Change.org has a new look that uses AI to turn TikTok posts into tools for local activism

Despite its name, Change.org has developed a reputation as an ineffective platform. Many of its petitions promote so-called “slacktivism” rather than motivating activists to work toward justice in their communities.

With new leadership in charge and new technology on board, Change.org is looking to turn over a new leaf. The relaunched version of the 19-year-old platform will focus on local politics while encouraging users to use social media posts, videos, and AI-generated text as the foundations of their petitions.

The new version of the 19-year-old company is led by Steve Dziedzic, a former therapy app founder who has taken over as the President of Change.org. As Dziedzic told Fast Company, the pivot toward local politics is a potential solution for the problem of ineffective digital petitions. In their own communities, Change.org users have the highest likelihood of spurring significant policy shifts.

“The core problem we’re trying to solve is that people just feel unheard,” Dziedzic said. “They don’t think their voice matters anymore in our democracy.”

Even when Change.org users fight local battles, they still might not win. That’s where the platform’s new tools come in handy. By directing $100 million of its own money toward the development of AI-powered tools, Change.org is helping petitioners speak the language that makes their representatives listen.

Change.org’s AI can rewrite petitions to use the most persuasive language, and the platform is also scouring subreddits and Facebook groups to locate potential signees who might otherwise fall through the cracks. That’s only one of the agentic capabilities built into the new version of Change.org. The platform wants to make millions of signatures work better by targeting the right officials and brokering meetings.

The incorporation of social video is an intriguing part of the Change.org rebrand. Dziedzic and his team don’t want to ignore the organizational and political power that can bubble up on apps like TikTok, but they are also acknowledging that a rant on the For You Page won’t amount to much unless it can be used to inspire local action. By pasting TikTok links into the Change.org AI composition tool, users can instantly incorporate those videos into their petitions.

Hopefully, Change.org’s reputation as a paragon of slacktivism is a thing of the past, but the platform will need to continue to hone its approach to serve all local-level rabble-rousers. After all, if your petition is opposing the funding of an AI data center, you might not want to use AI to write it — no matter how useful Change.org’s new tools may be.

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