AI is no longer something associations are simply watching from the sidelines. Association professionals are using tools such as ChatGPT and Claude to draft content, analyse information, summarise documents and help with everyday tasks.
But there is a crucial difference between individual employees using AI, and having AI integrated into the systems your association relies on.
That distinction could determine how much value associations are able to get from AI in the months and years ahead.
For many associations, AI is currently being used outside their operational systems. A staff member logs in or accesses ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude etc from a separate tab on their PC.
They might copy information from the association's systems into the AI tool, ask it to generate a response, then copy the result back into an email or another system.
Using AI in this way can still save time in completing the task. But it’s creating a separate data silo.
And, the AI is helping the individual employee — it isn't becoming part of the organisation’s knowledge bank. This is significant because AI works through continuous learning, just like your staff.
The knowledge generated through those interactions remains in an individual's AI account. When that person is away, changes roles or leaves the association, the knowledge and experience they have accumulated may leave with them.
There is also a security consideration. Moving association information back and forth between operational systems and external AI tools creates another point at which data needs to be handled appropriately.
Built-in AI always has access to the most current association data and tools stored in your AMS. This removes the need to copy and paste association information into a separate AI tool. This not only saves staff time. It also brings security advantages because you're not having to move data out of your system.
Furthermore, the built-in AI engine learns and improves with every task, enabling it to become just like a highly experienced member of the team. The AI isn't simply making an individual task faster. It is becoming part of the association's operational system.
Consider something as routine as responding to a member enquiry.
With an AI Assistant integrated into Membes AMS, the process is incredibly simple. A staff member can choose to compose their own response or choose an AI-drafted response with a single click. Upon selecting AI, the response is instantly generated for staff to review, edit if needed, and send to the member.
This was demonstrated by Membes at a recent Learning Lab session at the Association Forum conference recently. Delegates were amazed to see how easy it is to use. One association told us how excited they were by the opportunity this presents, especially to small team like theirs of just three people.
With a high volume of member enquiries, this doesn’t just mean a small efficiency gain – it means a significant reduction in the administrative workload, making it possible to deliver more value to members without extra resources.
They saw the potential to transform not just how they respond to enquiries, but how the association operates.
And that's where the bigger opportunity lies.
Using an AI Assistant to draft responses for your staff to review is an important first step.
As staff use it more, make edits and provide feedback, the AI Assistant learns.
Output improves and you gain confidence in its responses, until the AI Assistant has become capable of handling routine enquiries accurately and consistently.
For some associations already using AI in Membes AMS to compose responses, that progression is now happening. They’re reaching the point where review and editing is no longer necessary for certain types of routine enquiry.
The AI Assistant has moved from helping a staff member perform a routine task to doing the task itself – thereby freeing staff up to focus on more strategic goals and new ways to deliver member value.
Imagine that same AI Assistant is available to members via your association website.
Instead of a member submitting an enquiry and waiting for a response, the AI Assistant can have a conversation directly with the member, drawing on the association's own information and knowledge, updated in real time.
This is different from a basic website chatbot that can only answer a limited set of pre-programmed questions. This AI assistant can understand the context of a member's question and provide a useful, reliable response based on an extensive bank of association data.
The potential productivity gains for associations are substantial.
It creates valuable time that can be redirected from repetitive admin towards improving services, developing new member value and responding to the things members will increasingly expect from their associations.
This member-facing AI assistant is NOW LIVE and available through Membes AMS.
There's another significant advantage to having AI built into the association system from the start.
Imagine an association that wants to deploy a sophisticated member-facing AI assistant on its website some time down the track. If that assistant sits outside the association's core systems, the association will first need to give it access to the information it needs.
Gathering, organising, structuring and maintaining that information can be a mammoth task and extremely costly exercise.
"When AI is built into the system, you're not starting from scratch. Your AI Assistant already has access to the information the association is using every day, including updates as they happen — so you can build from there rather than creating and maintaining a separate knowledge base." — Jason Morris, CEO, Membes
There is no separate knowledge base that needs to be manually updated to keep the Assistant in sync.When the association adds a new event, updates a program or publishes new information, that information is available to the AI through the same underlying system.
That lasting bank of organisational knowledge you’re building progressively becomes increasingly valuable as AI capabilities develop. The potential opportunities to automate other workflows and services in future are difficult to even imagine today.
Those opportunities will depend on having the right information, knowledge, data and systems in place.
Building that capability progressively is likely to be much easier than trying to assemble it all at some point in the future.
Younger generations can make an enormous contribution to the future of associations. But attracting and retaining talented employees increasingly means providing modern tools and digital experiences that reflect what they encounter in other parts of their working and personal lives.
The same applies to members.
People are accustomed to digital services that are fast, personalised and increasingly intelligent.
The question for associations is no longer simply:
"Are we using AI?"
It is: "Are we building towards an AI-enabled association?"
There is a big difference between individual staff using AI tools independently and AI becoming part of how an association operates.
For associations already experimenting with AI, the opportunity is to think beyond the individual task. Start building the knowledge, data and capability that will allow today's AI Assistant to become tomorrow's automation and member experience.
AI is moving quickly. The associations that start building that capability now will be better placed to take advantage of what comes next.