What does it mean to lead on artificial intelligence in 2025? For the overwhelming majority of associations, that means not doing much at all. According to Marketing General Incorporated’s 2025 Association Outlook Report (recently covered in a separate article), only 3 percent of associations are using generative AI for member services and 9 percent for operational efficiency, though larger percentages of professionals say they’re exploring it.

The hesitance is understandable. AI isn’t yet fully baked into a lot of software tools that organizations use, and there are legitimate concerns around what AI means for job roles and the privacy of member data. Moreover, though associations are notoriously laggards in relation to the corporate world, the corporate world is anxious about AI too. According to a November 2024 survey from IBM, only 15 percent of global companies have “established themselves as leaders in AI implementation.”  

Going slow to grasp the challenges is understandable, of course. But punting on understanding them at all is a different matter, and that seems to be where a lot of leaders are right now. According to a December 2024 survey by the technology training firm General Assembly, 58 percent of executives “have never attended an AI training or taken an AI course.”

While AI is a technological challenge, it’s also a soft-skills leadership challenge.

I’d take that data point with a grain of salt: General Assembly is in the training business, and formal training isn’t an essential for understanding a trend line. (I doubt many executives took a “social media training course” in 2009, either.) But educating oneself about the stakes that AI present is important. As the firm’s CEO, Daniele Grassi, puts it in a release about the survey: “[Leaders] need to know how to evaluate AI vendors, how to protect company data, and how to guide their teams on using AI in their work.”

That “guide their teams” part is worth special attention, because while AI is a technological challenge, it’s also a soft-skills leadership challenge: Association staffs and members are rightly concerned about what AI means for their job role and the future of their industry, and leaders need to be prepared to either assuage their fears or deliver some tough news about what will be transformed. There’s now research in the scientific literature showing that AI is negatively affecting employees’ well-being. 

In light of that, CEOs would do well to spend some time in 2025 not only upping their own AI knowledge, but bringing employees in as part of the conversation. In Fast Company last fall, social scientist Nelson Lim emphasized the importance of being transparent about what AI will mean for their organizations, and to include their input in changes. “Solicit input, ideas, and concerns; involve employees in pilot projects, use cases, and governance decisions,” Lim writes. “For instance, frontline workers often have practical insights that can improve AI’s impact on daily operations.”

AI is new, but in many ways the challenges it presents for leaders is a classic tone-from-the-top matter: The ways that people will treat their colleagues and organization around it will depend on how clear leadership is on it. Every association will address it differently, but now is the time to address it.

[istock/metamorworks]