AI Governance in 2035
Client
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Services
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Design-led research
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Strategic foresight consulting
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Creative AI expert consulting
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Speculative design artifacts
Question
How can policymakers discuss the future of AI governance in provocative, new ways to influence decisions and policymaking?
Method
The OECD Global Strategy Group meeting is an annual event educating influential policymakers and company leaders on the future of AI governance. In 2024, we presented OECD with a challenge: Rather than present (yet another) report to participants, what if we brought future scenarios to life?
Collaborating with the OECD Strategic Foresight Unit, we created a series of four provocative videos exploring the future of AI governance—made 100% with creative AI tools. Considering inclusivity, access, and regulation, we created four future scenarios: one optimal (Inclusive Governance, Shared Prosperity), two sub-optimal (Cautious and Controlled, Fast and Furious), and one dystopian (Breakthroughs Backfire). Design futures experts provided narrative vision, quality control, and ethical oversight, while leveraging ten emerging AI tools to create video footage, music, voiceovers, and scripts. The collaboration dissected the limitations of AI technology (bias, hallucination, and IP concerns), while reinforcing the importance of AI governance.
Results
What they asked for
Foresight scenarios about AI governance.
What they gained
The opportunity to experience the future of AI governance in the present moment—one that invoked feelings and a renewed purpose within participants.
4
Custom videos generated for OECD policymakers
8
Creative AI tools used to create the videos.
20+
Policymakers in the room from 10+ different countries.
How might we identify potential consumer preferences in 2050 using community-driven design processes?
Bigwidesky, a communication and foresight consultancy, wanted to help their community explore speculative design as a tool for strategic foresight. We collaborated on a five-month engagement to host a community-driven, three-part interactive webinar series focused on futures literacy and speculative design. The series introduced Bigwidesky’s five-step foresight process—probleming, researching, imagining, gathering insights, and strategizing—while guiding participants in co-designing artifacts and products from 2050. Deliverables included speculative design artifacts, narratives, and a takeaway futures starter kit.
Between sessions, our team conducted sociocultural research to refine the community’s speculative concepts, ultimately producing the Human+ 2050 product catalog featuring three finalized, future-forward artifacts. Visual renders and narratives brought these artifacts to life, immersing participants in a plausible 2050 future and demonstrating how speculative design can inform business strategy. This project exemplified participatory futures literacy, with each artifact grounded in sociocultural signals of change and shaped by the collective imagination of Bigwidesky’s community.