AI Open Mic

A monthly virtual series where organizers, technologists, and campaigners share the real-world AI experiments shaping campaigns and movements today.

About the series

AI Open Mic
Hosted by Higher Ground Institute with Analyst Institute and Research Collaborative, this free monthly series features practitioners building AI-integrated programs, tools, and infrastructure across the progressive ecosystem. Since November 2023, it has brought together more than 2,000 attendees.

Heard: 1:1 Listening to Build Trust
Jordan Usdan of Heard Civic will demo an AI-powered listening approach for direct voter and constituent conversations.
Using AI Agents with NGP VAN Interface (MCP / CLI)
Sunil Sadasivan will discuss NGP VAN's closed-beta MCP and ways AI agents can interact with campaign data.
How Text Analysis Unlocks Your Comment Section
Ben Resnik of Social Currant will cover using natural-language processing and generative AI to understand online audience frames.
Building Custom Syncs with AI, for Cheap
Hannah Fine and Alex Barbieri will share how a small advocacy organization built integrations among Action Network, EveryAction, and New Mode.
A Political AI Field Guide
Kate Gage will map six political factions shaping AI policy and the conflicts around data centers, open-source AI, and surveillance.

July 2026: Answer-engine and campaign experiments
Presenters from Tech for Campaigns, CrowdBlue, Blue Rose Research, and others shared AEO experiment results, AI campaign coaching, synthetic respondents, and field-program infrastructure.
June 2026: AI playbooks, clipping, and data access
Higher Ground Institute, Civis, Chorus, and Community Tech Alliance discussed practical playbooks, media strategy, audience building, fundraising timing, and verified natural-language data queries.
May 2026: Public opinion, agents, and organizing
Blue Rose Research, Agent Factory, Daisychain, Tavern Research, and Democracy Labs covered public opinion, agentic campaign workflows, SMS conversations, rapid polling, and privacy-preserving alerts.
April 2026: AI infrastructure and candidate visibility
Sessions featured Higher Ground Labs, Ask Aya, Engine9, Outcry AI, CampSight, and Caucus AI on investment, worker-facing tools, privacy, and Answer Engine Optimization.