01/13/2025

What AI Leadership Looks Like

This should be the year execs commit to understanding AI

What does it mean to lead on artificial intelligence in 2025? For the overwhelming majority of associations, that means not doing much at all. According to Marketing General Incorporated’s 2025 Association Outlook Report (recently covered in a separate article), only 3 percent of associations are using generative AI for member services and 9 percent for operational efficiency, though larger percentages of professionals say they’re exploring it.

The hesitance is understandable. AI isn’t yet fully baked into a lot of software tools that organizations use, and there are legitimate concerns around what AI means for job roles and the privacy of member data. Moreover, though associations are notoriously laggards in relation to the corporate world, the corporate world is anxious about AI too. According to a November 2024 survey from IBM, only 15 percent of global companies have "established themselves as leaders in AI implementation."

Going slow to grasp the challenges is understandable, of course. But punting on understanding them at all is a different matter, and that seems to be where a lot of leaders are right now. According to a December 2024 survey by the technology training firm General Assembly, 58 percent of executives “have never attended an AI training or taken an AI course.”

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.