important that we don’t jump to using AI just for the sake of using AI. If AI can help us get the work done in a responsible way that improves outcomes and frees up resources for more meaningful use, it's worth at least exploring.

Q. What’s next? 

A. As the HDR strategic communications group works with clients around the country on how they plan to integrate AI into their work, one thing that’s clear is that communicators are approaching this technological shift with thoughtfulness and intention. Communicators recognize the value and opportunity AI brings but also want their communities to continue to have that human connection and feel seen and heard by the people making important decisions. We’ll undoubtedly also see continued conversations about the social, economic and environmental ramifications of AI.

As technology evolves and becomes more accurate, inclusive and capable, we will continue to evolve use cases that improve efficiency for workflows, content creation, ideation and data analysis. We will also likely see new tools released to improve accessibility and translation and we'll continue to see advancement in tools that are able to monitor the effects of messaging (or lack of messaging) on sentiment, feedback and participation.

As we move from the experimentation phase into integration, we need to stay focused on implementing responsibly and on refining how we use these tools to strengthen human-centered engagement.

Inspiration and Advice

Q. What advice do you have for communications professionals who want to explore AI but feel overwhelmed or unsure where to begin?

A. AI is new for everyone and it’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed. Consider it something to grow into, not master instantly. 

Start small and pick one tool to learn. Ideally, this would be a tool your organization already uses and supports. Try it out for simple tasks like summarizing an email, organizing your thoughts or acting as a coach or strategy partner. 

Curiosity is what matters. The goal isn’t to be perfect. As you get more familiar with the tool, you'll gain more confidence to continue using it.

Q. What motivates you in your work connecting people, data and technology in the public engagement space?

A. As an introvert living with a lifelong hearing disability, technology has always been a way for me to connect authentically and comfortably. Professionally, I have loved exploring how technology can provide access and accommodation for those who previously weren't able to engage. I was an early adopter in using social media to share information about projects and programs and then quickly jumped into developing online engagement platforms like interactive digital maps and virtual meetings long before the pandemic made them popular due to necessity. To me, AI is the next step in that progression. I see this work as another way to expand accessibility, improve efficiency and bring forth insights that help teams move forward with intention. 

Each Experts Talk interview illuminates a different aspect of transportation infrastructure planning, design and delivery. Check back regularly for new insights from the specialized experts and thought leaders behind our award-winning, full service consulting practice.