Foreword
Wrapping up an eventful year, we got to celebrate a real milestone: since November 25, 2025, the AI assistant BärGPT – developed right here at CityLAB – has been available free of charge to everyone working in Berlin’s public administration.
Rolling out a tool on this scale is quite an adventure, and it was a brand-new experience for us, too. That’s why we’re especially excited about how smoothly things went and how well we were able to collaborate with the Berlin Senate Chancellery on this project.
As an innovation lab, our job is to respond quickly and stay agile when new developments come along. But the real value of innovation becomes apparent when it actually reaches people and starts making an impact. It’s no coincidence that long-term adoption emerged as one of the key themes in this year’s conversations around digital government.
And it’s only logical that we’ve started tackling some bigger, tougher challenges ourselves. The fact that persistence pays off is illustrated by our progress on public data infrastructure and our almost three-year partnership on the Citizen Center of the Future – a collaboration with the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district that earned us the national “Good Administration Award” this year.
But we wouldn’t be CityLAB if, alongside all the heavy lifting, there wasn’t still plenty of space for experimentation, creativity, participation and community – from a spectacular summer conference with more than 900 guests and a prolonged Kiezlabor tour through Berlin’s neighborhoods to a whole range of new projects and prototypes that taught us a ton along the way.
Our fantastic communications team has once again wrapped up all of this year’s highlights in our annual review. Enjoy!
Our year 2025 at a glance
Dive into our highlights and click through the projects that fascinate you – from new AI solutions to neighborhood projects to our formats for exchange and networking.
Exploration and development of digital solutions
Digital innovation for a more livable city
This year once again we continued to focus on making digital technologies genuinely useful for Berlin. Combining research, design and practical testing, we develop solutions that simplify day-to-day administrative work while at the same time offering genuine benefits to people across the city. Together with public-sector employees, experts and the broader community, we explore new ways to use digital tools responsibly, inclusively and in a way that creates measurable impact.
A bear serving Berlin’s public administration
Our biggest launch this year revolves around a very special bear: BärGPT is our AI companion for Berlin’s administration – developed, tested and fine-tuned directly in collaboration with the people who will be using it on a day-to-day basis. Developed in close cooperation with the Berlin Senate Chancellery, BärGPT brings more efficiency into daily workflows. At its core is an open chat interface that combines the flexibility of established AI tools with powerful document handling and retrieval-augmented search. The result is practical support for anyone who works with text on a daily basis. BärGPT quickly finds relevant information, helps with writing, summarizing and research, and always stays fully compliant with data privacy standards. It has been available to the entire Berlin administration since November 25, 2025. Thanks to our open-source approach, we can continue to develop the “bear” and adapt it to the administration’s evolving needs.
Interface between city residents and the administration
Digital participation for everyone
At CityLAB, our work centers on designing digital tools that as many people as possible can understand and use. Whether through direct contact with residents, workshops involving public-sector employees or structured testing phases: participation is the foundation for every new development. Our goal is to create digital offerings that are accessible, inclusive and grounded in everyday needs – tools that remove barriers and make it easier for people to engage with city processes. In doing so, we believe in using technologies, transparent design and constant feedback from the broader community.
Making the most of the possibilities in Berlin – with Fairgnügen!
Berlin is full of free or low-cost offerings that could benefit thousands of people – but many of them go unnoticed. This is right where Fairgnügen comes in: the platform brings these opportunities together and makes it easier for people with low incomes to access cultural, sports and social activities. Designed for more than 700,000 Berliners on social benefits, Fairgnügen offers a user-friendly web app with search tools, filters and an interactive map. It is also the first CityLAB prototype to be successfully integrated on a long-term basis into berlin.de. The project was built on a fully user-centered approach, extensive testing and open datasets from the Senate Department for Labor, Social Affairs, Equality, Integration, Diversity and Anti-Discrimination (SenASGIVA), which are continuously updated through an automated database. Fairgnügen is now accessible, intuitive and multilingual – and available on every device without the need to sign up.
Catalyst for participatory urban design
Setting ideas in motion – connecting the city
We see ourselves as a driver of open, participatory urban development and as a catalyst for cultural change in public administration. Through public events, workshops, newsletters, podcasts and social media, we create ongoing spaces for dialogue, exchange and collaboration. At the same time, we offer transparent insights into our work and show how digital approaches and participation tools can be adapted and expanded in other cities.
Taking the CityLAB idea out on the road
Many local authorities face the challenge of shaping digital transformation in a way that is citizen-focused, efficient and sustainable. Yet digital solutions often emerge in isolation, meaning that other cities can't learn from them. That is exactly where Stadtlabor2Go comes in. Through inter-municipal collaboration, the project promotes knowledge-sharing, synergy and participation. Building on the CityLAB model, we co-develop formats, tools and processes that help bring innovation into administration more quickly and effectively. Two new labs opened in 2025: Zukunftswerk Wiesbaden with citizen-science tools and an AI chatbot, and Stadtlabor.mg at Mönchengladbach central library. In the long term, Stadtlabor2Go aims to build a network of municipal labs that learn from each other and help make public-interest digitalization transferable.
CityLAB star signs
The stars were aligned for us this year – ascendant: “adventurous”. At our two-day retreat in Brandenburg, we enjoyed forest walks, campfire vibes and even scaled the “second-highest mountain in Brandenburg” – only a ten-minute climb, but no mountain is too big or too small for the CityLAB team; we take on whatever challenge lies ahead. Back at Platz der Luftbrücke, our stars shone brightly between the office and the coffee machine, though our best ideas sparked pretty much anywhere. And at conferences and events, our stars exercise a particularly powerful charm: we seem to attract creative energy wherever we go and always leave a lasting impression.
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