For decades, artificial intelligence has captured the imagination of top tech minds, leading many of us to wonder how it’s going to change every industry.
As the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) laid out in December, AI can be a “disruptive and positive change,” and Microsoft recently featured its vision for the future of AI at Microsoft Build 2018. The problem is, not everyone is buying into the buildup.
Before diving in to current perceptions of AI, consider how it may help your association become more efficient. According to the post on ASAEcenter.org, AI can:
- Facilitate member experience personalization by helping associations sift through large amounts of data
- Identify content patterns to determine which information will provide greatest value at a particular point in time
While it seems obvious on the surface that AI will help alleviate a few of the painfully dull tasks your staff encounters, works of science fiction or billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s statement that AI has potential to become “an immortal dictator from which we can never escape,” have clearly turned opinions sour on the subject.
Not all opinions, however, are negative.
A Brookings Institution study released May 21, found 29 percent of people surveyed were “somewhat optimistic” about artificial intelligence. Approximately 34 percent of people felt AI would make life easier, while 53 percent didn’t know or gave no answer. Brookings was left with only 13 percent who felt AI would make life harder.
Should your association welcome AI?
What public opinion can’t influence is the fact that AI is already working to make life easier.
Whether you’re searching for a new staff member, Association Management Software or anything else in the world of member-based organizations, discussions always circles back to finding ways to making life easier for both your members and staff.
Fortunately, companies like Microsoft have put AI on the front-burner. Microsoft’s Project Brainwave, in a few words, is designed to accelerate AI calculations. And its Custom Vision service is being advanced to add more capabilities to identify objects and extract information from images. A list of Microsoft’s other AI advancements could also be added here, but its abundance would be staggering and overwhelming, to say the least.
Not sold? Well, you’re already using AI.
Still hesitant to let your association embrace the future of tech? Well, it’s likely you already have. Consider these applications of AI:
- Your phone’s virtual personal assistant
- Image recognition through machine learning on social media
- Navigation applications
Not sold yet? A Gallup poll released in March 2018 found 85 percent of Americans are already using at least one of six major products with AI elements on the consumer end. And companies like Microsoft have harnessed the power of business intelligence, having weaved it into Dynamics 365.
“AI — powered by decades of research from Microsoft —is already infused throughout Dynamics 365. These new solutions are designed to tackle high value, complex scenarios — end to end,” wrote James Phillips, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President, in 2017.
Whether or not you’re going to use Microsoft’s tools like Project Brainwave is irrelevant, but it highlights the exciting technological times we’re in. You might not know how AI will help your association in 5 years, but embracing the idea early on could do wonders for the growth of AI tools and applications.
Don’t be one of the 27 percent of people who are “not very optimistic” about artificial intelligence. It might be the next piece of the puzzle that supercharges your AMS.
A vast suite of AI tools is one of many reasons Protech partnered with Microsoft to create and association-oriented AMS that can’t be beat. Click here to learn more about why we’re proud to partner with Microsoft to stay on the cutting edge of AMS.