Generative AI Prompts to Maximize Efficiency in Government Affairs Using PolicyNote

Imagine turning hours of mundane policy analysis into minutes of effortless insight. In government affairs, where human connection and strategic influence reign supreme, artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the way professionals manage their workload. The future is here, and it’s powered by generative AI tools like PolicyNote.

We’re not talking about generic, out-of-the-box AI. We’re focusing on AI that speaks policy. The AI Assistant in PolicyNote can quickly summarize large bills, analyze potential impacts, build outlines, and develop content. The information you receive is pulled only from up-to-date, verified sources using FiscalNote's proprietary data.

"In a world where our users are constantly challenged to achieve more with fewer resources, the AI Assistant’s initial capabilities represent a game-changer for government affairs,” says Cesar Perez, senior product manager for the PolicyNote AI Assistant. “As we gather user feedback and identify additional use cases, we remain committed to continuous improvement and expansion of PolicyNote's AI features.” 

This comprehensive guide will explore how harnessing generative AI can drastically enhance efficiency, freeing up valuable time for what truly matters: building relationships, advocating for change, and leading impactful conversations.

From best practices and actionable templates to tips for optimizing AI interactions, discover how you can accelerate everyday tasks such as bill analysis, crafting position statements, and mapping stakeholders with unparalleled precision and speed.

Table of Contents

• How to Excel in Your Career Using AI Tools
• Government Affairs Generative AI Best Practices
• Search Bills More Easily & Efficiently
• Understand a Bill’s Context and Potential Impact
• Explore Topics and Themes Across Legislation
• Bill Summary & Analysis
• Write Position Statements that Resonate
• Draft Communications
• Map Stakeholders With Ease

How to Excel in Your Career Using AI Tools

Generative AI tools like those in PolicyNote save time by performing tasks in seconds and developing ideas that humans might overlook.

“Often, public affairs functions have to pick and choose the policies they focus on because they just don’t have the resources to analyze everything. Bringing AI into it, they can follow many more policy proposals and files,” says Stephen Massey, director at Anordea, a corporate affairs advisory firm.

According to FiscalNote’s State of Government Affairs 2025 Report, 58 percent of government affairs professionals are very open to using AI tools. Increased familiarity with AI, along with better resources for proper usage and dedicated time for experimentation, has significantly enhanced its appeal and integration in the workplace over the last year.

There are many ways to use AI in government affairs, including bill analysis and summary, bill comparison, discovering trends and tracking behavior, and creating and editing content. Our report found that the most popular use of AI is content generation (reports, speeches, policy briefs, etc.) while providing data analysis and insights, bill analysis and summary, and brainstorming help are also common uses. 

“AI is an incredibly useful tool that is great at synthesizing large amounts of information,” says Kodiak Hill-Davis, SVP of government affairs at the Niskanen Center. Her team has used AI for speechwriting, synthesizing positions they have taken, ensuring consistency, and creating first drafts of one-pagers to get a jumpstart.

It’s helpful to lean on AI for research, analysis, writing, and breaking down large sets of data and input, but “I don’t see it replacing the interpersonal relationships that are necessary to do this job well,” she adds. Rather, AI can free up time for government affairs professionals to do more of the work they enjoy. “I don’t want to write a speech, I want to be in the room talking to people,” Hill-Davis says.

For government affairs, PolicyNote is an AI-powered platform that can speed up the tasks of tracking, understanding, and briefing on complex policy. This means less time digging through documents and more time advancing your agenda.

Government Affairs Generative AI Best Practices

When interacting with PolicyNote’s AI assistant, approach it with the same conversational tone you would with another human. Maintaining this conversational style can foster a more natural exchange and produce the best result. Treating the assistant as a conversational partner helps ensure clearer communication, so feel free to express yourself naturally and engage in dialogue as if you were speaking with a coworker.

You should also be as specific as possible with your prompts for the best results. Instead of “Tell me about healthcare bills,” try, “Tell me about federal healthcare bills from 2024 focusing on provisions related to prescription drug pricing.” You can also start with more general queries about a topic, then use the information to ask more specific questions to get to the heart of what matters to your team. For example:

• What major education bills have been introduced in Congress this year?
• Tell me more about the bills focusing on student loan reform.
• What specific provisions does this bill have regarding interest rates? 

If you’re using PolicyNote to draft communications, keep in mind that your messages will likely need to be edited to add a personal, human touch. However, with a few edits, you can have a speech outline or email draft ready much faster than starting from scratch.

Search Bills More Easily & Efficiently

With PolicyNote, you can query policies using natural language, accessing tailored insights that are directly relevant to their unique contexts. This simplifies the process and makes it easier than figuring out how to use Boolean connectors (e.g., “and”, “or”), or even keyword searches.

“You don’t have to be an expert in research to find what’s important to you,” says Jennifer Duran, PolicyNote’s Director of Product Management. “We have a chat-style, plain English search capability that is AI-assisted.”

Here’s an example (note that the AI Assistant won’t always give the exact same responses, even if the question is worded the same):

Understand a Bill’s Context and Potential Impact

Let’s say you want more information on one of the Iowa bills related to ethanol mentioned above, to see whether it will impact your organization.

You can further refine their search from there, all in the chat, and ask questions of the AI assistant to provide more context. “With the generative AI experience throughout PolicyNote, the answers are tailored to the individual,” says Fallon Farmer, principal data scientist for PolicyNote. “Based on what they're asking, users can get specific answers that relate to portions of policy that they care about.” 

Explore Topics and Themes Across Legislation

If you don’t have a specific bill in mind that you’d like to learn about, you can explore topics that might be of interest to you, or analyze themes across multiple bills and issue areas. This can help uncover trends or issue areas you may not be aware of. 

Now, you can use the AI assistant to paint a broader picture of a particular issue: 

Bill Summary & Analysis

When considering a particular piece of legislation, generative AI can analyze the policy, refine insights, and analyze impact. Summarizing and understanding the key details of a bill can take hours, especially when the bill is hundreds (or thousands) of pages long. 

With AI assistance, you can understand the bill in minutes, and even get a personalized context for your industry or organization and how it might be impacted. Here are some prompts you can use to help understand a bill: 

• Summarize this bill.
• What are the key provisions of this bill?
• Please provide an overview of this bill’s timeline.
• I work in [INDUSTRY] and my company is concerned with [ISSUE AREA]. How might this bill affect my company?
• What implications could this bill have for the [YOUR INDUSTRY] industry? 

Here’s an example. 

Write Position Statements that Resonate

PolicyNote can create a position statement from scratch if you give it the relevant background

Information and help tailor that position statement to various stakeholder groups without needing to rewrite it from scratch every time.

“Rather than just having one position statement, if you’re looking to engage with an NGO, think tank, or a policymaker who’s a Republican or a Democrat, you can tailor your position statements to them,” says Massey. “It’s still your position, but it’s speaking in the same kind of narratives that will support their underlying positions, political ideologies, and core messages.”

PolicyNote makes it fast to draft position statements and frame the potential impacts of a bill, whether your organization supports or opposes it. Here are some prompts to get you started: 

• Draft a position in opposition of this bill.
• Generate opposing and supporting arguments for this bill.
• Brainstorm potential positive and negative impacts for [YOUR INDUSTRY OR ORGANIZATION].
• Draft a position paper explaining why [YOUR INDUSTRY] would support or oppose these, based on these impacts.

Draft Communications

Beyond answering questions and making searches easy, PolicyNote is transforming how users prepare for briefings, gather talking points, and write communications about a particular topic or piece of legislation. Once you deem an issue a priority, the AI Assistant helps generate starting points for documents, summaries, statements, and emails in seconds that would otherwise take hours to write. 

Most emails are just a quick read and reply, so AI likely isn’t going to save a lot of time in those instances. When you need a detailed message that provides updates to stakeholders, however, PolicyNote can lend a hand. 

For instance, after determining a bill is a priority for your organization, you can prompt the AI assistant:

• Draft an email in support of this bill I can send to advocates via VoterVoice.
• Generate talking points in opposition to this bill.
• Write an outline for a 15-minute speech to stakeholders about the potential implications of this bill.
• Create a call to action opposing this bill.
• Write a brief social media post for [YOUR ORGANIZATION] to encourage our supporters to contact their legislators supporting this bill. 

Here’s an example:  

If the first result from the AI Assistant didn’t hit the mark, ask it to refine its answer. Here are some ways to do that: 

• Rewrite this email from the point of view of a healthcare worker.
• Please use more formal language.
• Rewrite this email to make it more concise.
• Use no more than three bullet points in this email.
• Write a more eye-catching, engaging subject line for the email. 

Another valuable service that PolicyNote can provide is producing a variety of eye-catching subject line options to help improve your open and click rates.

Map Stakeholders With Ease

When it comes to identifying allies, opponents, and people who may be affected by policy changes, you should unlock the potential of PolicyNote. 

“There are so many stakeholders out there that organizations could collaborate with. To understand their priorities, it would take so long to go through the different consultation documents,” says Massey. “Using generative AI, you’re able to assess a lot of them much quicker.” 

If you input the relevant information, PolicyNote can create a rough stakeholder map, which is a good place to start. Combining PolicyNote’s outputs with a stakeholder engagement matrix, which allows for labeling, goal-setting, and easily managing stakeholders, can save you valuable time on your stakeholder mapping tasks.

How Can PolicyNote Improve Your Workflow? 

For government affairs professionals who are challenged to become more efficient with fewer resources, PolicyNote makes it easier to perform standard, time-consuming tasks, while also enabling you to expand the value you provide your organization by generating and delivering deeper intelligence and analysis. 

PolicyNote customers not only go beyond tracking policy, they can rapidly generate and deliver effective communication about learnings, risks, opportunities, and other impacts of policy. 

Speed through mundane workflows that must happen to make priority decisions, see policy items through the lifecycle, get to taking action faster, and demonstrate your team's results with PolicyNote.