Will AI Make Your Organization More or Less Relevant?

Avenue M asked a question that is on the minds of most executives today via text and on LinkedIn the week of April 6, 2026: "Will AI make your organization more or less relevant?" The answers were more optimistic than I expected, but the comments told a more complicated story.

Here's how executives, mostly from organizations, responded in the most recent Avenue M quick poll:

56% More relevant 24% Too soon to tell 14% No real change 6% Less relevant

Slightly more than half (56%) believe AI will make their organization more relevant. But before we take a victory lap, it's worth examining what's underneath that confidence and what the other 44% are signaling.

AI as a Relevance Accelerator

The majority see AI as a relevance accelerator, and many are already putting that belief into practice. Several respondents described specific use cases including deploying AI agents to surface dispersed member content, using AI-powered tools to curate newsletters, and making proprietary guidelines and educational resources more accessible and useful.

One respondent summed up the opportunity well, AI could help "find and organize the information to be most useful,” turning a library of scattered resources into something members can actually navigate.

But optimism without execution is just a thought. The real differentiator won't be whether you believe AI enhances relevance. It'll be whether you do something about it.

The Boardroom Divide

One of the most revealing comments came from Matthew Ott, CEO, Momentum Association Management, who works with multiple organizations: "There are still some boards that believe this is a phase that will pass, while others see the opportunities to make capital investments to improve their operations."

That's the divide that should concern us. Not AI skepticism from members, but leadership ambivalence at the top. The organizations most at risk aren't the ones that try AI and stumble. They're the ones still debating whether it matters.

Erin Fuller, FASAE, CAE, Global Head, Association Solutions at MCI USA, recently tackled this head-on in an article in Fast Company in 2025. She argues that the biggest barrier to AI adoption isn't technical skill, it's mindset. "Too often, it's assumed that AI is the domain of technical specialists," she writes. "That perception creates an unnecessary barrier for leaders across functions who may assume AI is outside their lane." Her advice? Stop waiting for expertise and start with curiosity. "Confidence with AI doesn't come from knowing all the answers, it comes from being willing to ask questions."

As I wrote in The Unexpected Power of Boundaries, the organizations that thrive under disruption aren't the ones that wait for certainty. They're the ones willing to take calculated action within clear constraints, even when the full picture hasn't come into focus because they know their risk capacity.

The Economics No One's Talking About

One respondent raised a question that deserves more attention: What happens when AI gets expensive?

Right now, AI tools are priced to capture market share, not to turn a profit. As one executive noted, AI companies may be spending thousands per month to service individual subscribers paying a fraction of that. When those economics shift, and they will, the value exchange changes dramatically.

This is where associations have an underappreciated advantage. If the cost of AI access rises significantly, organizations that have already curated trusted, validated, even peer-reviewed content become more valuable, not less. The question is whether associations are positioning themselves now as that trusted layer or assuming the current pricing environment is permanent.

The Trust Differentiator

Several respondents touched on something that may matter more than any technology decision: trust.

One put it directly: "I think we have a good balance of embracing AI but demonstrating how we are a trusted resource to provide human connection and contact. Organizations who will be successful will need to be able to do both."

This is exactly right. And the stakes are rising. A recent ASAE ForesightWorks analysis on "Truth Under Pressure" warns that AI-generated misinformation and a proliferation of content without credible sourcing will overwhelm traditional systems in the next five to ten years. For associations, that's not just a communications problem. As the authors put it, it is "a core leadership challenge that will shape your association's credibility, influence, and member value."

Seth Dechtman, founder of Keynote Curators, put it simply in a recent LinkedIn post: "Trust is the scarce resource now, inside teams and with customers." He argues that as AI takes over the tasks that used to prove value (summarizing, drafting, researching, synthesizing), the real work moves upstream to judgment, better questions, and protecting trust.

AI can organize, summarize, and surface content at scale. What it can't do is replace the credibility that comes from professional expertise, peer validation, and human judgment. The organizations that figure out how to pair AI's efficiency with their existing authority won't just stay relevant. They'll become harder to replace.

What This Means for Your Organization

The 56% who said "more relevant" aren't wrong. But relevance through AI isn't automatic. It requires a few honest conversations:

Are you investing or just experimenting? There's a difference between a pilot project and a strategic commitment. Boards that treat AI as a line item rather than a phase will be better positioned when the landscape shifts.

Are you building on your strengths? AI is most powerful for associations when it makes existing assets (content, standards, research, networks) more accessible. Start with what you already have.

Are you preparing for the cost curve? Today's free or low-cost tools won't stay that way. Organizations that build AI into their value proposition now will have an advantage when prices rise and members start looking for curated, trustworthy alternatives to the open web.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Nearly one in four said it's too soon to tell. As Sherry Budziak, founder and CEO, orgSource, put it: "Your members are already using AI. The question is whether they're using YOU alongside it, or instead of you."

The organizations that will gain relevance through AI aren't the ones with the best technology. They're the ones with the discipline to pair new tools with the trust, expertise, and human judgment they've spent years building.

AI doesn't make you relevant. What you do with it does.

Additional Resources

• "What Sets the Best AI Users Apart?" (Harvard Business Review) A KPMG and UT Austin study analyzed 1.4 million AI prompts from 2,500 employees and found that only about 5% qualified as sophisticated users. The difference wasn't frequency of use, it was how they framed problems, guided reasoning, and treated AI as a thinking partner rather than a shortcut. Worth reading if your organization is trying to move beyond basic adoption.

• "Has AI Ended Thought Leadership?" (HBR, March 2026) - Argues that AI has made it effortless to sound authoritative, flooding organizations with polished content that rarely translates into real change. The author makes the case that what creates progress now is hands-on experimentation, not more commentary. This one connects nicely to your trust differentiator section and the "optimism without execution" point.