The Struggles of A.I. Adoption in Political Campaigns

The Challenge of A.I. in Political Campaigns

Matthew Diemer, a Democratic candidate contending for a seat in Ohio’s Seventh Congressional District, was approached by the artificial intelligence firm Civox in January with an intriguing offer. They proposed a cutting-edge A.I.-driven voice technology capable of making tens of thousands of personalized phone calls to voters, utilizing Mr. Diemer’s unique talking points and humorous style.

Intrigued by the potential of this technology, his campaign decided to give it a trial run. However, the results were less than favorable. It quickly became apparent that voters were far less receptive to A.I.-generated calls than traditional robocalls. According to Mr. Diemer, while Civox’s program managed to dial nearly 1,000 voters in just five minutes, the overwhelming majority of them hung up within the first few seconds of hearing that they were conversing with an A.I. volunteer.

“People simply did not want to engage over the phone, and especially recoiled at the prospect of talking to an A.I. program,” remarked Mr. Diemer, who previously ran for the same congressional seat in 2022 without success. “It seems that perhaps the public is not quite ready to embrace this kind of technology just yet.”

This election cycle was anticipated to be the year where A.I. would play a pivotal role in political campaigns. With a surge of A.I. tools such as chatbots and image generators entering the market, over 30 tech companies have introduced A.I.-powered products aimed at national, state, and local political campaigns in recent months. Most of these firms are smaller enterprises like BHuman, VoterVoice, and Poll the People, offering tools designed to optimize voter engagement, enhance campaign communications, automate robocalls, and even create A.I.-generated avatars of candidates for virtual meet-and-greet sessions with constituents.

Despite this wave of technological advancement, campaigns have been largely hesitant to adopt A.I. solutions. Even when they do, the effectiveness of these technologies has been called into question. A mere handful of candidates are currently utilizing A.I. in their campaigns, and even fewer are willing to publicly acknowledge its use. This sentiment was echoed in discussions with 23 tech companies and seven political campaigns. In fact, three of the tech firms reported that campaigns would only proceed with purchasing their A.I. technology under the condition that its usage remained confidential, highlighting the stigma associated with A.I. in the political arena.