More than one in four federal lobbyists are now pushing AI-related agendas, according to a new report from Public Citizen—and they are overwhelmingly working for corporate interests seeking to influence federal AI policy, or block state rules over the industry.
According to the report, titled Generative Influence, 3,570 federal lobbyists—comprising 26% of all registered lobbyists in 2025—reported lobbying on artificial intelligence issues last year. The vast majority of the lobbying disclosures analyzed by the watchdog group specifically mentioned AI, with the remainder mentioning autonomous systems or data centers.
Public Citizen researchers found that between 2022 and 2025, the number of lobbyists working on AI issues has exploded, rising by 168%. The surge comes as the AI industry makes an aggressive push for federal preemption in Congress, aiming to override a rise in bipartisan state-level regulations of the technology in areas like deepfake imagery, algorithmic discrimination, biometric surveillance, consumer deception and more.
Despite the potential for AI to significantly displace workers—consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas linked AI to some 55,000 job cuts last year—and its potential to increase economic inequality, Congress has not passed a comprehensive AI regulatory framework. The industry is pressing to enshrine a light-touch regulatory approach, a push reflected in the tens of millions of dollars disclosed in federal lobbying filings. According to the Public Citizen report, lobbying activity on AI issues in 2025 would place it behind only the federal budget, tax, and health care issues in the topics listed on congressional disclosures. More lobbyists were active on AI issues last year than on defense or energy.
“If we assume that even a handful—and that may be generous—of the predictions from the AI industry pans out, it will be a technology that greatly transforms society in a relatively short time,” said Mike Tanglis, a research director for Public Citizen and co-author of the report. “Right now, we are barreling towards a scenario where corporate executives and their hired lobbyists will decide how to implement safety protocols, when to alert authorities about problems, and when to prioritize public interest over profits.
“We’ve done this before,” Tanglis continued. “Wall Street and Silicon Valley lobbyists insisted that the public just couldn’t understand their industry and therefore we must leave it to them to regulate themselves. That didn’t work out well.”
The surge in AI lobbying becomes even clearer when examining the soaring number of lobbyists engaged to influence AI-related policies. Analyzing House lobbying records, researchers found that activity in this area remained relatively steady from 2020 to 2022. At the end of 2022, 1,672 lobbyists were engaged in AI advocacy. By 2025, that number had skyrocketed to 6,110—a 265% increase in just three years, as battles intensified over data center expansion and rising energy demands.
The massive business lobbying group U.S. Chamber of Commerce was at the front of the pack in D.C., letting loose 91 lobbyists on AI issues in 2025. Behind them, the report found, Microsoft employed 63 lobbyists, Meta tapped 55, and Intuit retained 51, with Amazon close behind. Lawmakers and policy makers in Washington D.C. heard about AI issues overwhelmingly from corporations that have committed billions of dollars to the technology: 91 out of the top 100 entities hiring the most AI issue lobbyists were corporations or corporate trade groups, according to Public Citizen’s tally. Many more lobbying entities likely chose to disclose AI-related lobbying activity with a related phrase like “energy infrastructure.”
"Corporate lobbyists should not dictate how Congress regulates a potentially society-transforming technology, especially given that public support for AI regulation is overwhelming,” said Eileen O’Grady, researcher for Public Citizen and report co-author. A September poll from Gallup of more than 3,100 adults found that 97% of Americans support regulating AI. “Congress must respond to calls from their constituents—not corporate lobbyists—to protect communities from the real-world harms of AI."
Data centers have emerged as a major flashpoint over the past two years, reflected in a dramatic surge in targeted lobbying efforts. According to Public Citizen’s analysis, the number of lobbyists explicitly citing data center issues in their filings jumped to 406 in 2025—a more than fivefold increase from just 78 in 2023. That pivotal year marked the public debut of AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT.
K Street firms like Invariant, Mehlman Consulting, and Brownstein Hyatt made millions last year in lobbying revenue on AI issues, according to Bloomberg. In 2025, 11 Big Tech companies shelled out more than $105 million on federal lobbying, with AI issues saturating conversations. By pitching their contacts with lawmakers as educating Capitol Hill offices on a rapidly-evolving technology, academics told the AP, the AI lobbyists have an edge over impartial public-policy groups.
Lobbying is not the only way the AI industry is spending big to shape AI policy: the industry has loaded up super PACs with hundreds of millions of dollars to back their favored candidates in the midterms. One group, Leading the Future, touts a war chest of $125 million, a hefty chunk of it coming from Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI. Other super PACs bankrolled by Meta and Anthropic are teasing their spending intentions—$65 million for the former, $20 million for the latter. Leading the Future’s affiliates have already spent more than $5.1 million on federal races in the 2026 cycle, opposing candidates like New York Assemblymember Alex Bores, co-sponsor of a state AI safety bill. So far, the group’s ads attacking or supporting candidates have mostly made no mention of AI issues, a strategy that mimics the deluge of crypto industry spending last cycle to knock out lawmakers who favored stronger consumer protections.
State lawmakers introduced a wave of over 1,000 AI measures in 2025, as tracked by the National Conference of State Legislatures, with California and New York among the states that enacted laws boosting transparency requirements for large AI companies.
“Congress should establish a strong federal baseline of consumer protections while allowing states to lead with stronger standards if and when federal laws fall short,” said J.B. Branch, Big Tech accountability advocate for Public Citizen.
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