AI appears to be everywhere these days. More and more, AI is not just transforming the way we, think, consume information, and communicate in our personal and professional lives – it could also change how we approach lawmaking, advocacy and delivering basic public services.
In August, our public affairs team attended the National Conference of State Legislatures’ annual Legislative Summit in Boston where the topic of AI was front and center. Here are the top three things we’re watching related to AI in government and advocacy.
People are using it.
Lawmakers are leaning on AI to draft and edit their correspondence with constituents, helping them respond to their many messages in a timely manner. Vendors are applying the technology in several creative ways, from helping candidates interpret polling data, to developing ideal target audiences for an advocacy or issue campaign, to drafting key messages for those audiences. Even bill tracking software – a popular tool used to follow the progression of bills during a legislative session – is increasingly adding AI functions to summarize legislation and synthesize legislative hearings.
Governments are also using it.
It’s not just the people inside the Capitol exploring AI solutions to make their everyday tasks more efficient. State Legislatures themselves are utilizing it to help write their publicly available daily journals, which keeps track of each day’s legislative activity during a session. At the municipal level, governments are deploying AI to organize and assist with everyday city services like vehicle fleet management, streamlining service routes, and using AI technology paired with dash cams to identify employees who may be texting while driving or even showing signs of falling asleep.
Despite the opportunities for innovation, there are still huge challenges.
Despite its many refinements and gains in accuracy, AI still can’t replicate the human touch. Legislative proceedings, riddled with technical legislative language, require human interpretation (and humans often disagree on those interpretations).
Governing, legislating and lobbying are inherently human processes that require nuance and social savvy which AI simply does not (yet) have. Picking up on a person’s tone or nonverbals when they say something; going beyond simply listening to the content of a conversation, and seeking to understand its full context; understanding that each person is a complex individual with their own experiences, and that a one-size tactic will not fit all – these are all areas where human judgement still prevails over AI. And this doesn’t even get into the many privacy and ethical questions surrounding AI.
The bottom line.
AI has arrived in our government and advocacy spaces, and people are using it. We anticipate seeing this technology more and more at the Capitol, not just in use, but as a policy item for debate. How will AI intersect with other common legislative issue areas, like energy grid reliability or workforce development? We saw these initial conversations during the 2025 legislative session and expect to see and hear more of them in the future. AI will continue to evolve to make advocacy, lobbying and the functions of government work faster, safer and more transparent. But there is still a long way to go.