Artificial intelligence (AI) is used across almost every industry for all kinds of tasks, from drafting emails to writing code. Breakthroughs in the science behind AI have enabled a remarkable surge of new capabilities and use cases for associations, nonprofits, and the for-profit space.
Gallup found that the number of employees who say they use AI for their role at least a few times a year has nearly doubled, from 21% to 40%, since 2023. Additionally, a study by the Association Societies Alliance (ASA) found that while only 13% of associations have fully integrated AI into their operations and have a formal AI policy, 35% report being very likely to invest more within the next year.
Fíonta has deep experience assisting associations with AI adoption. Co-founder Dr. Lisa Rau partnered with US Transaction Corp, a boutique payment processing firm that provides personalized services to its association clients, on an episode of its UST Education Recorded Webinar series. Drawing on her experience as a computer scientist with a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence, Dr. Rau explains generative AI, how associations can leverage this tool, and what steps they can take to protect against risks.
In this guide, we’ll cover highlights from that webinar, the basics of using AI for associations, and key strategies for using AI.
What is a Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT)?
Dr. Rau refers to Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs) as “a major scientific breakthrough,” describing generative AI as “very large models that are trained on extremely large sets of text or corpora that are used to generate output, which is content.”
These models are:
- Generative, in that they generate output.
- Pre-trained, in that they work with an underlying previously trained model.
- Transformers, in that they transform the input (or “prompt”) into the generated output.
While the foundational neural net technology behind GPTs has been around for decades, advances in the underlying hardware have enabled computations required for learning tasks that would have taken a week to perform in 2012 to take a minute now. In particular, these more powerful training algorithms now allow GPTs to perform computations in parallel and to consider context from anywhere in a dataset, not just “nearby.”
These generative AI models can generate text, speech, music, diagrams, images, videos, and computer code. Underneath GPTs are large language models (LLMs), which continue to grow in size. While the largest model in 2019 had 330 million parameters (the weights on nodes inside the model), the current largest models have 1.76 trillion parameters.
Products like the popular chatbot ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, are applications trained on specific GPT language models (e.g., GPT-3 or GPT-4). In simpler terms, GPTs are the “brains” that power these apps.
Benefits of Using AI for Associations
As mentioned above, AI is experiencing rapid growth. Adopting this technology is no longer optional—it’s crucial to associations’ long-term success. AI-enabled associations can offer more value, unique offerings, and personalized experiences to members with less time and effort. Organizations that do not adopt AI tools risk falling behind.
Consider these key benefits of using AI for your association:
- Less work and increased efficiency for staff. AI automates logic-driven, time-consuming tasks such as scheduling meetings or processing registrations. This boosts efficiency, allowing staff to devote more time and energy to value-adding activities.
- Personalized member experiences. AI simplifies personalizing member experiences on a large scale. For instance, AI tools might use your existing member data to provide tailored content recommendations or suggest networking opportunities based on individual members’ interests or geographic location.
- Optimized communications. Similarly, associations can utilize AI to tailor communications to each donor by automatically generating audience segments, dynamic content, and other personalized features. For instance, you could tailor communications to the members’ years of experience in your field or industry. Or, you may reference members’ engagement history to provide personalized recommendations (e.g., “Since you attended X event, you might be interested in this upcoming workshop.”).
- Enhanced data analysis. This technology can also turn raw data into actionable insights in seconds or minutes. Associations might prompt AI to compile and analyze large datasets, identifying key insights that human analysts could overlook (e.g., more targeted and refined member segments). Consider possible risks, including data privacy concerns and inaccuracies in AI-generated results.
Consider using AI to maximize your revenue and identify potential new revenue sources. Associations might use AI to analyze past marketing campaign performance data to inform message timing, placements, and tactics, thereby reducing waste. They may also identify potential corporate sponsors based on shared values or optimize pricing for events based on demand.
Ways to Leverage AI for Associations
As users innovate and technology evolves, AI-based tools have been developed and customized for specific purposes. Otter AI, for example, generates follow-up emails and meeting summaries, while Whisper is well-suited to automatic speech recognition.
Established platforms, such as Salesforce, are also increasingly integrating AI capabilities into their existing offerings. One tool Salesforce offers is Agentforce, an AI solution powered by autonomous AI agents that can complete tasks and assist members.
These purpose-built tools allow associations to select solutions that align with their needs. To increase organizational impact, Dr. Rau recommends considering the following use cases as being uses of AI that have already seen some success:
Personalizing Communications
AI systems can support associations’ interactions with members by leveraging existing member data and automating it to create custom experiences. Renewal notices can automatically consider a member’s tenure, so you can send distinct, tailored messages to both long-term and newer members. For events, these systems help associations highlight sessions that appeal to an individual member’s interests.
Each message is unique and features dynamic content. Tone can vary based on the member’s role in their organization. For example, recent college graduates may find the formal tone preferred by executives intimidating.
Other examples of using AI to personalize communications include:
- Creating personalized product or merchandise recommendations that members may be interested in. With access to a member’s purchase history, sessions attended in training or meetings, data on “members who bought this, frequently bought that,” and your association’s mission, recommendations for future purchases become more interesting and relevant.
- Suggesting conference sessions that members may enjoy based on past interests, activities, certifications, histories of attendance, and other analytics.
- Developing curated learning paths according to members’ interests and career trajectories.
Streamlining Data Analytics and Visualization
Associations collect and store extensive amounts of member and event data, as well as feedback, legal documentation, and other pertinent information. Associations can utilize generative AI to summarize documents and instruct the system to present the data in new and innovative ways.
Here are some ways associations can use AI to understand data better:
- Create clusters or themes of data – e.g., grouping presentations for a conference by theme
- Summarize documents to get a high-level overview of the main points
- Automatically generate data visualizations like pie charts or bar graphics based on association data
- Perform a sentiment analysis based on newspapers and social media, and/or survey data collected
- Create data taxonomies – i.e., automatically clustering free-text inputs into the central “themes,” which has historically been tedious (reading through hundreds or thousands of free-text comments, for example) and hard for humans to do consistently.
With AI tools aiding in data analytics and visualization, associations can save time and effort, generating more accurate and consistent analyses. In some cases, these AI tools can perform tasks that would tax even the most dedicated human, given large amounts of data. However, like with all output from an AI system, analyses need to be validated by a human. Indeed, all text should be fact-checked to ensure accuracy.
Generating Drafts
A simple prompt, such as “I am responsible for decreasing costs for my association. Draft me a policy to increase my association’s energy efficiency,” helps generative AI produce a draft based on policies used by other associations and likely areas of energy consumption in use. They can automatically generate draft product descriptions, write marketing materials, develop draft copy for social media posts, and so much more.
AI systems also serve as robust editors and translators, quickly rewriting text in another language or tailoring it to a different reading level. Associations can also prompt the system to remove complicated jargon from written materials and correct spelling and grammar errors, making writing more straightforward and accessible. It is safe to say that any task involving the creation of text can be considered for augmentation by AI.
Tips for Effective AI Use
While using AI for your association should be an intentional initiative with formal safeguards in place, it does not have to be intimidating or costly. These quick tips can make it easier to get up and running with these tools:
- Audit your existing technology first to ensure your systems integrate and share clean, up-to-date data. This gives your new AI tools a solid foundation and accurate, unified data to work from.
- Focus on problem-solving. Pinpoint your association’s goals or top problem areas. Then, work backward to identify AI tools to address them.
- Optimize your AI prompts by making them clear and concise. In each prompt, define the AI tool’s role or persona, provide background information, give instructions using structured lists, and specify the response format.
- Encourage experimentation and innovation by having staff members test out new use cases or tools on a small scale. If they are successful, scale up.
Finally, consider the risks associated with using AI and take proactive steps to prevent any adverse outcomes.
Potential Risks of Using AI for Associations
When using AI, there are essential concerns regarding privacy and ethics. In the webinar, Dr. Rau discusses certain risks associations should be aware of before using generative AI, including:
- Leaks and disclosure of proprietary information. Privacy assurances for AI services vary from tool to tool. There is no guarantee that the data users provide will remain private, which could result in the infringement of intellectual property and leaks of members’ personal data and proprietary information.
- Cost of implementing new systems. AI systems are evolving rapidly, meaning that developments from only a few months ago could now be outdated. Investing heavily in a single application of AI technology could be problematic or suboptimal if that application becomes overtaken by newer capabilities.
- Not all information is accurate. Generative AI is not infallible, and it can make mistakes and even make up information (known as “hallucinating”). For example, while a model may have access to the heights of Mount Everest and the Burj Khalifa skyscraper, it may not have the numerical reasoning capabilities to determine which is taller. A human must be looped into the process to proof, edit, and fact-check any content generated by these systems. For instance, GPT systems have been known to generate quotes and attribute them to specific individuals.
- Other ethical concerns, like discrimination. Because AI models like ChatGPT are trained on large datasets, they can encode any biases present within those datasets. Using these tools can perpetuate those biases, reinforcing social stereotypes during processes like hiring.
Most in the field believe that GPTs are, in effect, “stochastic parrots” because statistics and math are the primary guides for AI models, and the systems do not truly “understand” anything. Dr. Rau explains they are “just mimicking and keying off what they’re hearing” in the same way a parrot may sound uncannily like a human without having any understanding of what the words it is saying mean.
To prevent these risks from violating association values or becoming costly legal issues, it’s essential to create a policy outlining your organization’s guidelines for using generative AI.
How to Implement AI Responsibly
Creating policies for using generative AI is a crucial first step for any association before deploying these tools’ capabilities, both internally and externally. One resource Dr. Rau recommends leveraging is the Society for Human Resource Management’s article on creating ChatGPT policies, which provides guidance on how to monitor AI usage, encourage innovation, ensure it is being used with appropriate data, and protect proprietary information.
Ideally, associations should include the following sections in their policy:
- Prohibited uses
- Acceptable uses
- How to remain compliant with other association policies
- Regulations around using ChatGPT for personal reasons while at work
- Requirements for transparency when content was generated in any part by an AI
- Any other organization-specific clarifications
Associations should collaborate with various teams and departments to identify use cases that align with their goals. These goals may be internal (e.g., making your finance team more efficient) or external (e.g., personalizing member interactions).
Associations should also establish rules and safeguards to protect the organization and its members. At a minimum, these should include:
- Requiring a human to fact-check AI content
- Protecting member privacy (e.g., informing them when they’re interacting with a bot in association terms of service)
- Preventing deception and disinformation through these tools by limiting or prohibiting the entry of personal data and intellectual property
- Confirming the ability to remove data from the training model to protect privacy and security
- Ensuring you can quickly deactivate an AI-enabled system if issues arise
These basic precautions provide a solid foundation for associations seeking to implement generative AI safely and responsibly.
Wrapping Up
Generative AI can save organizations countless hours of work by automating repetitive processes, summarizing documents, visualizing datasets, and more. AI systems can perform tasks that are difficult or mundane for humans to accomplish and produce consistent results, freeing up staff time for tasks that require more creativity or contextual understanding. As Dr. Rau explains, people are discovering novel applications and new tools based on the underlying technology every day, expanding the ways associations use AI.
Trusted by over 1,200 organizations, Fíonta helps associations leverage AI to enhance efficiency, drive revenue growth, and foster stronger member relationships. We create tailored solutions that enable associations to implement and customize new technology based on your needs.
Schedule a consultation with Fíonta’s AI experts, and transform the way your association operates and interacts.