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The MemberWise Digital Excellence 2026 Report, now in its tenth edition and drawing on responses from around 480 membership professionals, offers the sector its most authoritative annual benchmark of where things stand digitally. This year's findings are more candid than ever. Growth is returning. Costs are climbing. And the gap between organisations that are managing digital strategically and those that are not is becoming harder to ignore.
What follows is a roundtable commentary on the report's key findings, structured around six themes that matter most to membership organisations right now: digital strategy, content management, CRM, online communities, member mobile apps, and artificial intelligence. Our aim is not to revisit the data in full. The report does that with authority. Instead, we offer a practitioner's perspective on what the findings mean in practice, and where attention should be directed.
How this aligns with our 2026 predictions
The findings in this year’s report strongly validate the themes we set out in our 2026 Digital Predictions for Membership Organisations. In particular, the data reinforces three core shifts we are seeing across the sector: the move from platform-led thinking to connected digital ecosystems, the growing importance of strategy before technology investment, and the emergence of AI as an embedded layer across the member experience rather than a standalone capability.
What is becoming clear is that these are no longer emerging trends – they are now operational realities for organisations seeking sustainable growth.
The report’s headline priority shift is significant. New member acquisition has now firmly held the top position for two consecutive reports, with member engagement, retention and satisfaction all rising in importance behind it. This reflects a broader shift in how the sector understands growth: no longer a desirable outcome, but a baseline requirement for many organisations simply to stand still.
The issue is no longer whether organisations are investing in digital, but whether they are doing so in a way that delivers coordinated, measurable outcomes.
Yet the strategic infrastructure to support that growth remains underdeveloped. Only 27% of membership bodies have a formal digital strategy, and just 6% have an AI strategy in place, a figure that was zero in the last report and is expected to rise rapidly. Member engagement strategies sit at 30% sector-wide, with large organisations at 40%. Data strategies are in place at just 20%.
What is particularly striking is the relationship between strategy and investment. Only 14% of organisations report that their technology spend is firmly aligned to a clear digital strategy with planned investments. Nearly half acknowledge that a balanced approach is required, but without the strategic underpinning to execute it, investment decisions remain reactive rather than intentional.
Alongside this, the report highlights that the inability to effectively measure member engagement has now become the sector’s leading challenge. This signals a deeper issue. While digital activity has increased, the ability to translate that activity into meaningful insight and action remains limited.
The integration problem, the data problem, and the AI problem are not separate challenges; they are the same underlying issue expressed in different ways.
Key data points from the report:
The message here is not simply 'write a strategy.' It is that strategy creates the conditions for coherent investment, joined-up decision-making, and measurable outcomes. The organisations that are seeing growth (44% report an increase in new member acquisition) are, by and large, those with greater strategic clarity. The question for many others is how to build that clarity while managing day-to-day operational pressure.
The gap is no longer about access to technology, but the absence of a joined-up strategy to guide how it is used. In our experience, organisations that align their CMS, CRM, community and mobile experience around a clear strategic framework are significantly better positioned to translate investment into measurable growth.
One of the more encouraging findings in the report is the significant improvement in CMS satisfaction levels. In 2023/24, just 37% of membership bodies said they were happy with their current content management system. That figure has risen to 55%, an 18-percentage-point increase that reflects a genuine step forward in the quality of platform selection, implementation, and partner working.
Platform preferences continue to vary meaningfully by organisation size. WordPress remains dominant among smaller bodies. Umbraco leads across medium and large organisations. More niche options, including iMIS RiSE, Preside, DNN, and Kentico, continue to serve specific segments. The broader trend, consistent with findings across AMS and LMS, is away from bespoke solutions and towards industry-standard platforms that are better supported, more regularly updated, and more capable of integration.
The digital agency picture is more nuanced. Satisfaction with current agencies has improved, rising from 37% to 47%, yet 21% of membership bodies are actively looking to replace their current agency, up from 19%. These figures can coexist – some organisations have strengthened their partnerships and are seeing the results; others are reaching the end of relationships that were transactional rather than strategic.
The report's insight here is worth emphasising. Satisfaction gains are most closely associated with stronger, more engaged, longer-term working relationships rather than pure technical competence. Membership bodies that treat their digital agency as a delivery contractor rather than a strategic partner tend to find the relationship less durable and less effective.
Key data points from the report:
For organisations currently reviewing their CMS or agency relationship, the report's findings suggest that the question to ask is not simply 'which platform?' but 'what working model will enable us to get the most from it?' The platform is rarely the limiting factor. The relationship, governance, and shared understanding of what success looks like usually are.
The continued shift toward industry-standard platforms reflects a maturing market. However, platform choice alone is rarely the differentiator. The organisations seeing the greatest return are those that pair the right platform with a strategic partner model – ensuring continuous optimisation, clear governance and alignment to long-term member experience goals.
The AMS and CRM section continues to attract the broadest interest from suppliers and practitioners alike, and this year it contains one of the report’s most notable data points. There has been a significant increase in the adoption of Microsoft Dynamics among medium-sized membership bodies, which now account for 45% of Dynamics users in the sector. This is the largest market-share shift since Salesforce’s surge in the previous report.
Integration is no longer a technical challenge alone – it is an organisational one, requiring alignment across teams, systems, and priorities.
The broader picture is one of gradual consolidation. Bespoke and specialist systems still account for 54% of the sector overall, but that proportion is lower among medium and large organisations (36% and 34% respectively), and the trend towards industry-standard platforms continues. The pace of that shift has slowed slightly compared with previous years, but the direction remains consistent.
Satisfaction with AMS providers has also improved. The proportion of organisations planning to replace their system within 12 months has fallen from 27% to 22%, while those intending to stay with and upgrade their current provider has risen to 47%. This is a meaningful signal that recent implementations and upgrades are beginning to deliver more reliably for many organisations.
What the report also makes clear is that system selection is only the beginning. Cost, incompatibility, lack of in-house IT skills and uncertainty over which supplier to use remain the most commonly cited barriers to integration. And where organisations have integrated, a significant proportion report that the process was harder and more costly than anticipated. Only 18% said the ease of integration met or exceeded expectations, against 59% who said it fell short.
Key data points from the report:
The implication for the sector is that CRM investment should be understood as an ongoing programme rather than a project with a defined end point. The organisations that derive most value from their AMS are those that have invested in integration, data quality, and the internal capability to use the system effectively, not simply those that have selected the most capable platform.
The shift toward platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics reinforces a broader trend. CRM should be viewed as the operational core of the member experience, not a standalone system. The real value is unlocked when CRM is effectively integrated with content, community, and engagement channels – enabling a more connected and responsive experience.
Online community adoption has now increased for seven consecutive years. In 2025/26, 47% of membership bodies host a dedicated online community, up from 46% in 2023/24, 41% in 2021/22, and just 29% in 2018/19. The growth curve has flattened, but the direction is unambiguous.
More telling than the adoption figure is the shift in how communities are being delivered. The proportion using paid, dedicated community platforms has risen to 74%, while reliance on free public platforms such as Facebook Groups and LinkedIn Groups continues to decline, now at 5.5% and 4.5% respectively, down sharply from previous years. Membership organisations are investing in purpose-built environments rather than borrowing reach from platforms they do not own or control.
The reported benefits are holding firm. 35% of organisations agree that community has a positive impact on member value (up 8%), and 31% say it enables more regular engagement with members (up 4%). These figures are notable because they are based on observed outcomes rather than stated intentions. The challenge is that communities are not yet being used to their full potential in connection with the wider digital ecosystem.
The report notes that LMS and community integration within technology stacks remains an area requiring more work, and the sector's own data reflects this gap. Communities that integrate with other systems, whether career services, mentoring, or events, consistently outperform those that operate in isolation. Yet for most organisations, the community still sits somewhat separately from the CRM, the website and the member app.
Key data points from the report:
The strategic question for community is not whether to have one, but how to position it. A well-integrated community with CRM, a member app, and content creates an environment where member behaviour informs engagement and engagement informs strategy. A community that operates as a standalone forum is a useful benefit, but it is not a strategic asset.
Community is increasingly moving from a ‘nice-to-have’ benefit to a core component of the member experience. Its value is significantly amplified when integrated with CRM, content, and events – allowing organisations to move from isolated engagement to a more continuous, insight-led relationship with members.
The mobile app section of this year's report warrants careful reading. Headline adoption has barely moved. 52% of membership bodies now have an app, up just 1% from the 51% reported in 2023/24. After two years of double-digit growth (from 40% to 51%), the market appears to be approaching saturation among those that see clear value in the current model.
More instructive than the adoption figure is the shift in how apps are being used and how they are being perceived. Event access and information remains the most widely used function at 65% and has increased. Push notifications sit at 44%. But eLearning and CPD functionality has declined sharply, down 18 percentage points to just 9%, and news and blog content has fallen 16 points to 31%.
These are not simply preference shifts. They reflect a broader structural question about what a member app is for. If an app is primarily a conference companion, useful two or three times a year, it will struggle to justify its cost and deliver sustained value. The organisations seeing the strongest results from mobile are those that have reframed the app as a year-round service environment, integrating CPD, community, self-service, and events into a single coherent experience.
The report acknowledges this directly, noting that more membership bodies are considering a 365-value app model aimed at younger members, and that vendors are responding to demand with stronger AMS and community integrations. 46% of associations now believe that at least half of their members prefer a mobile experience over desktop, a figure that should concentrate minds on where app investment is being directed.
Key data points from the report:
The conclusion from the data is not that apps are failing, but that many apps are underperforming relative to their potential. The organisations with the most to gain are those currently operating a narrow, event-focused app who are willing to rethink the proposition around what members actually need year-round.
The plateau in adoption is not a signal of reduced importance, but a reflection of a model that needs to evolve. The most effective mobile strategies are those that position the app as part of a wider digital ecosystem – supporting year-round engagement, self-service, and personalised member journeys, rather than episodic event-based use.
No section of the report has attracted more attention than artificial intelligence, and with good reason. AI adoption among membership bodies has risen from 5% in 2023/24 to 26% in 2025/26, an increase of 21 percentage points in a single report cycle. The report draws an explicit comparison to social media adoption two decades ago, and it is not an unreasonable one. The trajectory is clear.
The primary applications at this stage are, as expected, relatively contained. ChatGPT is in use by 60% of those who have adopted AI tools, Microsoft Copilot by 41%, and Canva's generative image tools by 19%. Functional use-cases include content drafting, compliance document preparation, minute-taking, and process automation. Only 21% are using AI to automate and improve tasks at scale, and just 9% are using it for data-driven decision-making.
What is particularly significant is the emergence of formal AI strategy as a category. 6% of organisations now have a dedicated AI strategy in place, up from 0% in the previous report. The report expects this figure to rise, and the evidence supports that expectation. Organisations that approach AI strategically, embedding it within broader digital planning rather than as a series of isolated experiments, are those most likely to realise sustainable value from it.
The report is appropriately measured by outcomes. It is, as it states, too early to report statistically significant positive results from AI adoption. But it identifies the emerging approaches clearly. AI integration within existing systems is at 6%, with vendors across the AMS, CMS, LMS, and community platform market all beginning to embed AI features. This will accelerate.
Key data points from the report:
The caution flag in this data is not about AI itself, but about the conditions required for AI to deliver. Adoption without strategy, governance, or integration will produce incremental gains at best. The membership sector's opportunity is to embed AI not as a standalone tool, but as a layer running through the connected digital ecosystem: supporting search on the website, informing segmentation in the CRM, personalising content in email and guiding members through their app experience. That ambition requires investment in the foundations, clean data, integrated systems, and clear policy, before the AI layer can do its work.
AI will not deliver meaningful value in isolation. Its impact is directly linked to the quality of underlying data, system integration and strategic clarity. Organisations that treat AI as an embedded layer across their digital ecosystem, rather than a standalone initiative, will be best placed to realise long-term benefits.
The MemberWise Digital Excellence 2026 Report makes one point unequivocally clear: progress is being made, but not yet at the pace or cohesion required to meet rising member expectations.
The organisations that will lead the next phase of digital development are those that move beyond isolated improvements and instead focus on creating a connected, insight-led member experience. This means aligning strategy with investment, integrating core systems effectively, and ensuring that data and AI are built on strong foundations.
At Cantarus, we see these challenges play out across the sector every day. The organisations that succeed are not those with the most technology – they are the ones connecting what they already have around real member needs.
The opportunity ahead is not simply digital transformation – it is digital integration with purpose.
Find us at the MemberWise Digital Excellence (DigX) Conference on May 7th at stand D3/D4 where our senior consultants will be hosting demos throughout the day.
Or, get in touch today - our team is always happy to discuss your ideas and upcoming projects.