AI Call Screening Challenges Montana State University Billings Polling Effort
AI call screening is making political polling more challenging, with Montana State University Billings students working on the Mountain State Poll experiencing significantly fewer completed surveys, requiring twice the calling effort for the same results.
Billings, MT, October 27, 2026 —
Students at Montana State University Billings working on the Mountain State Poll are completing significantly fewer surveys as AI call screening makes political polling more challenging, according to the information provided about the trend.
The students are having to make twice as many calls to achieve the same results, indicating that more calling effort is now needed to obtain completed surveys. The information does not specify how many surveys were completed, the number of calls involved, or the period over which the change occurred.
The trend points to a practical difficulty for polling teams: reaching people by phone is not enough if fewer calls lead to completed surveys. The summary attributes the challenge to AI call screening, but does not describe the screening systems, explain how they operate, or identify whether other factors may also be affecting response rates.
The Mountain State Poll is the polling effort named in the summary. Further details about the poll’s methods, the political topics it covers, and the students’ specific calling procedures were not provided. The summary also does not state whether the polling team has changed its approach or what steps it may take next.
Without figures on call volume or survey completion rates, the scale of the change cannot be quantified beyond the reported need to double calling effort for the same results. The information does not provide comment from the students or the university, nor does it indicate whether the experience is shared by other polling organizations.
For now, the reported experience underscores a challenge for this student polling effort: producing the same survey results is requiring substantially more calls amid the use of AI call screening.
Story summarized from the original created by Grace Harvey on www.ktvq.com, see more information here.
