End of Year Thoughts (And a Big Thank You)
If you told me at the beginning of this year that we’d be closing it out with four new AI features and a boom in business, I would’ve hesitantly said, “That sounds awfully optimistic.”
Thankfully, I am awfully optimistic—because we made those goals a reality. And that happened because of the broader Massachusetts government and policy community that challenges us, uses our tools, and has high expectations.
At InstaTrac, we spend our days thinking about how to make legislative tracking suck less, ease the headache of taking minutes for town clerks, and keep the community informed through MassInsider. This year, that meant building tools that save time, cut through noise, and help people get to the point faster—whether they’re in the State House, at town hall, or juggling twelve things at once.
A few highlights for MassTrac this year:
AI bill overviews you can listen to – because sometimes reading a 40-page bill is not the move. Commute-friendly policy summaries felt like the right level of practicality.
Transcript synopses – so you can quickly understand what actually happened in a hearing without scrubbing through hours of footage or walls of text.
Smart Search – which is our version of semantic search, not just keyword search.
Smart Compare – making it easier to see what changed between bill versions without playing a legislative game of “Where’s Waldo.”
We also saw MuniTrac continue to grow, with more cities and towns using it to automate their minute-taking operations.
Behind the scenes, MassInsider’s aggregation has gotten sharper and more refined with the addition of Substacks written by Massachusetts political aficionados (more on this in 2026).
None of this came from a whiteboard brainstorming session where we tried to sound impressive. It came from real conversations—with legislators, staffers, lobbyists, town clerks, advocates, reporters, and policy professionals—who told us what would actually help them do their jobs better.
That’s the best part of running InstaTrac.
The people working in and around Massachusetts government operate in fast-moving, high-pressure environments. There’s no time for fluff, buzzwords, or tools that almost work. You need answers—quickly—and you need to trust them. We take that responsibility seriously.
So as the year wraps up, I want to say thank you—not just to our customers, but to the entire Beacon Hill community and everyone involved in Massachusetts government and politics.
Thank you for trusting us.
Thank you for pushing us.
Thank you for telling us when something’s confusing, broken, or could be better.
You’ve made the product stronger, the team sharper, and the work more meaningful.
We’re heading into the new year with momentum, ideas, and the same goal we’ve always had: build software that actually helps people do Massachusetts government work without losing their minds.
More to come soon. (No spoilers yet.)
— Michael Segal
President & CEO, InstaTrac