AI Utilization Tips for Lawmakers Without Secretaries: The Top 5 Draft Tasks to Delegate First

In the caucus office, a young lawmaker said this.

"I had AI draft this."

The activity report he showed me was neatly filled on both sides of an A4 sheet. "It took me 15 minutes," he laughed.

That night, after I got home, I installed the same app on my own smartphone.

The input field glowed stark white. Only the cursor was blinking.

......I didn't know what to type.

I typed three times, and deleted it three times.

In the end, I closed the app, opened Word as usual, and started writing the first line of my activity report by hand. The clock showed 10:30. I didn't finish until after the date had changed.

"Ask me anything" is the most difficult part

If it's a search, I can still type something.

If I enter "[City Name] vacant house subsidy," relevant pages appear. But AI says, "Ask me anything."

This "anything" is what troubles me the most.

I tried it properly just once.

"Tell me about local issues."

What came back was a text that looked like a textbook, listing declining birthrates, aging populations, labor shortages, and vacant house problems. There wasn't a single line about my city.

"Ah, so that's how it is," I thought. I haven't opened the app since.

I should have asked in the office, "How do you use it?" But I couldn't.

Being in my third term, it's honestly embarrassing to be taught from scratch by a junior. I just laughed it off, saying "I'll look into it," and the conversation ended.

Then there were three events on Saturday and a general meeting on Sunday. If I don't submit the draft for the supporters' newsletter by Monday morning, it won't be printed in time.

I have no secretary. I have no office staff.

I am the only one who can write this, and the only time I have left to write is at night.

There is something that seems useful right in front of me. I might be the only one who isn't using it.

Carrying that sense of discomfort, I open Word again tonight—. This repetition is quietly taking its toll.

The reason you can't use it isn't because you are bad at IT.

Let me draw a line here.

The reason you can't use AI is not because you are bad with machines or because you haven't studied enough.

One of the reasons you stumbled is that the first task you tried was too difficult to entrust to AI.

"Tell me about local issues" is a question that lacks sufficient background information and does not have a single correct answer.

AI does not automatically know the actual situation of your municipality, the voices of residents you have heard on the ground, or the exchanges that have taken place in the assembly so far.

Moreover, what is being asked is the content of the policy itself. What issues to take up and in what order to try to solve them. This is an area where a legislator cannot easily compromise.

It is no wonder that you would conclude "AI is useless" when the expected answer does not come back.

The order was reversed.

The first thing you should hand over to AI is not a task that requires judgment. It is a task of rearranging the materials you have on hand or suggesting phrasing.

Tasks that are easy to entrust to AI have the following three conditions:

1. The materials and purpose are already in your hands

2. There is no single correct answer, and you can edit it yourself at the end

3. You can check it with your own eyes and stop errors before publication or decision-making

Activity reports, draft social media posts, and greeting phrases are tasks that easily meet these conditions.

In other words, this is the principle:

Do not hand over judgment. Only entrust the drafting.

You don't need to start all five today. Starting with just one—a draft of your activity report—is enough.

With tools designed for legislators, you don't even have to think about 'what to type' in the first place.

That said, the very first hurdle was 'what to type into the blank input field'.

Even if you understand the principles, coming up with that opening sentence every time is a task in itself.

The 'Sentai' platform we are building is a cloud-based workspace for local assembly members and prospective candidates.

Think of it as a tool that consolidates everything from managing contact lists and recording resident consultations to drafting manuscripts and preparing for elections.

The difference from general-purpose AI services is that it comes with pre-configured templates tailored to the work of local legislators.

Based on your activities and policy proposals, you can create drafts for activity reports, social media posts, flyers, and more. You don't need to think about 'how to ask' from scratch every time.

When using AI to summarize consultation records, the system is designed to automatically redact names, addresses, and phone numbers before sending them to the AI.

Of course, what you get is just a draft. Regardless of the tool you use, you will still need to refine it into your own words and verify the facts at the end.

▶ See Sentai's manuscript creation features

If you're starting with the AI you already have | Top 5 draft tasks to delegate first

For those who want to start with the AI already on their smartphone without adding new tools.

Here are five tasks, ranked by how easy they are to get right. You can copy and paste these prompt examples directly.

I have included the condition 'do not add facts that are not written' in every example.

1st Place | Drafting Activity Reports

This is suitable as your first task because the material is already within you.

Moreover, this is a task that occurs almost every month. If you can at least delegate the task of organizing bulleted facts into sentences to the AI, you can reduce the burden of starting from a blank page.

The material you provide can be as simple as three bullet points.

The trick is not to publish the generated text exactly as it is.

Even just one sentence is enough; add your own memories or personal experiences.

For example,

"The first time I heard the complaint about water splashing from the gutter was in March."

Just by adding a single line like that, the text becomes your own.

Finally, please verify that the date, district name, department in charge, and implementation status are correct.

2nd Place | SNS Posts

AI can break down a single event into multiple perspectives.

Sometimes, it's not that you "don't have anything to post about," but rather that you haven't thought of which part of the event to highlight.

For a disaster drill, for example, you can divide it as follows:

• Things I noticed by actually participating

• Voices heard from residents

• Things I want to confirm at the next council meeting

You can create three post drafts from the same day.

However, you must not let the AI invent "resident voices." When quoting remarks, only input the content you actually heard yourself.

3rd Place | Greetings and Congratulatory Addresses

There is one effective trick for this.

Provide your past greetings and ask it to "follow this writing style.".

Make sure to use drafts that have already been published and do not contain personal or undisclosed information.

If you make it write from scratch, it often ends up sounding like a borrowed congratulatory address that you've heard somewhere before.

If you provide your writing style first, the resulting text will sound more like your own voice. This method can also be applied to activity reports and social media posts.

4th Place | Summarizing Parliamentary Documents and Meeting Notes

When reading thick planning documents or committee materials, it is difficult to read from beginning to end with the same level of focus.

Here, AI can be used as a guide to find 'where you should focus your reading'.

I will write the points of caution honestly.

It is dangerous to stand on the assembly floor having read only the AI summary.

Always return to the original document to verify the figures, system names, proper nouns, and page numbers used in your questions.

A summary is not a substitute for the original document. It is a map that tells you where you should read.

Also, when uploading documents to general-purpose AI services, limit them to public documents or documents permitted for input under your organization's rules. As a general rule, do not input unpublished documents or documents containing personal information without being able to confirm the data usage terms of the service being used.

5th Place | Headline Ideas for Flyers

It takes 30 minutes to think from scratch, but only 3 minutes to finish if you just choose from candidates.

That is what headline creation is.

It does not matter if 8 out of the 10 ideas do not resonate with you.

If there is even one idea that you think is 'the one,' you have reclaimed the 30 minutes you would have spent thinking from scratch.

These are the three areas where you are likely to stumble:

1. Proper nouns, figures, and sources

Generative AI does not always answer "I don't know" when it doesn't know something.

It may write plausible-sounding department names, create non-existent ordinance names, or mix up numbers. The more natural the text, the harder it is to notice mistakes.

If the following items appear, always go back to the primary source to verify them.

• Personal names

• Department names

• Ordinance/System names

• Monetary amounts

• Fiscal years/Dates

• Statistics and percentages

• Citations and sources

Even if you leave most of the drafting to AI, you cannot let go of this verification step.

2. Personal Information and Unpublished Information

Removing names, addresses, and phone numbers does not necessarily guarantee safety.

In small communities, combining district names, age, family structure, medical history, and consultation details can sometimes reveal the identity of the individual.

Simply replacing names with "Resident A" may not be sufficient for anonymization.

When providing consultation details to a general-purpose AI, reduce personally identifiable information to the absolute minimum, and check the service's terms of use, privacy policy, and settings regarding data training.

If you are unsure, it is safer not to input the information.

3. Policy Decisions

What issues to address. Where to prioritize the allocation of limited budgets. Whose voices to bring up in the assembly.

These are not tasks to be offloaded to AI.

AI can be used to assist in organizing points or presenting multiple options. However, the legislator themselves must decide which position to take and be responsible for explaining it.

Delegate the drafting. Do not delegate the decision-making.

Please maintain the line you draw at the beginning until the very end.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Is the free version sufficient?

For short drafts like activity reports or social media posts, there are services you can start trying with a free tier.

However, usage limits, file reading capabilities, the amount of text that can be processed, and how input data is handled vary depending on the service, plan, and settings.

Beyond just "free versus paid," please check the official terms of service and privacy policy to see if business use is permitted and if the settings prevent your input data from being used for training.

It is sufficient to start by testing with short texts that do not contain personal or undisclosed information, and then consider a paid version once you understand the necessary features.

Q. Is it bad if people find out I used AI?

What matters is not just whether you used AI, but who takes responsibility for the published content.

If your assembly, faction, local government, or publication platform has rules or disclosure standards for AI use, please follow them.

It is important to verify facts, expressions, citations, and rights-related matters before publication, and to ensure you are in a position to explain the content yourself before releasing it.

Q. Can I also delegate the manuscript for general questions?

You can use it for creating a rough draft or organizing points.

However, you must handle the selection of question themes, verification of evidence, structure based on anticipated responses, and decisions regarding follow-up questions yourself.

In particular, when using laws, ordinances, budget amounts, statistics, or past responses, always verify them against primary sources such as official local government documents or meeting minutes.

Even if the AI's writing sounds natural, it does not necessarily mean the evidence is correct.

30-Second Pre-Publication Check

Before publishing a draft created with AI, please check at least these three points.

• Are the names of people, departments, systems, amounts, and fiscal years correct?

• Is there any personal information or undisclosed information remaining?

• Can you explain the content in your own words?

If you have any hesitation regarding these three points, do not publish it as is.

Rules regarding the business use of generative AI vary depending on the assembly, parliamentary group, local government, service used, and contract plan. Before handling personal information or undisclosed materials, please check the respective terms of service, privacy policies, and information security rules.

Sources and References

• Personal Information Protection Commission: 'Alerts Regarding the Use of Generative AI Services'

• Digital Agency: 'Guidelines for the Procurement and Utilization of Generative AI for Administrative Evolution and Innovation (Version 2.0)'

• Sentai Official Website (Features, Security Design, Pricing)

*The Digital Agency guidelines are intended for government agencies. We are reviewing them not as uniform rules directly applicable to local assembly members, but as practical references regarding misinformation, personal information, and output verification for generative AI.

If you want to eliminate the time spent staring at a blank input field, please take a look at a tool tailored to the work of local assembly members.

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