Written by Lucy Barkin

What is political tech, really?

Political technology refers to the digital tools and systems used for campaigning, organisation, governance, and public engagement. From voter databases to messaging apps, it's a fast-growing field where politics meets data and design. However, as the industry increases, it becomes more difficult to navigate.

Campaign teams are overwhelmed with tools that promise the world but don’t always deliver in practice.

At Partisan, we work with dozens of political professionals - campaigners, party organisers, digital and data strategists, elected officials' teams - who are clear about what they need: tech that helps them win, organise, and govern, without breaking trust.

Tech that fits campaigns

Campaigns move fast. They don’t have time for training, manuals, or customer support delays. Every new tool risks being too much to handle. 

Yet, too many tools are still designed for enterprise clients, not political teams running on adrenaline.

In Canada's previous election, for example, the most effective teams tailored their outreach tools to local and contextual needs, fine-tuning their tech use for SMS in rural Alberta and Instagram in urban British Columbia. The instruments did not slow them down; rather, they aided their rapid adaptation.

Smart data

Campaigns don’t need more charts, they need clear steps.

Good data tools do more than just visualize information: they provide direction, and assist teams in prioritising, forecasting, and responding promptly to changes in the political environment. 

Take the 2025 campaign in Poland: digital investment doubled, yet visibility did not always equal impact. What was important was not just the volume of insights, but how they were used to steer content, audiences, and platform strategies in real time.

Integration

Most campaign tech stacks are a messy patchwork.

What political professionals truly need is interoperability:a smooth flow between fieldwork, CRM, communications, fundraising, and data insights.

From Romania to Germany, the most effective digital operations in 2025 succeeded by connecting platforms: linking messaging apps like WhatsApp or Slack to field operations and volunteer hubs in real time.

Guidance

Political teams can’t afford to wait 48 hours for a support ticket to resolve itself. When tech fails in the wrong moment - and it will - they need someone who gets it and responds immediately. 

Too many companies offer services without understanding the urgency of the campaign situation.

This is especially relevant when dealing with difficult new terrain, such as AI-generated material or privacy problems. In our most recent AI assessments, the most successful teams asked not "Can I use AI?" but rather "What problem am I solving - and is my data infrastructure strong enough to support it?"

Shared values

Tech companies should support democratic values, not undermine them. Trust, transparency, and accountability are not optional in today’s political contexts.

Across Europe, we’ve been seeing growing concerns about overreliance on US-hosted services and infrastructure. Political teams seek not only security technologies, but also technology that embodies democratic goals such as data protection, accessibility, and ethical artificial intelligence. When values align, so does trust.

Fresh ideas

Reaching people today means speaking their language, visually and culturally. Engaging modern electorates means embracing formats, languages, and cultural codes that resonate today.

The campaigns that stood out in 2025 were those that adapted quickly. In Romania, programmatic ads met expectations while TikTok underperformed, demonstrating that local context trumps generic strategy. Meanwhile, grassroots volunteers drove digital outreach using popular tools such as WhatsApp, Discord, and SoSha - not bots.

What now?

Political professionals are already doing the hard work: knocking on doors, writing speeches, answering crises. What they need from tech isn’t more complexity: it’s clarity, compatibility, and credibility.

At Partisan, we work with a growing network of tools and partners that are changing what’s possible for political professionals across Europe. At our annual Political Tech Summit, we help bring together those building and using technology to win campaigns, organise communities, and shape democracy. 

The future of political tech isn’t just smarter software - it’s solidarity with the people doing the work.