Industry professionals share their thoughts on navigating AI in community rec and how the industry can effectively embrace this booming trend.
Artificial intelligence has quickly shifted from a buzzword to an everyday tool across many industries — and community recreation is no exception. In the latest Community Voices roundtable hosted by Community Rec, leaders from across the industry shared candidly where they are in their AI journeys: what’s working, what’s worrying them and where they hope the sector will go next.
The panel included:
- Bill Powell, the COO of the YMCA of Greater Cincinnati.
- Amanda Loveland, founder of Puzzles and Profits, an AI consulting and implementation partner for community organizations.
- Jenna Stein, the chief engagement officer at JCC Greater Boston.
- Brian McLaughlin, the CEO of the YMCA of Memphis & the Mid-South.
Where AI is Making a Difference
Powell outlined one of the most advanced AI efforts in the conversation. Under the leadership of Jorge Perez, the CEO of the YMCA of Cincinnati, his organization has created an “AI Collaborative” with 16 chatbots/agents inside ChatGPT designed as general service tools for YMCAs nationwide.
Also, the Y developed organization-specific agents. This includes a “single source of truth” agent for their new centralized staffing model, and a board development agent that functions like an assistant,helping executives understand their roles, shape board strategy, draft scripts for donor asks and build standardized board meeting agendas. The Y employs both Claude and ChatGPT but uses each differently.
“What we’ve decided is Claude is a tool for a certain group of staff, and ChatGPT is a tool for a much broader group of staff,” said Powell. “So, we’re not pushing Claude in a direction for everyone to use, whereas we’ve encouraged all of our exempt staff to embrace the chat GPT model, because we built GPTs on childcare, youth sports and swim lessons as well.
JCC Greater Boston is earlier in its formal AI journey but is highly intentional with usage. Stein said their marketing department has been the early adopter, using AI for content and strategy.
The JCC is also drafting a formal AI policy that will define how AI will be used safely and ethically across the organization, and AI trainings will be held for staff at different comfort and skill levels.
“We already have some agents on the marketing side we’re using, so we’re testing the waters right now, and I’m excited to see what happens,” said Stein. “But we’re at more of the starting line.”
At the YMCA of Memphis & the Mid-South, McLaughlin said AI has been primarily informal and staff-driven but used across the organization. Like the JCC, they have a formal AI policy in progress.
“We want to build a more formalized set of tools that can be used across all levels of the organization,” said McLaughlin. “What we recognize is that it is going to be used, and it’s almost like culture, right? If you don’t define the culture, it’s going to define itself. If you don’t define AI, it’s going to go ahead and spread out and define itself throughout the organization.”
Across multiple JCCs, Loveland is helping organizations use AI to tame two messy areas: program planning and grant management.
For program planning, Loveland said the aim is a conscientious workflow where AI both coordinates and creates assets, turning a fragmented, form-heavy process into a streamlined one. For Js, this has translated directly into increased fundraising capacity.
Tangible Benefits
The panel repeatedly said the top benefits from AI thus far have been efficiency and access to top expertise.
Powell said when a single staff member who served multiple locations left,they captured their knowledge into a GPT agent and gave all branches direct, instant access to the same level of support.
While Y didn’t eliminate a role, AI allowed them to rethink how limited human headcount is used, investing roles where human judgment and relationship-building matter most.
Across the panel, there was also agreement that AI’s highest value is in reducing tedious, repetitive, administrative work. This helps free staff to build relationships, have deeper member and participant interactions, and do strategic thinking only humans can do.
The overall goal shouldn’t be to employ fewer people, but to create smarter roles. McLaughlin said in mission-driven organizations where staff wear multiple hats, giving them more margin is critical so they can finally focus on the long-term, high-impact work that often gets crowded out.
Concerns to Note
While AI in community rec is seen as an optimistic development, notable concern remains about the booming trend. McLaughlin introduced the concept of poison skills, which are cases where AI systems are trained on bad or misleading data, leading to increasingly inaccurate outputs. He also raised concerns about malicious plug-ins that could undermine safety and trust.
The panel also voiced the widely shared frustration of being forced to interact only with bots. For people-centric organizations like Ys and JCCs, there’s a clear line. Use AI to equip staff, not replace human contact. Also, avoid pushing members into purely bot-based interactions, especially where empathy and nuance are needed.
Loveland framed a related tension said her biggest concerns were a lack of professional development due to staff unwilling or unable to use AI, and an over-reliance and erosion of critical thinking.
“How do we make sure we bring everybody along on this journey that rec centers are really uniquely waited for, because we are human focused?” said Loveland. “So we reall need to make sure everyone is still learning those critical skills, understanding what quality work looks like and being able to be a thoughtful human, both in terms of community and in terms of their work output.”
Overall, the panel agreed that industry leaders must be intentional about translating efficiency gains into protected time for people-focused work and not treating AI as a way to squeeze more output from the same workforce.
Industry Outlook
Opinions vary on whether the community recreation is behind on AI implantation, but there is shared recognition of the structural reasons that exist for the current pace.
Loveland said roughly 90% of organizations are in the same spot, which includes staff using AI informally, leadership is aware of AI but tentative about it and there’s no clear policy yet.
Powell pointed to the defining feature of the industry for the current implementation of AI:
“Everything we do carries so much liability,” said Powell. “Swimming pools, resident camps, day camps, childcare, early learning, youth sports, membership in itself, etc. I think community rec is hesitant to take that big leap forward with AI because we’re so open to liability for so many things. So, I think it slows our industry down a little bit because of that.”
Real progress requires senior-level leaders champion AI, not as a hobby, but as an organizational priority. Many community rec leaders come from program or relationship backgrounds rather than tech, so there’s often no obvious AI owner. Many organizations are essentially asking: “Who on my team is supposed to lead this?” Assigning AI to an unprepared internal leader can increase risk, not reduce it.
Final Conclusions
The panel closed by looking to the future with specific hopes for what AI might unlock in community rec. These hopes include added time for focusing on a center’s mission, providing experience to new staff, managing hybrid teams of humans and agents, using AI to fill administration gaps where nonprofits often lack manpower, and to assist members on their wellness journey.
“I hope AI can be used to really better the people we serve and to help them accomplish things that could get started at the Y,” said McLaughlin. “I hope it can also be an external resource that we can give to people and be able to teach through it. It could be a meaningful thing that could actually change the trajectory of their life.”
The sector is at an inflection point with AI. Some organizations are experimenting aggressively with agents and collaboratives. Others are building policies and guardrails to turn organic use into a coherent strategy.
But beneath it all is a shared conviction — community rec is about people first. AI is only as valuable as it protects and respects data, amplifies human strengths, expands access and creates more time for real human connection.
As AI continues to race forward, community rec leaders are working to ensure they shape this new technology in ways that truly reflect their values, missions and communities.
Watch the full conversation below.
