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As the question of anticipation moves center stage in design-driven policy and governance development processes, anticipatory approaches to governance have expanded the focus of such exploration to concerns ranging from the co-creation of scenarios to complexity management strategies. Through anticipate, a non-disciplinary research network initiated and coordinated by arts and culture organizations interested in collective agency and intelligence, the authors have explored and engaged with this dynamic. To facilitate critical assessments of the paradigms that inform the design and widespread adoption of predictive systems, we have reframed anticipation as a collective intelligence design research agenda. Exploring and engaging with research affirming the centrality of collective, cooperative and co-creative dynamics in the design of socio-technological systems, the anticipate network focuses on the aesthetic practices through which such agency and intelligence become tangible. Introducing the OECD’s work on anticipatory innovation governance, this essay aims to contribute to these conversations on co-creative systems design by making the case for the inclusion of arts-and-culture approaches in anticipation-oriented policy and governance development processes.