AI Adoption: Avoiding the Sea of Sameness

In this episode of Reboot IT, host Dave Coriale, president of DelCor, sits down with Kelly Henseler, Marketing and Communications Director at INCOSE, to discuss how associations are actually using AI, and where they’re struggling. Kelly shares what she’s seeing across the community, from rapid adoption by individual contributors to the lag in executive-level strategy and guardrails. The conversation explores member trust, disclosure, brand integrity, ROI-driven adoption, and how associations can avoid blending into the growing “sea of sameness.” This episode offers practical, grounded advice for marketing and communications professionals navigating AI from both the bottom up and the top down.

Kelly and Dave Discuss:

AI Adoption in the Association Community

• Individual contributors are adopting AI quickly, especially for content creation.
• According to ASAE’s State of Associations, 87.5% of associations are using AI for content creation.
• Executive teams often lag behind in setting strategy, policies, and guardrails.

Executive Strategy vs. Individual Use

• Organizations need to decide whether they’re encouraging adoption or putting guardrails in place.
• Conversations with leadership should start by understanding where the organization already is.
• Bringing concrete use cases and benchmarking data helps move executives forward.

Guardrails Beyond Data Privacy

• Guardrails aren’t just about PII and intellectual property.
• AI tools can blur role boundaries, especially in design and brand ownership.
• Access to tools like Canva AI should align with staff roles and responsibilities.

Trust, Transparency, and Disclosure

• Member trust can erode even when AI use is disclosed.
• Members want reassurance there are still humans behind the organization.
• Disclosure practices are evolving and require thoughtful, consistent approaches.

Avoiding the “Sea of Sameness”

• AI-generated content often looks and sounds the same across organizations.
• Prompt writing and human editing are critical differentiators.
• Associations must protect and reinforce their unique brand voice.

ROI, Upskilling, and Practical Wins

• ROI is the most effective entry point for AI conversations with leadership.
• AI can dramatically speed up content repurposing across channels.
• Upskilling staff and creating brand and editorial guidelines are essential first steps.