USLege at the 2026 NCSL Legislative Summit in Chicago
Recap of USLege's first NCSL Legislative Summit, including Laura Davis's Learning Hub session on how AI is redistributing information power in government.
Stop 3 of the USLege Summer Tour was the NCSL Legislative Summit, held July 27 to 29, 2026 at McCormick Place in Chicago. It was USLege's first Legislative Summit, and it was the largest exhibit hall the company has taken on.
Laura Davis on stage
Co-founder Laura Davis spoke Tuesday, July 28 from 2:15 to 2:45 PM in Learning Hub 2, in a session titled "The Last Information Monopoly: How AI Is Redistributing Power in American Government." A former legislative staffer and lobbyist, Laura covered AI legislative monitoring and the growing wave of AI-drafted bills, and closed with three concrete next steps and a framework for AI governance that a chamber can actually use.
The through line of the session: information advantage in government has always been concentrated in whoever could afford to pay for it, and AI is redistributing that advantage faster than most institutions have adjusted to.
Three days in Chicago
Seven USLege team members worked the Summit across two and a half days. The mornings started early. Team USLege got up with hundreds of other runners for the Fun Run, part of which goes straight through the exhibit hall, which is a genuinely strange and excellent way to start a conference day.
The exhibit hall itself was the busiest floor we have worked. We track every bill, every hearing, and every level of government, and we could hardly keep count of how many people stopped by. After hours, the team had coverage at the Arkansas, Arizona, and New York state nights, and the week closed with an evening on the pier under fireworks that the whole city of Chicago got to watch.
What it confirmed
The Summit puts legislators, legislative staff, government IT leaders, associations, advocacy groups, and corporate government affairs teams in one place, which means we heard the same problem described from every angle in the process. Everyone is accountable for knowing what is happening across more jurisdictions than they can physically follow. Nobody we met thought their current process scaled.
Thanks to NCSL for hosting a great week. We made a lot of new friends and know we did not get to everyone, so if you are looking to learn more, please reach out.