Civic Forge Solutions

A Practical Guide to AI for Campaigns in the 2025-2026 Cycle

by Civic Forge Solutions
#ai #campaigns #political-communications #disinformation #privacy #security #ethics
A Practical Guide to AI for Campaigns in the 2025-2026 Cycle

AI is here for campaigns, for better or worse. Learn about the challenges and opportunities of using AI in your campaign.

The image above was generated by Google’s Gemini 2.0 Pro model.

A Practical Guide to AI for Blue Campaigns (2025-2026)

For Democratic and progressive campaigns gearing up for the 2025-2026 cycle, the practical and policy impacts of AI can be overwhelming.

A Google search on the topic results in a blizzard of paid ads, hype articles, and not a lot of practical uses. One can end up more confused than informed traveling down this path.

Now, with Google’s Veo3, 8-second hyperrealistic videos can be generated; these videos are already being used for political influence. Expect Google’s next release of this technology to increase the maximum seconds of a video, and make them indistinguishable from reality.

How did this happen? AI models got better and cheaper, putting sophisticated tools into anyone’s hands with a credit card and $20 or so per month to spare.

An AI-generated video of a candidate asking for a voter’s vote.

The Challenge: AI and Misinformation

One immediate concern is how AI can be used to spread disinformation. Here are the key threats to prepare for:

  1. AI-Altered Media: Actual photos/videos of your candidate can be transformed by AI to create misleading but realistic images and videos that misrepresent your campaign. For example, a picture can be transformed into a video.

  2. Entirely Fabricated Content: AI can generate completely new, convincing footage of events that never occurred. For a voter unaware of the source, this content can appear credible and damaging. [Consultant behind AI-generated robocalls mimicking Biden goes on trial in New Hampshire (AP) 6/5/25]

  3. Automated Information Attacks: AI can be used to create and deploy automated accounts intended to publish misinformation about your campaign, the voting process, registration deadlines, and voting locations.

A Google search on the topic results in a blizzard of paid ads, hype articles, and not a lot of practical uses.

The Opportunity: Making AI a Strategic Asset

The good news is that there’s more to AI than defending against disinformation. Used constructively, it can make your campaign smarter and more efficient.

1. Enhance Campaign Productivity

Many of the mundane tasks in a campaign can be augmented or fully automated by AI, freeing up your team for more critical work.

  • Automate Data Entry: Convert handwritten text from sign-up sheets directly into computer-readable formats like Google Sheets.
  • Streamline Content Creation: Use AI for human-supervised assistance in drafting copy for emails, correspondence, and other campaign materials.
  • Improve Data Quality: Review and standardize your data by using AI to identify and consolidate duplicate records or remove “troll” signups and bad email addresses.

2. Deepen Your Analysis

AI can help you process information and find actionable insights within your data.

  • Voter and Donor Insights: Review your lists of voters, contacts, and donors to derive insights that can help meet your campaign goals in all phases: from fundraising to persuasion to GOTV.
  • Automated Opposition Tracking: Process your opposition’s emails and other digital or print materials to quickly identify their themes, tactics, and strategic focus.

3. Sharpen Your Outreach & Explore the Frontier

There are also some frontier uses for AI that are becoming more accessible.

  • Campaign Chatbots: Deploy a chatbot on your website to interface with supporters, answer questions about your platform, and help interested volunteers get involved with your campaign.
  • Customized Field Scripts: Use AI to create tailored scripts for engaging with voters, allowing your field organizers to have more personal and effective conversations.

What Next?

Two ways to get started today

  • Accessing via a Website: The easiest approach, check out the links below and interact with these sites using text, image, or audio.

  • Via APIs for Automation: The more powerful method. Connect AI to your campaign’s data, tools, and software to automate tasks like data analysis or opposition tracking.

Start Exploring Key AI Platforms: The leading platforms include OpenAI (ChatGPT), Google (Gemini), and Anthropic (Claude), and Microsoft (Copilot). All of these offer free tiers and trials, so you can experiment without a budget.

Note on Privacy: These platforms offer different assurances of privacy - or lack thereof. Some platforms may also refuse to process content perceived as political. Keep these factors in mind when you’re experimenting with the tools!

Build a Cohesive Strategy: Moving from experimentation to an effective AI strategy is a challenge.

Civic Forge Solutions LLC provides the expert technical consulting your campaign needs to win with AI. We help you choose the right tools, build efficient workflows with custom coding, and navigate the critical landscape of privacy, security, and ethics. Our services are built for campaigns of all sizes and, most importantly, are priced to be affordable for any budget.