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Strategy lens: Using PARN insights, associations are being challenged to lead AI enablement, ethics, and innovation for their sectors.
Let's be honest, the term 'Artificial Intelligence' is being bandied about so much at the moment that it’s starting to lose all meaning. It’s either the saviour of humanity or the harbinger of our doom, depending on which over-caffeinated tech guru you listen to. For those of us in the Membership and Professional Association sector, the reality is, as ever, a little more nuanced and, dare I say, a little less dramatic!
As a Senior Consultant at Cantarus, I’ve spent over fifteen years working both for membership organisations and in an advisory capacity, and I recently had the pleasure of presenting on this very topic for the Professional Associations Research Network (PARN). The big question on everyone's lips? How can we actually use AI in a way that’s low-risk, low-cost, and, most importantly, that can start delivering value immediately?
The good news is there’s no need to install HAL 9000 in your server room (well, not yet…!) There are smart, practical applications for AI that can make a tangible difference to your members and your team. And it seems the sector agrees – the aforementioned PARN report, which Cantarus was proud to sponsor, found that a whopping 98% of professional bodies believe the use of GenAI will increase in the next five years. The question is no longer if you should adopt AI, but how.
Before we dive into the exciting stuff, a crucial point on governance. In the race to adopt AI, it's easy to get distracted by shiny new tools. However, the real, sustainable advantage lies in building a strong foundation to facilitate responsible AI adoption.
The PARN report reveals a significant gap in this area: only 17% of professional bodies have an AI policy for staff, and a mere 13% have extended this guidance to their members. This presents a huge opportunity for forward-thinking organisations to lead the way.
At Cantarus, we believe that robust governance is the critical first step in any technology journey. We don't just provide the tools; we can help you build a framework for using them responsibly and effectively. It’s a commitment we take seriously, which is why we're currently working to obtain both ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 (Quality Management) certification. This focus on best-practice security and quality underpins our entire approach, ensuring we help our clients to innovate with confidence.
So, how do you build this foundation? Start by establishing a clear usage policy. Assign ownership to a dedicated individual or working group to champion your AI efforts. And most importantly, start small. Think of it as a series of controlled experiments rather than a big bang. Having a measured approach allows you to learn, adapt, and build confidence before scaling up.
Every professional association is sitting on a goldmine of content – white papers, webinars, articles – you name it. The problem? A lot of that content is likely gathering digital dust, is hard to find, or underutilised. This is where AI can be a real game-changer.
AI Content Assistants can help to automatically generate meta titles, descriptions and alt text for images. While this might sound like a small thing, the impact can be significant, both in terms of improving your site’s SEO and defining efficiency improvements within your content team. Reports suggest that AI Content Assistants can help to reduce the time spent on routine SEO tasks by up to 70%, freeing up your content team for more strategic work. Furthermore, well-optimised metadata is crucial for ensuring content visibility – some case studies have shown that a consistent approach to SEO can lead to a 20-30% increase in organic traffic over several months. Using these tools can also help ensure consistency across your site in terms of tone of voice and accessibility posture.
The world of search is also changing. With AI Overviews now a feature on Google, it's no longer just about keywords. It's about being a trusted, authoritative source. By structuring your content with clear headings and focusing on answering your members’ real-world questions, you can optimise your site for this new era of AI-powered search.
To truly thrive in the age of AI-powered search, you need to think like an AI. Here’s some practical guidance to get you started:
And what about when members are already on your site? AI Site Search can transform the user experience. Instead of just matching keywords, it understands intent. A member could ask, "What are the ethical guidelines for junior accountants?" and the search will find the relevant information, even if those exact words don't appear in that order. It can even search across your entire digital estate – including PDFs and videos – to provide a single, comprehensive answer.
How much of your team's day is spent answering the same questions over and over again? "Where can I find my invoice?" or "When's the annual conference?". These are important – but they're not the best use of your team's time.
This is where AI Chatbots come in. And I’m not talking about the clunky, frustrating chatbots of yesteryear. Modern AI chatbots can learn from your past support conversations and organisational policies to provide instant, accurate answers. Leading solutions can resolve over half of common support queries without any human intervention and with over a 99% accuracy, freeing up your team to focus on more complex, high-value interactions. For trickier questions, they can seamlessly hand over the conversation to a human with the full context of the conversation.
When we talk about AI, we’re not talking about replacing your team. We’re talking about giving them superpowers. By automating mundane tasks, you free up your staff to focus on higher-value work that truly benefits your members. Think of all the time spent on necessary but boring tasks – taking meeting notes, summarising long reports, finding suitable images for your website etc.
AI Meeting Assistants can automatically transcribe meetings and pull out key action items. AI can summarise lengthy reports in seconds and even analyse member feedback surveys to provide you with key themes and insights. And AI image generation tools can create high-quality, custom images for your website, social media and marketing materials. With a clear AI usage policy in place, you can empower your team to use these tools safely and effectively.
This drive for new skills isn't just internal. The PARN report found that a staggering 79% of members and registrants feel they need additional knowledge and skills to use AI effectively. This highlights a huge opportunity for professional bodies to not only empower their own teams, but to lead the way in providing the training and resources their members are crying out for.
The PARN report highlights that 48% of professional bodies are already using GenAI, and a further 50% are considering it. The sector is moving and the benefits are clear. The top driver for adoption? Efficiency gains, cited by 88% of professional bodies.
This isn't about a futuristic, high-risk overhaul of your organisation. It's about taking small, strategic steps to improve content discoverability, enhance member support, and empower your team. The report also found that 63% of members and registrants want their professional body to provide approved AI tools and software. This is a clear call to action for the sector to step up and lead the way.
At Cantarus, we have a team of experts (including six former membership professionals) who can help you navigate the world of AI and implement the right solutions for your organisation. If you'd like to explore any of the applications we've covered today, please get in touch for a no-obligation chat.
And for a deeper dive into how professional bodies are utilising AI, I'd highly recommend downloading the full PARN report. It's packed with invaluable insights and data that can help you on your AI journey.
Get in touch with our consultants to see how Cantarus can help you navigate the world of AI and implement the right solutions for your organisation.