A fundamental truth in government and public affairs is that relationships still matter. The ability to communicate a compelling story or point of view still matters. Effective argument and focused passion still matter.
However, everything surrounding that moment of direct connection is changing rapidly.
The data and artificial intelligence wave is starting to sweep across public affairs, as it is in business, media, and commerce. Across the board “AI Inside” is being stamped across every conceivable surface of public affairs-related services. From constituent communications to policy analysis to issue tracking companies are adopting the convergence of Large Language Models (LLM) and natural language processing (NLP) to enhance their offerings.
At Signal, we believe that these technologies are creating unprecedented opportunities for innovation in how we track, analyze, and influence policy discussions. However, we are also noting a disturbing trend where AI is either used as gilding to dress up old products, or its application, while clever, is one-tenth of the power of the technology. (For example, using AI to analyze sentiment is like asking an F1 car to go to the store for milk.)
Signal’s approach to the data revolution has been with less flourish, but more substance to leverage the power of the technology. Whether that is a detailed network analysis of influence, a deep dive across 50K articles to improve a media relations plan or evaluating the readiness of policymakers to support a policy position, we are fully utilizing the edges of AI to help inform our strategic communication counsel. (If you want to know more, please get in touch!)
The future is bright, but we also think more meaningful change is coming. Looking to the future, here’s how we think these technologies are transforming public affairs operations:
Enhanced Policy Monitoring
Traditional keyword-based monitoring of federal regulations and legislation only scratches the surface. Vector search technology now enables us to identify conceptually similar policy proposals across different agencies and committees, even when the specific language varies. This means catching relevant policy developments that traditional monitoring would miss.
By combining policy tracking with political speech, think tank reports and targeted speciality publications content it is possible to track subtle shifts in regulatory language and spot emerging trends before they become mainstream. This gives clients a critical early-mover advantage in helping to shape coming policies.
Deeper Stakeholder Intelligence
LLMs can now analyze vast amounts of public statements, social media posts, and hearing transcripts to build comprehensive profiles of key policy influencers. This goes beyond position tracking to understand the underlying patterns of how statements, voting behaviours, and coalitions drive decision-making.
The next step is expanding the analysis to incorporate the positions, content, and conversations from stakeholders, contributors, and influencers to provide a more nuanced understanding of “schools of thought” and the ideological basis for policies. True innovation comes when we can model these different perspectives to do early, ‘in-the-lab’ testing of how different messaging frameworks resonate with specific stakeholders; matching data-driven insights into messaging.
Predictive Analytics for Policy Outcomes
Over time increasing amounts of structured data, including historical patterns in legislative data, committee behaviors, and stakeholder relationships, will be available for analysis. That will allow public affairs data analysts to build sophisticated models that can provide insights into the likelihood of specific bills advancing, coalition-building opportunities, or even potential amendments or compromises.
The Future of Tech-Enabled Public Affairs
The foundational unit of public or government affairs is human-to-human relationships. Our work with and on behalf of clients is fundamentally grounded in our communities and places. The AI revolution is not about replacing public affairs expertise. Rather it is about amplifying it; provide clients and public affairs executives with an additional set of tools that make our public affairs smarter, faster, and more responsive.
The key is using these tools to enhance what public affairs professionals already do best: building relationships, crafting narratives, and navigating complex political landscapes. The public affairs firms that thrive will embrace these innovations while maintaining their core focus on strategic counsel and relationship building.