AI in Strategic Foresight 2025

In sum, strategic foresight experts are using AI predominantly for trend analysis or clustering (69%), scenario development (63%) and horizon scanning (60%) (see figure 2). There are no large differences in use between sectors, albeit those working in academia use AI tools more for horizon scanning, trend analysis and clustering than other sectors, while scenario development is most common in the private sector and civil society. Many also use AI for data and scenario visualizations. Civil society also tends to do more predictive modelling or forecasting (33% of respondents using AI in the sector), which could possibly be linked to many digital government initiatives in the sector. In addition to the outlined functionalities, strategic foresight experts also reported using AI for designing persona profiles, extrapolating wild cards and extreme scenarios, looking for bias or blind spots in thinking (especially expanding human- generated analysis) and as a reference library for strategic foresight methodologies. Examples of tools used by strategic foresight experts BOX 1 The survey respondents mentioned some specific use cases of AI for strategic foresight: –Custom AI-based platform designed to generate predictive evaluations of emerging technologies. –AI-powered platforms designed to provide predictive insights through the simulation of user-guided alternative future scenarios. –AI-enhanced cloud system that collects and processes multi-source news information using event-based modelling and ontologies. –AI-enhanced custom oriented platform for the persistent, autonomous reconnaissance of global supply chains. –Closed-access organizational tools developed by and used within a large international organization. Source: OECD Customized tools tend to integrate AI into existing foresight methodologies (e.g. the Radical Technology Inquirer),6 develop new tools or use the APIs (application programming interfaces) of different large language models (LLMs) for internal analysis purposes. These tools are used to collect documents automatically, detect signals or analyse documents in support of foresight activities (see some examples in Box 1). AI in Strategic Foresight: Reshaping Anticipatory Governance 7