It's no secret that artificial intelligence (AI) is now practically everywhere, from event planning to association management. The right tools let you streamline member engagement, outreach, and planning for events and continuing education (CE) within a responsible AI approach.
Let's break down what AI in association management looks like today, including what it does, how it supports association management goals, and how to get started.
What Does AI in Association Management Actually Do?
Association management AI helps teams automate tasks, manage large amounts of data, and predict future trends. The right tools and workflows relieve the pressure put on teams that are already stretched thin. For instance, they can help associations avoid wasting time on manual work that often gets repeated, such as session descriptions, attendee emails, and updating event details in several places.
Specific AI features and capabilities vary by tool. For example, Cadmium's AI Writing Assistant can expand content, summarize long text, simplify complex information, and rewrite for clarity, tone, or length.
Many of the best AI management tools cover everything an association may need or synchronize with other AI systems and workflows. This reduces the risk of multiple separate tools clogging up operations.
Will AI Replace Association Staff?
Rest assured, AI in association management won't replace staff, as employees and team members are the core of any organization. Instead, AI event management tools are here to support teams by streamlining tasks, synchronizing data, drafting emails, coordinating schedules, and more, depending on the tools you use.
Most modern AI for associations require admins to review and approve everything before it's published. This ensures real, human staff oversee everything the association puts out, including communication with members and attendees.
How Can Associations Use AI to Plan and Run Better Events?
Various AI tools specialize in association events, such as conferences and continuing education. Beyond basic capabilities, such as automating repetitive tasks, associations can use these tools to personalize member experiences and improve each new event based on previous data.
Key benefits of using AI for association events include:
- Personalized communication: Rather than feeling generic, emails and messages can speak directly to members and clients by referencing unique details and pain points. For example, a renewal message can highlight how many events a member attended to encourage them to renew and attend more.
- Continuous improvement: AI tools analyze data from past events, such as registration records, attendee behavior, and historical profiles, to recommend improvements for future events. This can help associations refine conference schedules, agendas, and communication.
- Accuracy: By automating repetitive steps, such as double-entering data, AI event tools reduce the risk of human error. Professional AI tools use multiple verification processes and send all information to administrative teams to maximize accuracy in every report.
- Fewer vendors and tools: Specialized event management tools provide a single place to make updates that carry across the entire event. This reduces reliance on too many platforms to streamline workflows and minimize data siloes and other risks.
Eventscribe, Cadmium's event management system, covers the full event cycle in one system. This includes abstracts, registration, scheduling, speakers, exhibitors and sponsors, the app and website, evaluations, and post-event content and certificates.
Eventscribe is built to help associations and medical organizations host, record, and monetize events. Plus, Cadmium utilizes a responsible-AI approach that includes privacy guardrails, human-in-the-loop oversight, and protected customer data that is never used to train models.
How Does AI Help With Event Content and Attendee Communications?
AI in event planning can improve outreach to members and attendees by generating first drafts and recommending unique member details to highlight. AI tools can also help you repurpose previous content into new content that supports your next events and campaigns. For instance, the tool could analyze transcripts from previous events to identify attendees' most asked questions and build upon what people are most interested in.
How Can AI Support Member Engagement and Continuing Education?
In addition to customized outreach and streamlined services, AI supports member engagement and CE by personalizing learning paths and event recommendations. These tools analyze members' attendance and engagement to identify what they're most interested in learning. This way, it can suggest relevant classes, conferences, and events so attendees don't have to waste time scouring through an entire course catalog. AI for member engagement also flags disengaged members who could use personalized outreach.
Even if these options aren't available in your base system, many of the best AI tools for associations synchronize with others. This maximizes your capabilities without complicating your workflow. For example, Eventscribe connects to Elevate and EthosCE to track credits, manage event content, and support continuing education within one system.
Can AI Help Turn Event Sessions Into Ongoing Learning?
AI for continuing education and association events makes it easy to repurpose content and data from previous event sessions for future uses. AI may suggest the best parts of video content or automatically generated transcripts to share after the event. This lets others benefit from the educational experience beyond attendees. Furthermore, data about member engagement, attendance, and quiz results paint a clear picture of what attendees took away and what future events can do better.
You can even use this information to support your association's broader goals. For instance, the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) encourages event teams to use narratives and stories to improve the impact of outreach and event experiences. Content from previous event sessions can support this storytelling to bridge events and education, support data-driven decisions, and improve engagement and attendee experiences.
How Should Associations Get Started With AI?
Associations interested in using AI for event planning, member engagement, or continuing education should start by choosing software that synchronizes with their existing workflow and other systems.
Even if you only currently need your AI tool for specific purposes, such as supporting member outreach or drafting event transcripts, you should still start with an association event management software that supports the full workflow. This ensures you won't need to replace it or rely on multiple separate tools as your systems evolve.
How Can Associations Use AI Responsibly?
As you implement AI in association management, remember to follow responsible AI practices and keep staff at the top of the chain of command. This helps maintain accuracy and authenticity by ensuring your team's actual staff remains part of members' experiences.
Eventscribe, Cadmium's event management system, can help you improve event planning within a streamlined, responsible AI workflow. Learn more about using Eventscribe for association event management. Ready to take the next step? Speak with an expert here.
