Since May 2024, Cosima Pfannschmidt has been a research scientist at the FZI Research Center for Information Technology’s Berlin office and a member of the House of Participation (HoP). She coordinates the BMFTR-funded research project “KuKI – Culturalization-Sensitive AI for Disinformation Resilience in Multilingual Societies”. Previously, she led the research projects “TWON – Twin of Online Social Networks” (EU-funded, 2023–2026) and “Tech for Democracy – German-Israeli Research Initiative on Digital Democracy” (Carl Zeiss Foundation, 2024–2025). Her research focuses on Digital Democracy, particularly AI-based disinformation detection, online social networks, and policy transfer.

She studied Sociology (M.A.) and Economics (B.Sc.) at Ludwig-Maximilians-University München. From 2022 to 2024 she worked in the German Bundestag as parliamentary assistant. During her studies she worked at Max-Planck-Institut for Tax Law and Public Finance and Technische Universität München (TUM) as student assistant.