The Republican Digital Firm Making a Big Bet on AI

Push Digital Group is going all in on artificial intelligence.

The Republican digital and marketing firm is launching Push AI, a suite of AI enhancements to its advertising operations. The move marks one of the most significant steps yet by an established political firm to integrate AI into its core business.

Push AI isn’t a singular product, the firm’s managing partner Phil Vangelakos told C&E, but rather a sweeping initiative across all of PDG’s companies to integrate AI “into every aspect” of the firm’s work. Vangelakos said it’s an acknowledgment of the reality political firms are facing in 2025: AI is here to stay and practitioners will have to adapt or risk obsolescence.

“If you’re just starting to have the conversation about AI, you’re going to be left behind,” Vangelakos said. “I don’t say that fatalistically. But the tech bros won, and it’s up to politics to adapt.”

AI technology is already being put to use in the politics business. A survey released last month by the American Association of Political Consultants found that most practitioners are already using AI in some way, shape or form as part of their work. 

Last cycle, some firms made concerted efforts to integrate AI into their workflows for tasks like analyzing and summarizing research, while the industry saw the launch of AI tools like Quiller, an AI copilot intended to help Democratic campaigns draft and deploy fundraising content.

But many in the industry are still wary of fully embracing the technology. Some fear that it could eventually put media buyers, creatives and strategists out of a job, while others are treading lightly when it comes to AI out of concern that they may run afoul of a growing patchwork of state laws and regulations governing how AI can be used in politics.

A Sink-or-Swim Moment in Politics

Vangelakos acknowledged that there are challenges to fully adopting AI in the politics business. But he argued that practitioners simply don’t have time to take a wait-and-see approach to the technology. AI tech is improving rapidly, he said, and campaigns and causes are already looking at ways to make use of it.

Those who don’t, he argued, are putting themselves at a strategic disadvantage. 

“The thought was it is worth the risk because the technology is so powerful that it’s going to collapse entire firms in this industry,” he said. “When one comm’s person, who has great prompt skills, can replace an entire digital department, it’s an existential threat to the jobs and the profitability of a company like ours. And I think every company needs to take this seriously.” 

In other words, Vangelakos said, “this isn’t a two-year or five-year thing. I think by the 2026 election you’re going to see campaigns fully adopt [AI]. You’re going to see campaigns integrate this into their systems this cycle. It’s happening now.”

PDG isn’t starting its AI initiative from scratch. The firm has already created AI that can launch landing pages for its clients. When that feature is integrated with its advertising operations, Vangelakos said, the AI will be able to launch landing pages with new ad iterations almost instantaneously.

The firm is also able to AI to optimize clients’ posts on X – the social media site formerly known as Twitter – for maximum reach and engagement, Vangelakos said.

AI Bringing in New Business

Vangelakos also said that his firm’s embrace of AI has freed it up to work with campaigns and clients that it wouldn’t have necessarily taken on in the past. While PDG has typically worked on larger statewide races, it’s now working with downballot candidates, because AI tools have helped bring down costs and time commitments, Vangelakos said.

In short, he argued, AI has the ability to “democratize” professional politics.

“A traditional TV guy would charge $20,000 or $30,000 for a production. When that production can be done by AI over the course of a few hours by a single employee, it puts those billable hours in the range of a state house race,” he said. “It would be foolish not to take that work.”

At the end of the day, Vangelakos said that Push AI is about getting ahead of the competition. If one firm doesn’t embrace the technology, he argued, others will. 

“One of the allures of doing this is knowing there is a segment of the political consulting world that is never going to be on board with this,” he said. “And I think that, within this industry, what we’re going to see is the lowering tide will reveal the pants-less man.”