Model of Digital Reconstruction and Democratic Resilience? How Ukrainian Migrants in Poland Envision AI-Driven Local Government Reform in Post-War Ukraine: Conclusions from a Research Project in 2025

The accelerating digitalisation of public institutions, political organisations, and civil society creates new configurations of power, inequality, and democratic participation. This paper examines how Ukrainian immigrants residing in Poland perceive the role of digital transformation, especially generative artificial intelligence (AI), in the future consolidation of local government in post-war Ukraine. The analysis draws on a 2025 mixed-methods research project (N=400) exploring migrants’ experiences with Polish e-government systems, platform based public services, and digital civic participation, as well as their expectations regarding reemigration and engagement in Ukrainian local politics. Five (N=5) in-depth interviews were also conducted. Special attention was given to attitudes toward decentralisation, civic engagement, the role of civil society, and the acceptance of new technologies, including AI, as tools to modernise public administration. The study contributes to debates on digital statehood, role of digitalization in democratic resilience and the international politics of AI. It proposes a conceptual model of “AI-enabled democratic consolidation” tailored to Ukraine’s post-war conditions, highlighting how migrant knowledge transfer can support resilient, technologically augmented local governance.