Many, many years ago I met with an executive director of a small association to discuss their needs for a new association management system.

In the course of the conversation we determined that one thing she'd like to be able to do is capture key points of phone conversations she had with her members. When I explained how an AMS might allow her to look up that individual in her database so she could type in the notes from the conversation, she responded: "Oh, no, I don't want to have to type the notes in. I just want a way to capture them without any looking up or typing required."

Mind you, this was more than 20 years ago, long before voice to text or AI. There was simply no way what she wanted was going to happen without her making the effort to summarize and type up those notes.

And here's the reality: even in these advanced times, there are still things that we'll want to do that will require human intervention. We'll actually have to do some of the work ourselves! The key is figuring out which activities can be automated and which will still require staff intervention.

Not everything can be done by the machines (yet)!