9 AI Prompts for Public Affairs Professionals Who Want Better Thinking, Not Just Faster Drafting
Discover 9 practical AI prompts for public affairs professionals to improve policy messaging, pressure-test arguments, anticipate objections, and communicate more clearly with EU stakeholders.
“What is the single weakest sentence in this briefing, and how would you fix it?”
This is a prompt I would probably never have come up with myself.
And yet, it is exactly the kind of question that makes AI useful for public affairs work.
Not because it writes the briefing for you.
But because it helps you test the thinking behind it.
A lot of AI use in public affairs still focuses on speed: summarise this, draft that, turn this into an email. Useful, yes. But not the whole story.
The real value is when AI helps you pressure-test your message before someone else does.
A policymaker.
A journalist.
A Commission official.
A sceptical attaché.
A client.
A colleague in the meeting who spots the weak point before you do.
So here are 9 AI prompts for public affairs professionals who want better thinking, not just faster drafting:
- Rewrite this message so it would survive a hostile question from an MEP in the relevant EP committee.
- List the 5 strongest objections a Commission desk officer at [DG] would raise to this proposal, then tighten the argument.
- Translate this policy language into something a national journalist would not misinterpret.
- What is the single weakest sentence in this briefing, and how would you fix it?
- Adapt this message for a sceptical Permanent Representation official who is short on time.
- Strip this text of buzzwords and replace them with concrete, defensible claims.
- Assume the audience is politically neutral but institutionally risk-averse, rewrite accordingly.
- What is the hidden assumption in this argument that could be challenged in a meeting?
- Reduce this to a 30-second spoken answer that sounds credible and not rehearsed.
The point is not to let AI do your public affairs work for you.
The point is to use it as a sparring partner.
To make your arguments clearer.
To make your messages harder to misread.
To find the sentence that sounds fine until someone challenges it.
To prepare for the question you hope no one asks.
That is where AI becomes genuinely useful.
Not as a shortcut around expertise.
But as a tool that helps you use your expertise better.
Stop Using AI for Answers. Start Using It for Better Questions
Discover why the real power of AI isn’t in providing answers, but in helping you ask better questions, uncover blind spots, and explore alternative perspectives for smarter decision-making.
Picasso once said: "Computers are useless, they can only give you answers."
That was true in his time, and still true today if you only use AI as a search ("answer") engine.
The real value is in the questions we ask:
- see blind spots in our reasoning ("Identify hidden biases or blind spots in my plan.)
- test assumptions we didn’t know we had ("Highlight my explicit or implicit assumptions.")
- explore alternative framings of the same problem ("How can this problem be viewed from multiple angles? How would a manager, a psychologist, a physicist, and musician look at it?") Or take these for example:
- Instead of asking “What’s the EU’s position on AI regulation?” try “What unintended consequences could the EU AI Act have for small startups?”
- Instead of “Summarize this report,” try “What’s missing from this report that an NGO focusing on circular economy could ask?”
- Instead of “Write a press release,” try “What would make this story credible to a skeptical journalist?”
AI doesn’t (and shouldn't) replace thinking. Just be sure to ask it the right way.
➡️ looking for AI workshops for your team? Influence Builders has trained 1500+ corporate and government affairs teams, and we'll be glad to work with you.
AI on LinkedIn: Hype, Hysteria, or Honest Insight?
A wry look at the LinkedIn AI conversation: from overhyped promises to doomsday takes, existential musings, and magical shortcuts. Where does reality meet rhetoric?
I get the impression that each time someone talks about AI on Linkedin, it's either:
- "oh this is such a hype/BS that only grifters talk about it"
- "you can go sit on a beach, it'll do everything for/instead of you"
- "whatever it churns out, it's a piece of cr*p that should be ridiculed"
- "here is some existential AI philosophy that I just invented"
- "a magic shortcut to hack your way to the top of the newsfeed"
- "it's the end of [name topic] and let's despair OR here is what to do about it"
- "this is revolutionary and the best of all worlds is about to come"
(I am guilty as charged of some of the above, I readily admit.)
Did I miss anything else?
p.s.: and the opportunistic plug, as the plus one: check out Influence Builders
WASBAR
What’s the connection between a washing machine and shakshuka?
What’s the connection between a washing machine and shakshuka? In short: a smart business strategy. While students at the UCL campus wash their laundry (and have to wait), they can enjoy a nice café. There is tremendous value at the crossroads: combining two seemingly separate topics/expertise/service so it can lead to unexpected success. It’s like a chemist friend who also had a degree in law: patent attorney. They say that is creativity: taking two known things and combining it in a whole novel way. Good luck WASBAR !
Science & Policy Communicators, Take Note
In a randomized, controlled, pre-registered study GPT-4 was better able to change people’s minds during a conversational debate than other humans.
Science & policy communicators, take note:“
In a randomized, controlled, pre-registered study GPT-4 was better able to change people’s minds during a conversational debate than other humans, at least when it is given access to personal information about the person it is debating (people given the same information were not more persuasive). The effects were significant: the AI increased the chance of someone changing their mind by 87% over a human debater. This might be why a second paper found that GPT-4 could accomplish a famously difficult conversational task: arguing with conspiracy theorists. That controlled trial found that a three-round debate, with GPT-4 arguing the other side, robustly lowers conspiracy theory beliefs. Even more surprisingly, the effects persist over time, even for true believers.
Source:
Ethics in AI and Advocacy
#Ethics in #AI and #advocacy is not an ivory tower problem.
#Ethics in #AI and #advocacy is not an ivory tower problem.
If, before a meeting with a public official, MEP, Member of Congress I feed their (publicly available ) profile information into GPT and prompt "Tell me 5 ways I can present my arguments [on topic X] in a persuasive way that will resonate with this person's political views", I get helpful and relevant ideas which probably stay within the ethical boundaries.
But if I add various other background information about that person that I'm aware of (their personality type, their hobbies, food taste, or other much more sensitive info, including rumours about them, e.g. "this person is vain, loses his temper quickly, loves Italian wine and he has had multiple harassment claims against him from his assistants, so I want you to adapt the suggested arguments in a way that considers his psychological profile"), into the prompt (which may then train the larger algorithm, unless I deliberately turn it off), that can give me far more "relevant" (useful/effective) arguments but it's hardly ethical.
Of course, it's possible to do exactly the same anonymously and use a 'fictional' persona in my prompt while keeping all input data the same. That takes the odium from the person but it doesn't change the moral dilemma about these methods.Not sure what the takeaway is, but it's definitely an issue worth exploring deeper.
Thoughts?
EU Ordinary Legislative Procedure (OLP)
This flowchart about the #EU Ordinary Legislative Procedure (OLP) was generated by a few simple prompts in #ChatGPT.
This flowchart about the #EU Ordinary Legislative Procedure (OLP) was generated by a few simple prompts in #ChatGPT. It only took 3 minutes.
How?
(You can also do any process chart that is already documented, be it corporate, regulatory, or other.)
1. Prompt: "Create a step by step description of [the European Union's ordinary legislative procedure], paying attention to all details."
2. Prompt: "Create a flowchart from this, placing related steps together."
3. Prompt: "Create from these steps a mermaid code."
4. Click on "Copy code" in the black box.5. Open in a new tab the site draw.io
6. Click "Decide later", then Look for the "+" sign on screen
7. Click "Advanced", choose "Mermaid", select all what's there, then paste the code you had copied from ChatGPT
8. BINGO!—
UPDATE: as Pierpaolo Settembri pointed out, the end result is not very accurate - the lesson learned is that I relied on the publicly available information instead of providing a specific source, ie the Treaty or our eucourse.eu e-learning course script, which has the entire process properly laid out. I will rerun the experiment with a better data set 🙌
(Interested in learning more about this or training your team? Stay tuned or get in touch ✌️#EUGPT , cc Jacques, Alan, Influence Builders Academy)
I Love EU
It was a historic day on 1 May 2004.
It was a historic day on 1 May 2004 that my country, along with 9 others (and another 3 in the subsequent years) joined the European Union. It wasn't about funds, regional policy, competition law rules or job prospects. All of those are important, but the most important is the *idea* of the European Union. That countries like mine and so many others will be anchored to what we might call "West", or "liberal democracy", a certain way of doing politics/policies that has proven to maximize human well-being on a societal scale. It's often inefficient, bureaucratic, slow, annoying and falls short of expectations. But it's still the only way forward. Its raison d'être should never be called into question while it should be constructively criticised and improved every single day. #iloveEU
Perceptions of Journalists
Time for some introspection and/or a different business model.
Time for some introspection and/or a different business model. #journalism #politics (study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism)
Crafting Your Inner Universe and Shaping the World
Words can shape the world.
Words can shape the world but more importantly, they create your own inner universe too. They are your superpower. Use them wisely, use them for good. Tomorrow it’s TEDxKULeuvenBrussels where I’m excited to share my message, illustrated by the wonderful visuals created by Martin Tomov.
The Eurobarometer
The 2024 #Eurobarometer survey, focusing on the European Parliament elections has just been released.
The 2024 #Eurobarometer survey, focusing on the European Parliament elections, has just been released (https://lnkd.in/eWQfyzqV). You can upload the entire survey into #chatGPT or Perplexity.ai to ask questions and request advice. Here are 3 prompts you may want to try:
1. "Analyze the attached document. If I'm a liberal candidate in France for the European Parliament, what are the 5 main topics I should speak about to make sure it resonates with potential voters? How should I frame my message, taking into account the 'moral foundations' framework for better persuasion?"
2. "Using the survey's findings, I want to run an advocacy campaign in Greece to raise awareness about rare diseases and to encourage political support to increase funding for research in this field. Based on voters' concerns in that country, how should I present my arguments for maximum effect, also taking into account possible objections in my positive messaging?"
3. "Take the survey's findings for the Visegrád countries (HU, CZ, SK, PL) and suggest 5 ideas to include in a position paper. You represent a German car parts manufacturer and want to focus on voters and MEPs from that region to emphasize the importance of competitive salaries, investment in production facilities and smooth supply chains against the backdrop of deindustrialisation."
If you have interesting prompt ideas for public affairs professionals, please put it in the comments.
(Found this helpful? Feel free to share it. Stay tuned for our upcoming #EUGPT workshops with Jacques) cc Maria, Alan, Paul, Influence Builders Academy.
EU Essentials
New EUcourse.eu module coming soon.
New EUcourse.eu module coming soon: "EU Essentials", including the 'cost of non-Europe' and about 40+ EU terms, expressions, and concepts. This is added to the recent module on #EEAS (European External Action Service) which includes a section on #FIMI (Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference). Check out the free preview on the site above. Stay tuned.
Featured articles
and Insights
This compilation takes us through the history of the first #EPSO candidates, showcasing their journey and achievements from the very beginning to the present day—and even looking ahead.
A compilation of the first #EPSO candidates throughout history, until today and beyond.
(Have you played with ChatGPT-4o's new image capabilities? Pretty impressive.)
*This was originally posted on Andras Baneth's LinkedIn account.
Discover the inspiring story behind The Ultimate EU Handbook, a book born from the unexpected connection of a chance pitch and years of creative collaboration.
20 years ago, John Harper said 'yes' to an unknown person's unsolicited book pitch, which set of a chain of positive events. Yesterday, another book came to be as a result of two years' intense work and creativity of Sonia Gongu, Martin Tomov, Ljiljana Pavkov... and 'The Ultimate EU Handbook' was born.
Special thanks to Maryana Panyevina, Klym Ahrykov and David Meszaros for your support to make the launch event at Ambiorix Center & Podcast Studio special.
🇪🇺🙏📚
*This was originally posted on Andras Baneth's LinkedIn account.
What began as a discussion about burnout quickly turned into an exploration of something deeper. In my conversation with Dr. Vasadi Anna, a psychiatrist with decades of experience, it became clear that burnout isn’t just about long hours or stress—it’s rooted in expectations, upbringing, and the invisible pressures we internalize from an early age.
English summary of the latest episode of András' Hungarian podcast, 'Lélek Algoritmus – Ilyen az ember (avagy beszélgetések egy pszichiáterrel)' – 'The Soul’s Algorithm: The Human Condition (Conversations with a Psychiatrist).
What began as a discussion about burnout quickly turned into an exploration of something deeper. In my conversation with Dr. Vasadi Anna, a psychiatrist with decades of experience, it became clear that burnout isn’t just about long hours or stress—it’s rooted in expectations, upbringing, and the invisible pressures we internalize from an early age.
Burnout: More Than Just Exhaustion
Burnout gets thrown around a lot, but what does it actually mean? Many assume it’s just extreme fatigue, but as Anna pointed out, it’s something deeper. Burnout drains you emotionally, mentally, and even physically. It’s not the kind of tiredness that a weekend off can fix.
A key distinction Anna made: while depression can affect every part of life, burnout is usually tied to work. But it doesn’t stay there. It spreads—first to colleagues, then to family, then to an overall sense of disillusionment.
The Perfectionist’s Trap
Burnout isn’t just about overworking—it’s about overworking with the wrong mindset. People who push themselves too hard, who never feel their efforts are enough, who equate self-worth with productivity—these are the most at risk.
A common misconception: If I love my work, I can’t burn out. But passion doesn’t shield you. In fact, it often makes things worse. Overcommitting, ignoring personal limits, and relying on caffeine or alcohol to keep up are all red flags.
The Long Shadow of Childhood Expectations
Why do some people burn out while others keep their balance? Often, it starts in childhood.
Many of us grow up believing that our worth is tied to achievement. If we didn’t excel, love and approval felt conditional. Some parents—often unknowingly—reinforce this by setting impossibly high standards or withholding affection when a child falls short. Over time, this creates a need for external validation, making burnout almost inevitable.
Take elite athletes. Their entire identity is wrapped up in performance. When they lose, it’s not just a setback—it feels like a loss of personal value. The same happens in workplaces. A high achiever who misses a promotion doesn’t just feel professional disappointment—they feel like they have failed as a person.
Midlife Crisis: Burnout of the Soul
This naturally led us to midlife crisis, which, in many ways, is burnout playing out on a larger scale.
Both stem from the same root: spending years chasing external markers of success without stopping to ask, Is this what I actually want?
The midlife crisis tends to hit in the 40s or early 50s, often when several pressures collide:
- Aging Parents: The growing responsibility of caring for elderly parents forces many to confront their own mortality.
- Teenage Children: At the same time, kids are becoming more independent, adding another layer of emotional complexity.
- Career Pressures: By midlife, most people have built careers, but many start questioning if they’re on the right path.
It’s a perfect storm of obligations, internal and external, that makes people reevaluate everything—from their job to their marriage to their purpose.
Finding a Way Forward
So, how do we deal with burnout and midlife crisis without making rash decisions?
- Rethink Success – Instead of measuring success by salary, job title, or external validation, define it in terms of fulfillment and balance. If your work is draining you, can it really be called success?
- Recognize the Warning Signs – Losing interest in work, feeling detached, and struggling to muster enthusiasm are all early signs of burnout.
- Set Boundaries – Work will always demand more. It’s up to you to decide what is enough.
- Address Deep-Seated Patterns – If your self-worth depends on achievement, it might be time to rethink where that belief came from. Therapy and self-reflection can help break the cycle.
- Embrace Change – A midlife crisis isn’t necessarily a crisis—it can be a wake-up call. Maybe it’s time for a career shift, a realignment of priorities, or simply a different perspective.
Final Thoughts
Burnout and midlife crisis aren’t just work problems or age-related phases. They’re signals—urgent ones—telling us that something needs to change. The real question isn’t How do I push through? but Am I living a life that actually fits me?
If the answer is no, maybe the crisis isn’t a disaster. Maybe it’s an opportunity.
