Apple’s AI-Generated Summaries: A New Challenge for Political Outreach via Texting and Email Campaigns
Apple’s recent iOS 18.3 update introduced AI-powered features that automatically generate preview texts and summaries for emails and text messages. While these tools aim to enhance user experience, the feature has been shown to generate inaccurate or inconsistent summaries of emails and texts, presenting challenges for political or advocacy campaign outreach via texting efforts and email marketing.
When launching a texting program for fundraising, activation, or persuasion, the use of specific verbiage is crucial. Altering that copy in any way can skew the message or even depict a false narrative. In a world where carefully crafted messaging is tested among audiences and specifically tailored to particular groups – losing context, key messaging points, or call-to-action phrases is problematic and can affect the validity of the effort. Additionally, Apple has stated that these features are personalized to each device, meaning the same message could be summarized differently for each user. This makes it difficult to even test or hone in on a possible summary that would be served to the user.
Currently, the 18.3 update is only available on iPhone 15 and above. While many users may not have the update yet, or won’t for some time, now is the time to start exploring solutions or possible workarounds.
As AI continues to shape how we communicate, campaigns need to adapt to the ever-changing space. By keeping up with these changes and tweaking strategies as needed, we can avoid potential pitfalls and keep audiences engaged.
