How AI is revolutionising stakeholder engagement for major infrastructure projects

Large infrastructure projects now generate more and more community and stakeholder interest, and as a result, vast amounts of feedback in various forms.

We’ve seen this recently with the Melbourne Airport third runway project, which led to thousands of public submissions, from handwritten letters to digital forms. From a communication and engagement perspective, the more interest and feedback, the better! However, making sense of all the feedback received and demonstrating to stakeholders that we’re listening can be challenging. Large and complex projects that draw a lot of interest can often leave stakeholders feeling frustrated when their feedback is overlooked, lost across government departments or delayed by long timelines.

Teams of human analysts, working within cognitive limits and potential differing biases, can struggle to distil complex data, leading to missed insights and inconsistent outcomes.

This challenge will be even greater for future projects like high speed rail, which will require engagement across a vast area involving thousands of stakeholders, each with unique concerns and priorities. The need for a transparent, efficient, and inclusive approach has never been greater.

So, how can we meaningfully engage communities and leverage the feedback we collect to deliver faster, more informed outcomes, at scale?  

Unpack™ is our orchestrated, secure methodology for using large language models (LLMs) to elevate engagement outcomes. Developed through collaboration between GHD’s data science and engagement teams, Unpack™ offers:

• Rapid processing and analysis of thousands of free-text comments, reducing data burden.
• Objective, reduced-bias outputs that support consistent, transparent decision-making.
• Secure, access-restricted deployments for data safety.
• A responsive, feedback-driven workflow, allowing for technical oversight and human quality assurance.
• Integrated analytics and visualisation for custom insight generation and storytelling.

GHD Unpack™ transforms raw data, PDFs, emails and meeting transcripts, into actionable insights in days, not months. Engagement practitioners can also trace every insight back to its source, enabling transparency, integrity, and data-driven, defensible insights.

GHD Unpack™ can help clients unearth a clearer picture of their stakeholder feedback so they can make more informed design and planning decisions that meaningfully incorporate the voices of the communities and stakeholders they serve.

A common challenge for large infrastructure projects is the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, which often requires the analysis of thousands of public submissions, technical reports and stakeholder comments. GHD Unpack™ uses AI to rapidly process and categorise this feedback, enabling deeper analysis into community sentiment and technical concerns in a fraction of the time required by traditional methods. By delivering clear, data-driven insights quickly, project teams and regulators can identify key issues, address concerns and streamline reporting. This accelerated approach can support faster, more confident approvals, helping major projects move from planning to delivery with greater certainty and community trust.

There is also long term value to consider. We can use GHD Unpack™ to build a database of community sentiment over time, allowing organisations to track shifts and respond proactively. For future high speed rail projects, this means capturing historic and evolving community concerns such as route alignment, environmental impact, and accessibility and adjusting engagement strategies over time.

In a recent major Australian aviation project, Unpack™ enabled rapid distillation of historic engagement data, providing a clear starting point for future engagement. The platform processed thousands of submissions, extracting key themes and subthemes such as service quality, transparency, and stakeholder communication.

Similarly, in Ontario, Canada, GHD partnered with the Region of Peel’s Waste Department to transform how community feedback informed waste system planning. Faced with over 30,000 comments from more than 10,000 residents, AI-driven analytics extracted meaningful insights from complex, qualitative data. This allowed the Region of Peel to understand community sentiment on proposed funding models while balancing financial and environmental goals. The use of AI not only accelerated the analysis but also improved transparency and confidence in decision-making, demonstrating how technology can enable more inclusive, data-driven infrastructure planning.

AI is a collaboration tool, not a replacement for human expertise. Practitioners retain control, guiding and iterating on AI outputs based on real-world knowledge and context. Every insight is traceable, building trust with stakeholders and clients. This partnership aims to be data-driven, transparent decision-making, essential for projects requiring high levels of integrity and accountability.

It's also important to address bias to uphold data integrity. While AI reduces human bias, it does not eliminate it. Unpack™ delivers a consistent “machine” bias that can be identified and corrected. Transparent processes allow practitioners to spot and address anomalies, supporting representative and trusted outcomes. This is especially important for government projects, where integrity and accountability are paramount. 

Australia’s proposed high speed rail network will generate immense volumes of stakeholder feedback, from environmental assessments to community consultations.

AI-powered tools like Unpack™ offer:

• Efficiency gains: Rapid analysis of submissions, enabling timely responses and adaptive engagement.
• Deeper insights: Ability to extract nuanced sentiment and technical feedback, supporting better project design and delivery.
• Transparency and trust: Traceable, auditable engagement processes that build confidence among stakeholders, government and investors.

As AI tools evolve, opportunities for longitudinal analysis and continuous improvement in engagement practices will expand, strengthening the delivery of transformative infrastructure projects.

AI-powered engagement analysis is reshaping how major infrastructure projects connect with communities and stakeholders. By combining advanced technology with practitioner expertise, GHD Unpack™ delivers actionable insights that support better decisions and foster trust. As Australia looks ahead to transformative initiatives like high speed rail, this approach offers greater efficiency, transparency and responsiveness, so that every voice and every insight can inform progress.