AI adoption in political consulting is accelerating — but is the industry keeping up, or splitting in two? Eric Wilson sits down with Julie Sweet, Director of Advocacy and Industry Relations at the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC), to dig into the findings of AAPC's March 2026 member survey on AI use across the profession. They unpack what real integration looks like versus chatbot-level tinkering, why larger firms are pulling ahead on agentic tools, and what that gap means for smaller consultancies heading into 2028.

Then the conversation shifts to the AAPC Foundation's Disclaimer Effect Study — the first empirical research on how AI disclosures in political advertising actually affect voter trust. The results are striking: slapping an AI disclaimer on an ad, even a traditionally produced one, reliably tanks credibility. And the voters least familiar with the technology are the least helped by the disclaimers designed to protect them.

With 30 states now operating under a patchwork of AI disclosure laws — and two already enjoined on First Amendment grounds — Sweet and Wilson make the case for data-backed policy over reactive regulation, and look ahead to a future where agentic systems aren't just assisting campaigns, they may be running parts of them.

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