Hear – and be heard.

Amplifying underheard voices through a new kind of conversation for your neighborhood, classroom, workplace, or community  – powered by a thoughtful balance of human listening and AI tools.

Hear a medley of highlights from across Cortico conversations below, and click through to learn more.
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The Latest from Cortico

Echoes of Strength: Voices of the Haitian Diaspora

A new conversation portal in partnership with The Haitian Times, featuring voices and insights from Haitian-American communities in 9 U.S. cities.

Leveraging AI for Meaningful Civic Engagement

Cortico CEO Deb Roy introduces the idea of conversation networks: a new civic infrastructure that uses assistive AI to deepen human connection and support meaningful democratic dialogue.

> Read here

Voices: Cortico’s latest newsletter

Our latest newsletter spotlights how students, cities, and communities across the country are using Cortico’s tools to surface insights, spark connection, and take meaningful action

> Check out Voices now

Impact Report

Check out the impact we made together with our partners in helping communities around the world hear—and be heard.

> Read the full report

Cortico on Morning Edition

Since launching “Listening Across Divides” with NPR and a cohort of Member stations, we’ve been on a journey to experiment with a new approach to local journalism.

> LISTEN NOW

Audrey Tang: When AI gets better at empathy

Cortico featured in Audrey Tang’s Business Weekly column.

> Read here

Cortico’s Voices Lead the Way: Revitalizing Blue Hill Avenue

Cortico’s “Real Talk” collaboration leads to a $44 million urban revival, showcasing the power of real community engagement in Boston.

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What We Do
Today’s challenges demand more than just talk.

Cortico helps your community harness the power of recorded small-group dialogue to build a new kind of conversation.

Through a balance of human-led and AI-assisted analysis – or “sensemaking” – Cortico helps you surface patterns, themes, and insights across conversations.

Our unique approach is the product of a collaboration with MIT Center for Constructive Communication.

 

About Cortico
What We Do
How It Works

Talk

Start with a good conversation – sharing personal stories in small groups. These conversations are recorded, with audio and transcriptions automatically generated and shared back to participants.


Understand

Surface patterns across conversations through “sensemaking” – a deep listening process led by participants and supported by AI tools.


Share

Share the big picture – with outputs that incorporate real voices – connecting powerful insights to more informed outcomes.

Learn more about how it works
AI to Support, Not Replace

Cortico’s AI is human-steered—no pushbutton shortcuts. Our tools ensure insights stay grounded in real voices and local knowledge. Unlike AI that digests and summarizes human speech, Cortico’s voice-first, people-led approach helps communities surface, share, and act on their own narratives.

Learn More
AI to Support, Not Replace
Our Partners

We enable partners to surface underheard voices and perspectives that help them…

 

Inform public policy
Make better decisions
Hire leadership
Resolve conflict
Empower young leaders
Enhance community journalism
Improve workplace culture
See our full list of partners
Our Partners
WHO WE REACH
250+
Partners
40+
US States
60+
Countries
Testimonials

Cortico, in the words of our partners…

About Our Partners
Moving beyond surface narratives

“Listening became our strategy. The project validated what our community has long felt but rarely sees reflected. It gave us a blueprint grounded in lived experience, and that’s shaping how we expand our coverage and community work.”

Vania Andre, Editor in Chief, The Haitian Times

Stories as decision-making input

“Working with Cortico taught us that anecdotes and stories have information in them that is community input. It’s real and it’s valid.”

Jacquelyn Boggess, Chairperson, Madison, WI Police and Fire Commission

Making sense of the moment

“Cortico has supported us in making sense of the moment that we’re in, by offering … the ability to listen efficiently and economically, in a way that’s connected people across Arkansas.”

Sara Bishop, Founder, Reimagine Arkansas

Informing strategic direction

“Through Cortico, we’re able to efficiently and powerfully invite our community of youth around the world to inform our strategic direction. Cortico enables us to analyze and amplify youth voices and opinions from around the world in a way that traditional survey instruments and focus groups cannot do.”

Asheesh Advani, CEO, Junior Achievement Worldwide
Absorbing community input

“As we engage the community and ask for feedback, the Cortico has been a powerful tool to absorb and understand what residents across Cambridge are looking for in the next City Manager.”

Sumbul Siddiqui, Mayor, City of Cambridge, MA

Building trust in communities

“Cortico’s platform made it possible for us to address fundamental challenges in public engagement: building trust in marginalized communities to bring in their voices.”

Ceasar McDowell, MIT Professor of the Practice, Project Lead, RealTalk for Change Boston

Illuminating data on lived experiences

“The information that we collected with Cortico’s platform is so rich. It helps us illuminate data points in a different way, communicating through people’s stories and experiences.”

Alia Stevenson, Chief Programs Officer, Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness

Student empowerment

“As we work to strengthen student voice in RSU 5, Cortico’s partnership has allowed our students to be empowered in leading positive change in their school culture in a way that is meaningful, collaborative and has led to increased student engagement.”

Dr. Becky J. Foley, Superintendent of Schools, RSU5 in Maine

Interpreting rich narratives

“Cortico tooling provides an engaging and intuitive mechanism for organizing, structuring, and interpreting rich narratives with efficiency … bolstering our capacity to identify shared goals and meaningful insights.”

Rachel Tache, Qualitative Researcher at Child Poverty Action Lab

Countering barriers to participation

“How may we redeem the elusive promise of self-government — amid digitally-amplified divisions and persistent barriers for so many to genuine participation? How encouraging to see Cortico’s unique integration of thoughtful convening, human listening, and technological tools to elicit and foreground the hopes and concerns of people who otherwise would not be heard.”

Martha Minow, 300th Anniversary University Professor, Harvard University

Community engagement in reporting

“Our journalists learning that facilitation skill was huge for us because it helped put community engagement in practice and supported a shift from traditional reporting towards really connecting with communities.”

Jennifer Tufts, Project Manager, America Amplified

Connecting with new audiences

“Having the ability to use this incredible technology is such a boost for us to think about new ways to report, to identify innovative ways to reach people and connect with new audiences.”

Katie Dean, Executive Editor, Cap Times

Connecting people to power

“5 years ago, I would’ve said that, in my career, I want people in power to listen to people, and I realized that that’s what I’m doing right now.” 

Amber Wells, Community Engagement Analyst, City of Durham

 

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Cortico is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization led by a multidisciplinary team of experts and practitioners in both technology and human communication. We’d love to keep in touch!
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