Build AI Confidence. Build a Future-Ready Association

Bruce Moe, executive director of the Missouri State Teachers Association, is committed to his staff increasing its AI skills to the point that he’s placed a financial incentive around it. Last year, he invited his staff to take part in an AI training program; participation was voluntary, but he offered a $500 bonus to those who completed it. More than half of MSTA’s 45-person staff followed through.  

“I firmly believe that the staff needed to be, if not using AI technology daily, at least be comfortable talking about it and not be afraid of it,” Moe says. “One objective [of the program] was just awareness and understanding of what the technology is and what it can mean. The second objective was more strategic, and that was to get my staff involved in using the technology so that we could begin to leverage it within the association to benefit our members.” 

To that end, AI can assist in workforce development on two fronts, both in terms of improving the skills of association staff and the members they serve. “Association leaders have two very big obligations — they’re separate, but they’re both very important,” says Erica Salm Rench, chief marketing officer of Sidecar, a technology consulting firm. “One being to educate their staff, and the other being to be the thought leader for their space so that they can teach their members how to use AI.” 

Moe says MSTA has already seen the benefits of their AI training. He says a member service coordinator was able to more efficiently prepare documentation for a legal case for one of its members. “They saved half of a full day’s work just by virtue of using that technology,” Moe says. “People are finding ways to use the technology to speed up the tedious administrative work that took time but was nonetheless important, to be able to focus more on member engagement in a way technology can’t.” 

Ashley Slauter, director of association solutions and advisory services at MCI USA, says AI can allow people focused on educating members the time to develop pathways for training. Within a matter of months, she used AI tools to create a series of webinars for the International Live Events Association (ILEA) focused on educating distinct member groups on trends in their space.  

Part of that process involved prompting ChatGPT for possible expert speakers along with the identified trend. That’s a time-saver in itself, but Slauter still had to do a lot of coordination work to develop an effective training program. “You still need a human touch when you are putting together and curating an education program,” she says. “You need the person who’s going to ask questions. You need the person who’s slightly oppositional, you need the bubbly, glass-half-full person. The creation of the perfect panel comes with experience.” 

The programming resonated with ILEA membership: The webinars had 60 percent attendance versus registration, beating expectations. Slauter adds that the feedback reflected an appreciation of having programming that was targeted to their needs. And within MCI, it was a helpful use case. “One way it was successful is that it showed it was possible,” she says. “Webinars can feel like a heavy lift with our staff allocations — part of the balancing act that we play in AMCs. So, the fact that it was possible is huge.”  

Threats and Opportunities 

AI has the potential to eradicate some traditional human functions in associations. Sidecar’s Rench notes that the most vulnerable areas are member services and tech help-desk roles “because standard answers can be answered with bots.” 

“People who are AI-knowledgeable will replace the people that are not,” she adds. “There’s probably a silent movement happening where maybe certain jobs are being consolidated and going away because of increases in productivity [via AI].”