Associations Leveraging the Power Of AI

There is a difficult line to walk on when it comes to AI, whereas one must find the balance between all-out dependency and ignoring the mass innovation altogether; often resulting in being left behind due to your refusal to adapt. In her second segment of the three part series Sarah directed in July, 2025, she dived into the great strides associations are making in learning to utilize AI to their advantage, highlighting four associations who are transforming their practices. 

More Human, Not Less

Scott Wiley, CEO of CoreNet Global discussed how AI has been having a significant impact on real estate, and the steps they’ve taken to prepare members for these changes to a point of capability and understanding. 

• CoreNet Global hosted two events in Silicon Valley in May, bringing members to Google Headquarters to see first hand applications of AI in a professional setting. And in July, they brought together 250 members at Open AI’s headquarters for an event revolving around showing members the ins and outs of AI and useful tactics in managing this tool. 

• His members have been utilizing AI in a number of different ways, but one of the most pertinent is for evaluating leases, improving efficiency and quality service. 

• CoreNet Global has promoted a challenge to all their global team members to get AI certified by September 30th, providing all the resources and support they need to succeed, and including an incentive of extra PTO days to give them a drive. 95% of their team members completed the certification the same day it was announced, and they shared their experience in a community chat group to help support others. 

Scott also touched on the fear around this topic, a certain air of pessimism, however he asserted its usefulness in clearing the clutter and bringing their association to another level through increasing productivity and allowing them to use that extra time to focus on their members' needs. Providing an applicable and vital piece of advice to any associations struggling with disengagement: resist the pull towards depending on legacy systems and focus on stepping into what the future is calling for; even if that is uncomfortable at first, even with the fear of failure. Taking the risk and doing it afraid, is always the better option to failing automatically through your refusal to even try. 

“AI is going to make associations smarter. It's going to make us more personalized, more predictive and more responsive. And that makes us more human, not less. Let me say it again. That makes us more human, not less.” - Scott Wiley, CEO of Cornet Global

Extensive Potential

Tonya Egan is CEO of Kappa Delta Pi (KDP), a national professional association and honor society for educators. The role AI has to play in education is a tricky one, and they have been prioritizing supporting educators' mental wellbeing through a time of great difficulty, considering the current common culture in the classroom; amplified from the obstacles left over from the pandemic. 

• AI’s potential in the classroom is quite extensive, being a useful tool for grading and difficult parent conversations, as well as assisting in the brainstorming process of how to drive engagement and excitement from students. Additionally, AI has provided the amazing opportunity for teachers to have extra aid, an artificial partner, enabling them to enhance and individualize curriculum to each student’s learning abilities in a manner that before was nearly impossible. 

• KDP has been working on testing out different AI options out there for their educators, prioritizing finding culturally sensitive and human oriented unbiased AI tools, while pinpointing which program provides the most considerable stepping stones for success. 

• Many staff and board members are completing the Association AI Professional Certification (AIP), and KDP is planning to start doing quarterly AI ideathons whereas staff will come together and tackle one issue at a time. 

• To retain team interest in tackling the ins and outs of AI, they’ve encouraged playing around with the tool to show how it can in fact lead to more fun. 

• KDP has taken advantage of AI’s skills in being a useful member-centric thought partner, through its abilities of bringing data together, analyzing it, and providing solutions while highlighting gaps in the system. 

• AI is providing new sponsorship and advertising opportunities to KDP, by assisting in individualizing a format to engage members and network. 

Tonya noted that she’s observed a majority of the resistance to integrating AI in the professional realm is rooted in fear of it overtaking the workforce and acting as a replacement. Thus KDP has made it a priority to be extremely transparent about the fact that, “this is not to downsize staff, this is to transform our effectiveness and our efficiency”. In fact, AI has assisted them in personalizing the association experience for not just members but staff as well, bringing their service to a whole new level. 

Focus on the Future, Not Fear

Jeff Bernstein is president of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), the largest robotics and automation trade group in the world. Future-proofing is a priority for A3, taking into great consideration the current trends and latest tech, so they can continue to stay ahead of the curve and compete effectively on the global market. Part of that future-focused thinking has been introducing the benefits of AI to both members and staff. 

• They had a keynote at their annual members only business forum in January earlier this year, detailing how exactly members could utilize AI to their utmost advantage, such as using a tool like Chat GPT to increase productivity. 

• A3 has an education department providing training courses on the basics of AI to members, both in-person and online, additionally supplying training programs to their staff internally. 

• Many staff members are integrating the helpful tool in their day-to-day work, primarily to assist in idea development as well as creating and curating campaigns. 

As A3 has been recognizing the increasing difficulty regarding workforce development and recruitment in their field, they have been making it a priority to collaborate with schools in improving curriculum and providing information and resources for these students' possible future in engineering; that includes putting an emphasis on the importance of understanding such a pivotal tool like AI. Jeff articulated this is not a piece of technology to avoid or be fearful of, in fact its benefits for member engagement are limitless, if associations simply take the step to devoting time to understanding and integrating this serviceable piece of tech. 

Importance of Education

And last but not least, Sarah welcomed Bruce Mo to the show, the executive director of the Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA). He gave light on how they’ve gone about integrating a new technology like AI into quite the historic association, and its benefits in allowing more time for staff to speak with members and prioritize their needs. 

• In May of 2024 MSTA launched Tillie, a chatbot to assist with navigation and finding information on their website. They trained Tillie on the state learning standards, after taking note of how many members were asking for help creating lesson plans and rubrics. This led to a reduction in the amount of emails and calls into MSTA’s member care center, as self-service has notably increased. 

• They are currently in the process of training Tillie on providing an automated response via email to members, supplying a fast solution to the majority of issues members may reach out for help attending to.  

MSTA has highlighted the importance of their staff educating themselves on AI in order to reach a deeper understanding regarding its background and the many ways it can be integrated. They used Sidecar AI Learning Hub to provide training to each and every staff member, regardless of position or prior experience, and offered a monetary bonus as an extra incentive. About 75% of the staff has completed this training. Bruce himself in fact completed this training, and put that in his LinkedIn bio and email signature in order for his staff to take note and get inspired to follow in his footsteps.  

How Associations Can Leverage the Power of AI

As we look to the future, AI will be around to stay as it continues to revolutionize the global workforce, for better or for worse. It's important to think about how your association can leverage the power of AI. The option is up to your association, as regardless of where your feelings may rest, the future unfortunately will not wait for your comfortability.