New Report: State Legislative Capacity in the AI Era
Read the report
Today, POPVOX Foundation released State Legislative Capacity in the AI Era, a new report examining how state legislatures are adapting to artificial intelligence and what that reveals about future assessments of legislative capacity.
The report builds on POPVOX Foundation's 2024 report, Representative Bodies in the AI Era, which explored how Congress and parliaments around the world were beginning to adopt AI, and outlined a framework for responsible institutional adoption. This new research examines how America's state legislatures compare two years later.
Grounded in interviews with legislators, legislative staff, and legislative support organizations across 22 states, the report documents how AI is already reshaping legislative work. It explores real-world use cases across bill drafting and analysis, constituent services, communications, legislative research, and institution-specific AI platforms, while examining the institutional conditions that shape whether those innovations spread or remain isolated.
One of the report's central findings is that state legislatures are simultaneously ahead of and behind the trajectory POPVOX Foundation projected in 2024. While some legislatures have developed sophisticated, domain-specific AI tools embedded in legislative workflows, many institutions have yet to establish the governance, guidance, and capacity needed to support broader adoption.
The report also argues that legislative capacity can no longer be understood through staffing levels, salaries, and session length alone. It introduces a new Legislative Adaptive Capacity Index (LACI) that expands the conversation to include institutional knowledge, network relationships, and technology readiness alongside people as essential ingredients for legislative adaptation.
The report concludes with 13 recommendations organized around three priorities: building the institutional foundations for AI adoption, helping legislatures move from experimentation to sustainable implementation, and strengthening governance so AI expands legislative capacity while preserving accountability and public trust.
As AI continues to transform the work of representative institutions, state legislatures have an opportunity to learn from one another while building the capacity needed to govern in a rapidly changing environment.
Read the full report, State Legislative Capacity in the AI Era, at popvox.org/ai-states.
