Tired of talk that goes nowhere? This Seattle startup is using AI to turn civic debate into action

While much of the debate around artificial intelligence centers on the technology’s threat to jobs and society, one Seattle-area startup is turning that anxiety on its head — using AI not as a source of conflict, but as a tool to help resolve it.

Convexus is a civic technology platform designed to help local governments, nonprofits, and community groups move past fragmented debate and toward coordinated action.

The startup was co-founded by Merrill Keating, a Bainbridge Island native and University of Washington graduate who was a Geekwire Junior Geek of the Month in 2021, and her mother, Doña Keating, a veteran strategic advisor and consultant.

Unlike traditional social media that often amplifies division, Convexus “transforms dialog into action,” Merrill Keating told GeekWire.

“A lot of digital platforms only reward outrage and don’t really come to any kind of resolution,” she said. “They fragment across different types of tools, and there’s no real consensus anywhere.”

Convexus addresses the stalling point of modern civic engagement using what it calls an Explore-Align-Act framework — and AI-assisted facilitation — to help organizations identify shared goals and execute them.

“The AI has no agenda. It works fluently with pretty much anyone that wants to use it,” Doña Keating said, mentioning city councils, political candidates wanting to hear from constituents, book clubs, and corporate teams trying to solve a problem as examples.

The platform uses Anthropic’s Claude API to power its “Digital Facilitator” engine, surfacing areas of agreement, suggesting reframes when conversations turn heated, and guiding groups toward decisions. It also flags “bridge-building” contributions — the comments and perspectives that create connections across opposing viewpoints — rewarding constructive behavior and helping move groups from analysis paralysis to coordinated action.

Among the platform’s standout features is a live consensus meter — an animated visual dial showing the percentage of group agreement in real time — along with decision tracking that logs how many participants were involved and how long consensus took, what Doña Keating describes as an ROI story compared to traditional committee meetings.

The founders are quick to point out what sets Convexus apart from existing tools.

“Polis maps opinions, but it stops there,” Doña Keating said. “Change.org collects signatures, but it doesn’t have deliberation. Slack is for chat, but not decisions. No one integrates the structured dialog, plus the AI facilitation, plus the action outcomes at any scale.”

Convexus plans to monetize through a subscription model with tiers ranging from a free or low-cost option for grassroots groups to nonprofit, government, and enterprise plans. The founders are firm on one point: no ads, no data sales.

Convexus is currently inviting Pacific Northwest organizations to participate in free 30-to-90-day pilot programs to stress-test the platform. The startup was also selected as one of the first cohort of 10 high-potential startups at Technology Alliance’s Seattle Investor Summit and Showcase, set for June 3 at Microsoft’s Redmond campus.

For Merrill Keating, the platform is the natural extension of a lifetime of civic advocacy.

“As an advocate, a lot of what I’ve seen is people will just talk about things for years and years and years, and nothing ever gets done,” she said. “That is one of the most frustrating things as somebody who wants to actually see an impact being made on the communities I’m a part of. This is something that’s right up my alley.”