Report: Members and Associations Split on Tech, Career Support

Members are looking for their association to be a leader in technology and career advancement, according to a new report, but association professions haven’t all gotten the message.

The 2026 Association Trends Report: The Innovation Mandate  (opens in a new tab), released last week by the association technology firm Momentive Software, is based on a survey of 1,010 association members and 200 association professionals conducted last June and July. 

Gaining and maintaining tech-savvy is high on members’ minds this year. Members cited “keeping up with the latest technology” as their most-valued association benefit—a jump from 13th most-valued in last year’s survey. Moreover, 70 percent of members rate their association’s technology as very good or excellent, and two-thirds (67 percent) see an association’s use of AI as evidence that it’s innovative. 

Association professionals, however, are less enchanted with their own tech efforts. Only a third (32.5 percent) rate their technology so highly, and only 14 percent cite “upgrading/integrating new technology” as a priority.

Professionals in the survey are generally emphasizing increasing membership, but neglecting the tech piece is a missed opportunity, said Tirrah Switzer, VP of Product Marketing at Momentive and co-author of the report. “The findings around keeping up with the latest technology, along with the AI piece, really tells us that members want practical, industry-specific education,” she said. “We have an information overload problem right now, and people need to know what’s relevant to their career and their profession.”

The report also notes another disconnect between members and association professionals when it comes to career advancement. That may contribute to softness in member satisfaction and likelihood to renew, both of which dropped in the new survey. 

The consequences are more acute when it comes to serving millennial members, more of whom are now seeking C-suite roles. 

“The millennials or mid-careerists tend to be the ones that associations are ignoring,” said Meaghan Johnston, Senior Director of Marketing Communications at Momentive and a co-author of the report. “They’re the ones that are the most concerning because they’re also a little more financially stable than gen Z. So those are the ones who could move to another association, they could realize they’re not getting the value out of their membership.”

Another group that’s neglected by not focusing on career advancement: nonmembers. “Their number-one priority is job opportunities, and their second is career advancement,” Johnston said. “So it doesn’t matter if you’re a member or not—you want help advancing your career.”

Even so, only 38 percent of the professionals surveyed have a member engagement strategy, and only a third of those said they use generation-based tactics as part of it. The weakness around tech prioritization and career support, Switzer said, should be a wake-up call to increase their efforts around both.

“I think that organizations have to really look at their programming and double-check what they’re doing,” she said. “They have to ask, are we helping members as much as we can with AI and with technology in general? And as they look at their budgets, are they investing in the type of programming that is most valued?”