Political campaigns in the United States are developing new strategies to influence how artificial intelligence chatbots describe candidates and their policies, raising questions about transparency and the growing role of AI in democratic elections.
According to a Reuters investigation published Monday, campaign strategists are moving beyond traditional search engine optimization to shape the information that AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini may use when answering voters’ political questions.
The emerging practice, known as Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), involves publishing candidate information across websites and digital platforms that AI systems frequently reference. The objective is to increase a candidate’s visibility and potentially influence how AI assistants compare competing political positions.
Documents reviewed by Reuters outlined a proposed strategy for Mike Minogue, a Republican challenging Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey. The proposal included creating numerous policy pages designed for AI discovery, placing content on influential websites and monitoring chatbot responses to political questions.
The development reflects a significant change in digital campaigning. Political organizations have traditionally concentrated on television advertising, social media platforms and search engines to reach voters. Now, some are also treating AI-generated answers as a new channel for political communication.
The shift comes as voters increasingly consult conversational AI tools for information about candidates, public policies and elections. Cameron Hickey, chief executive of the National Conference on Citizenship, told Reuters that approximately one-quarter of eligible voters have asked a chatbot about a political candidate while making voting decisions.
A growing market of technology consultants is offering campaigns services to monitor and improve their visibility in AI-generated responses. Reuters reported that some comprehensive political AI consulting arrangements could cost as much as $50,000 per month.
However, the practice has also raised concerns about the reliability of political information. AI chatbots can present inaccurate or poorly verified claims in confident language, potentially making it difficult for voters to distinguish trustworthy information from campaign-driven messaging.
Experts expect competition for visibility in AI-generated answers to become increasingly important ahead of the 2028 US presidential election.
The emergence of AI-focused campaign strategies presents a new challenge for election authorities, technology companies and news organizations: ensuring that voters can access accurate political information even as campaigns seek to influence the systems delivering it.
