Political Campaigns Deploy AI Chatbots to Text Voters at Scale

Political campaigns are deploying AI-powered chatbots that impersonate candidates in text message conversations with voters, conducting thousands of personalized exchanges simultaneously while collecting detailed data about voter priorities.

Aaron Sheeks, CEO of Akillion, an AI platform for running custom language models, said many current clients are political candidates. The technology allows campaigns to field an "AI employee" capable of answering voter questions on topics ranging from police reform to tax policy, he told NPR.

How the technology works

Campaigns typically send an initial human-written text message to voters. When recipients respond, AI systems take over the conversation. Tom Carroll, CEO of AI texting platform Convos, said his company coaches campaigns to keep messages brief—introduce the bot, then ask a question to spark dialogue.

Convos launched last year supporting 10 political campaigns and aims to work with over 100 this cycle, having reached roughly half that target so far. Marty Santalucia, a partner at Vector Political, reported sending 2.5 million AI-powered text messages this year, generating 20,000 to 30,000 conversations. Between 5-10% of recipients respond to texts, with 10-20% of those engaging in 10 or more message exchanges.

Why it matters

This technology represents a fundamental shift in how campaigns gather voter intelligence and test messaging. AI bots can conduct what amounts to focus groups at unprecedented scale, learning voter concerns in real time and adapting campaign strategy accordingly. The approach also raises questions about transparency and consent—voters may not realize they're sharing preferences with an algorithm designed to persuade them.

Partisan divide in adoption

Republican campaigns are embracing AI texting more rapidly than Democratic ones, according to multiple sources. Eric Wilson, a Republican strategist and director of the Center for Campaign Innovation, said generative AI "helps campaigns do more with less." He attributed the partisan gap partly to Democratic concerns about AI's environmental impact and effects on labor—issues less prominent in Republican politics.

A Pew Research Center survey showed Democrats express less confidence than Republicans in government's ability to regulate AI effectively.

Ethical concerns and regulation

Traditional political texting companies have raised ethical objections to AI-powered voter conversations. Josh Justice, CEO of peer-to-peer texting platform Peerly, argued campaigns should immediately disclose when voters are talking to bots, though he acknowledged such disclaimers "defeat the purpose" of the technology.

Nathan Rifkin, co-CEO at progressive tech firm Scale to Win, warned that chatbots can provide false information or be manipulated into making offensive statements in a candidate's voice.

Some states have begun requiring disclosure. North Dakota and California mandate that campaigns tell recipients if they're communicating with virtual assistants in the first message. New Jersey is considering similar requirements for AI-generated election information.

Campaigns using the technology remain reluctant to discuss it publicly. Santalucia acknowledged the reticence stems partly from competitive advantage but also because "it's very muddy in terms of where public perception is going to fall on this tool."

Jessica Alter, co-founder of Tech for Campaigns, a nonprofit helping Democrats adopt digital techniques, questioned whether AI should be used to "rescue channels that people already hate," suggesting the technology is better applied to finding entirely new ways to reach voters.

These details were first reported by NPR.