I’ve been supporting AI implementation in community organizations for over three years and there’s one thing that’s abundantly clear: humanity has a special place in the work we do.
Using AI can often feel like being gifted a superpower. You can write and edit quicker than ever before. Ideas are served by the dozens. Analytics take seconds. Weeks of research is now doable in mere minutes. And for organizations that feel constrained by resources, these tools open doors to new possible pathways.
Early in my journey training teams in AI, I came across people who pushed back. By now we’re all familiar with the common concerns with AI, but many of the community rec staff I work with — including this early crew — have a challenge beyond the electrical grid and job loss worries. They actually love the work they do and want to continue doing it.
Graphic designers and content writers are among the strongest opponents of AI that I come across. Design and writing aren’t tasks for them; these are their actual passions and callings. When we suggest outsourcing these skills to Claude Design or a ChatGPT prompt, we’re not just implying that their roles are replaceable. We’re also stating automated and generated work is on par with human creativity.
Just because AI can do it, doesn’t mean it should.
Similarly, fundraising teams can automate flows with personal notes from everything to an event invitation to a bereavement note, but should they? Is the goal to send the note or to build the relationship? Is a note written by AI and sent to a human of equal value to a note written by someone who cares?
And those 30-page reports you can now compile in minutes? When one staff member uses AI to compile the report and their colleague uses AI to summarize the report instead of reading it, what was the purpose of replacing that three paragraph email with a full report?
I love implementing AI for organizations. Seeing the looks of amazement and relief as tasks that were avoided or felt impossible are now completed. Watching teams create more effective processes and helping them learn new tools. These moments are pure joy, for me and for them.
However, replacing the work humans love, replacing human-to-human connections, and creating massive documents and offloading work to our colleagues — this is what AI shouldn’t do.
As your thinking about where and how to implement this technology in your center, consider what is core to your business and where humans are essential. These are the areas where having humans in the loop or leaving AI on the sidelines might just be in your best interest.
