Wonkcomms Breakfast Club: Next steps for AI in think tank comms

Bring your own examples, questions and scepticism. We’ll use the discussion to go beyond the broad AI debate & into the practical decisions.
About this Event

Wonkcomms by Soapbox and R Street Institute cordially invite you to an in-person event:

Agents, assistants and awareness raisers: next steps for AI in think tank comms

When: Tuesday 15 September 2026, 9:00–10:30

Where: R Street Institute, 1411 K Street N.W., Suite 900, Washington, D.C. 20005

Breakfast provided!

AI has already started changing how think tank comms teams write, publish and help people find research.

The more difficult question is what comes next.

As tools move from writing assistants towards agents that can carry out whole tasks, comms teams will need to think differently about how research is produced, distributed and discovered — and about which parts of the work still need human judgement.

That’s the focus of the next Wonkcomms DC Breakfast Club.

WonkComms is Soapbox’s global community for people working across think tanks, research, policy and communications. Since 2013, it has brought practitioners together in London, Washington DC, Berlin and other cities for practical, peer-led conversations about the realities of the work.

For this breakfast, we’ll be joined by colleagues from Sociopúblico and Pew Research Center to look at where AI is genuinely earning its place in think tank communications, where the limitations still are, and what teams should be preparing for now.

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Joining the conversation

Joscha Wirtz, Sociopúblico: Joscha will explore the practical realities of agentic AI for think tank and advocacy communications, including what changes when tools move from assisting with individual tasks to carrying out more complex workflows.

Seth Rubenstein and Stacy Rosenberg, Pew Research Center: Seth and Stacy will share how Pew is putting AI to work across its research and publishing, with live examples of what is proving useful, what is not and what they are learning along the way.

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Come ready to contribute

Wonkcomms Breakfast Clubs are working sessions, not showcase panels. The value comes from people in the room comparing notes on what they are trying, what is working and where the difficult questions remain.

Bring your own examples, questions and scepticism. We’ll use the discussion to get beyond the broad AI debate and into the practical decisions think tank comms teams are making now.

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Please forward this invitation to any friends and colleagues who you think might be interested. As spaces are limited, registrations will be considered on a first come, first served basis. So, if you can’t come for any reason, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can offer the space to someone else.

If you cannot join us for this session, don’t worry — there will be further Wonkcomms Clubs hosted in DC and internationally in the coming months.

For any questions, please contact John Schwartz: [email protected]

We look forward to seeing you soon!

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What is Wonkcomms?

Wonkcomms is a global community for people working across think tanks, research, policy and communications. Soapbox started it in London in 2013, and it now brings people together in London, Washington DC, Berlin and Nairobi to share ideas, experiences and practical lessons from the work.

Please follow Soapbox on LinkedIn for announcements, and feel free to get in touch with suggestions for future topics and speakers.