Association Lifestyle: TSAE Member Q&A
Kent Prickett, MBA, CAE
Executive Director
Infinity Management
1. How are you currently using AI in your day-to-day operations?
AI has become my sidekick, my digital partner-in-crime! It’s everywhere I turn, and I have grown to really embrace it over the past year.
I use ChatGPT a lot. Mostly as an editor and a tool to help with drafting, editing, and creating emails and member communications. ChatGPT helps to add some fun to out-of-office messages, (yes, even bots can have a sense of humor!) to check and edit emails for tone and content, drafting member communications, website content, and more. When I am on a deadline and battling writers block, ChatGPT has been instrumental in creating content outlines to give me a place to start. It is also a wizard with Excel formulas, menu planning, and so much more! Motion has become a personal assistant for me! I keep track of the tasks I need to accomplish in their software, along with deadlines, and Motion swoops in to save the day by conjuring up the perfect schedule. It even has a tool that I frequently use to help schedule one-on-one meetings. I also use the features in Microsoft PowerPoint when it comes to designing slide decks for presentations. I have also played around with headshot tools, image creators, and much more. I have added the AI Assistant into Zoom to help with notetaking, and I use tools like Microsoft Lens and the AI tools in my Mac/iPhone to take the notes I’ve handwritten and put them into text quickly.
The possibilities with AI are endless! It’s like having a Swiss Army knife for work, but with more pizzazz and fewer sharp edges
(I may have used AI to help me with that line 
).
2. What are the challenges you are experiencing with AI? Are there any pitfalls we should be aware of?
AI is not a person! I can give it an award-winning prompt, and it can turn out a steaming pile of garbage sometimes. I’ve used an AI image generator that created a photo with two noses, one eye, and seven fingers on a hand, before. It was like my own personal, yet unintentional, Picasso. There are also ethical standards to think about, and everything that AI generates should be double- and triple-checked for accuracy. When asking for data that I might need cited, I always ask for citations and read the articles being cited prior to including them in a finished product. I have also experienced some biases in the responses I have received, based on the way that I prompted the question. I would say that researching and developing prompting is important. Be precise in what you are asking for.
For example, you receive an email from a member, and your response doesn’t come across the way you intend. Don’t just say “Can you respond to this email?” Say something like: “I received the following questions from a member who is the <ROLE> for my organization. <INSERT EMAIL WITHOUT PERSONAL DATA>. Please draft a response that answers all of the questions asked and conveys a professional and jovial tone. My sample answers are: …” This will allow you to be able to answer the questions briefly, and then allow the AI to do all the hard work!
The thing I would say on this, is to ALWAYS double-check, and reread responses. AI is not a subject matter expert on your role, you are. Nothing would be worse than it misunderstanding an industry standard acronym or giving incorrect information. Even after AI gives an answer, I edit the answer into my own words. AI is a tool on the journey, not the map of where to go.
3. What advice do you have for someone who has never used AI before?
I would say that most people are using AI and don’t even realize it (anyone remember Clippy the Paperclip from Word in the 90s)? Experiment with the tools out there – like a choose-your-own adventure book, but for work. The goal is to use AI as a way to make your life easier, but as with any new skill, it takes time to learn how to operate. When I first started embracing AI in my day-to-day, I went wild joining Facebook, LinkedIn and Reddit groups devoted to business AI. Your first dive into AI could even be asking ChatGPT, Bard, or another tool of where to start looking for answers! When in doubt, reach out to someone at your work or the TSAE Community to help answer any questions. Shameless plug – join TSAE at the AI: Association Innovation Lab on January 11th to learn from other Association Professionals about harnessing the power of AI!
This or That?
City or Nature?
Nature
Eary Bird or Night Owl?
Night Owl
Introvert or Extrovert?
Extrovert
Sweet or Savory?
Savory
Pen and Paper or Digital Notes?
Pen & Paper
Spontaneity or Planning?
Planning
Phone Call or Text?
Netflix or Movie Theater?
Netflix
Cooking at Home or Dining Out?
Cooking at Home
