How to Use AI to Elevate Your Own Public Policy Work

AI solutions are uniquely suited to public policy workflows. Policy professionals must understand how public policy AI tools can improve their workflow, both today and in the future. Learn more today!

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become ubiquitous in our daily lives. The pace at which AI, machine learning, and natural language processing has taken over is astonishing. AI technology not only impacts how we shop for clothes, find a recipe, and settle debates with friends, but also how we work. Employees in every industry must consider how AI can improve their workflow, both today and in the future. Naturally this includes those engaged in public policy work. Whether tracking, researching, advocating for, or proposing changes to public policy, there is much to be gained by utilizing AI in the right ways. 

The Complexity of Policy Work: Why Use AI?

Let’s consider the strengths of AI and large language models. We know that tools like Gemini, Perplexity, and ChatGPT can efficiently search through vast amounts of data. AI-backed Robotic Process Automation can automate complex processes and workflows that previously required human intervention, making them more consistent and efficient. Plural’s own AI bill summarizer shows the strength of generative AI tools. Our model understands and digests complex legislative language, producing a customized, clear, and concise summary. 

There is significant overlap between AI’s strengths and common challenges faced by public policy professionals. As public policy professionals, we find ourselves navigating a complex workflow. We must retrieve and analyze new policy developments, translate them to solicit feedback, notify our internal stakeholders. Then, we use the information gathered to decide on an advocacy strategy. We do this dozens or hundreds of times per year across the distinct levels of government and jurisdictions we’re responsible for. Juggling these responsibilities and catching all of the key bills is challenging.

It’s not just useful to incorporate AI into public policy workflows — it’s essential. AI’s strengths are uniquely aligned with the challenges public policy professionals face. Utilizing AI correctly will free them up to become more effective in their roles.

What Does the Rise of AI Mean for Public Policy Work?

Blindly using AI is risky. Public policy professionals are experts in their domain, understanding the minutiae of complicated policy topics and the dynamic public policy process itself. Most AI models aren’t trained with public policy work in mind — although Plural’s tools are — and may approach the domain from a layperson’s perspective. For these reasons, carefully considering the ways in which one integrates AI is key. Simply asking a chatbot trained on general data to draft testimony or assess whether a bill has a chance at passage will likely result in an incomplete analysis. This will waste time and allow for risk.

As AI usage grows, we can expect to see examples of where blind trust in AI has led to poor outcomes across all fields, including public policy. Those who successfully incorporate AI into their policy work will do so in a way that is measured, has human oversight, and optimizes the most time-intensive aspects of their work.

Benefits of AI for Public Policy Work

The solutions that successfully implement AI into public policy work as well as those who take advantage of them will have at least one thing in common. They’ll use AI to supplement the manual, inefficient aspects of their current processes, rather than replacing these processes altogether. At Plural, one of our foundational values is providing access to a massive amount of organized public policy data. We pair our data with intuitive design and in-app productivity tools to provide the perfect baseline workflow. Introducing AI into this workflow is simple. Plural supplements bill discovery with AI-powered searches that identify the top bills to monitor using bill salience detection powered by machine learning, identifying bill relationships through text analysis. Plural replaces manual, time-intensive, and imperfect processes with trustworthy, verifiable AI insights.

Data-Driven Decision Making

As mentioned, policy professionals are responsible for regularly reviewing a massive amount of data. Let’s use legislation as an example. A policy team may only track 30 bills during a legislative session. However, they must review thousands of bills to ensure that they’re not missing anything else that must be tracked. When we consider the proper application of AI-based analytical tools, we don’t center the decisions that only policy professionals are most trusted to make. This includes developing legislative agendas and strategies to get bills over the finish line. AI should augment our ability to make the thousands of small decisions that, individually, take only a small fraction of our time but together weaken our capacity to focus on that larger strategy.

For policy professionals, one such example of these small decisions is sorting the bills they don’t care about from those they do. A policy professional can utilize and trust technology to develop an understanding of their scope of policy and to filter out legislation that they need not be aware of. Depending on their level of safety and need for efficiency, they should also be able to widen or narrow these filters. Doing so helps to find a balanced discovery process that works best for their team. 

Predictive Analysis for Policy Changes

Of course, policy professionals must go beyond identifying important legislation. They also must to track and, sometimes, influence it on its way to passage. Relationship-building and strategy development are important in this aspect of public policy work. Neither is optimal for AI intervention. They require customization and precision without a source of cleanly organized data to learn from. But those with an understanding of legislative history and patterns, as well as a lot of data, can unlock analysis about the future of legislation. 

Plural uses machine learning to identify whether a new proposal has been considered before. Users can analyze the history of a previous iteration and identify whether the new version is destined for the same fate. Of course, many lobbyists who’ve spent decades in the state house are able to do similar calculations by memory. However, only with AI enables the ability to do so consistently, across every bill and every legislature in the country.

Again, this is the power of AI. AI makes individually small, informed decisions on a grand scale. It allows policy professionals to prioritize their focus where it matters most.

Personalized Communication

AI is a democratizing force. It possesses the ability to customize information for the intended audience of that information. While currently imperfect, AI has already built on the ability to make complex subjects highly digestible. When properly utilized, AI tools can do the same for any public policy workflow.

Plural’s AI bill summarizer is already being used by advocacy organizations. These organizations want to involve community members in their policy work, but find that they are justifiably intimidated by the format and content of legislation. Tools built with this audience in mind deliver the necessary information, and make it actionable for those receiving it. For public policy professionals, this clear “translation” of information could save time and effort. It can also improve the impact of those communications. This is true whether they’re customizing communications for constituents, legislators, internal stakeholders, or community members.

Get Started With Plural

Plural is the policy tracking, stakeholder engagement, and legislative intelligence tool of choice for those looking to incorporate AI into their public policy workflows. Top government relations and advocacy tools trust Plural as their public policy AI tool. With Plural, you’ll:

• Access superior public policy data 
• Be the first to know about new bills and changes in bill status
• Streamline your day with seamless organization features
• Harness the power of time-saving AI tools to gain insights into individual bills and the entire legislative landscape
• Keep everyone on the same page with internal collaboration and external reporting all in one place

Interested in getting started? Book a demo today!

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