In July 2025, a group of climate negotiators from nine African countries gathered at the UNFCCC campus in Bonn.

Supported by AI, they engaged in a live, collaborative process that helped them structure priorities, identify shared ground and accelerate alignment.

If diplomacy is to remain a tool for peace, inclusion and progress, it must become more human, not in spite of AI, but with its support.

As global challenges become more interconnected, the processes designed to solve them are under strain. Climate negotiations, for example, can now encompass more than 120 agenda items compressed into a few days. Delegates face over 100,000 pages of material, often with limited support and even more limited time. Amid this growing complexity, diplomacy is increasingly defined, not by disagreement, but by misalignment.

In July 2025, a group of climate negotiators from nine African countries — representing over 178 million people — gathered at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) campus in Bonn to try something new. Supported by artificial intelligence (AI), they engaged in a live, collaborative process that helped them structure priorities, identify shared ground and accelerate alignment.

This wasn't a simulation. It was a real project co-led by the Centre for Multilateral Negotiations (CEMUNE) and ComplexChaos, a startup which we run, based in Silicon Valley and backed by a VC chaired by Reid Hoffman and funded by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, along with angels, such as the co-founders of WhatsApp, Google Assistant and OpenGov.

"What we saw was the power of early, fully inclusive coordination," said Huw Davies, Managing Director of CEMUNE.

In the sessions, participants used AI to generate structured questions, surface overlooked perspectives and synthesize negotiation inputs in real time. The experience helped transform fragmented preparation into a more inclusive and confident process. According to post-session feedback, 91% of participants reported uncovering insights they would have otherwise missed; perceived co-presence tripled during solo preparation; empathy rose by 35%; and coordination time was reduced by 60%.