Context engineering is the practice of giving AI the right background information so it produces relevant, accurate outputs. For public affairs professionals, this means providing policy context, stakeholder details, timelines, and objectives so the AI understands the environment and delivers briefings, messages, and analysis aligned with real-world political and organisational dynamics.

A large language model is an AI system trained on vast amounts of text to understand and generate human-like language. For public affairs professionals, it means faster research, drafting, and analysis across policy, media, and stakeholder communications, while requiring careful oversight to ensure accuracy, confidentiality, and alignment with organisational strategy and messaging.

Agentic AI and automation refer to AI systems that can plan, decide, and execute multi-step tasks with minimal supervision. For public affairs professionals, this means AI that can monitor policy developments, draft briefings, coordinate outreach, and update reports automatically, improving efficiency while requiring human oversight to ensure accuracy, ethics, and strategic alignment.

AI agents are systems that can independently perform tasks, make decisions, and interact with tools based on goals you set. For public affairs professionals, agents can monitor policy developments, draft briefings, schedule outreach, and compile reports, acting like digital assistants that increase efficiency while still requiring human oversight for strategy and accuracy.

Claude, developed by Anthropic, is widely known for handling very long documents, careful reasoning, and a strong focus on safety and alignment. Many users find it particularly effective for analysing lengthy policy papers, reports, and complex briefings where nuance and context matter.

ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, is known for versatility, speed, and strong performance across a wide range of tasks such as drafting, brainstorming, research, coding, and automation workflows. It integrates with many tools and supports custom instructions, making it useful for building repeatable processes, content systems, and day-to-day productivity support for public affairs teams.