Yesterday’s MemberWise Digital Excellence Conference in London lived up to the promise of its strapline “Growth Unlocked”.

In this blog Intercloud9 focuses on discussions around how artificial intelligence can power the next decade of membership growth and social impact. Below is a synthesis of the AI‑focused sessions we attended, distilled for leaders who must balance ambition with tight budgets, trustees, and public trust.

Scene Setting – From the Wheel to ChatGPT

Conference host Richard Gott opened proceedings by reminding us that innovation alone does not guarantee growth; it is sustained member value that matters.

Keynote speaker Alan King of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers tackled the elephant in the room: AI is not optional. King is already nurturing an AI community of practice inside and beyond IMECHE to accelerate collective learning.

IBM’s Tim Elsom contrasted the thousand‑year adoption curves of the wheel and writing with the two‑month sprint that took ChatGPT to its first 50 million users. His ‘holy trinity’ – data, models, compute – explains why.

• Data: GPT‑4 trained on the equivalent of 13 British Libraries in just 60 days
• Models: 10 000 new peer‑reviewed AI papers per month
• Compute: GPUs and purpose‑built AI chips now deliver millions of parallel processes while hyperscalers pour billions into new data‑centres

For leaders, the message is clear: AI adoption curves are now vertical. Waiting until budgets free up will lock organisations out of the next growth cycle.

Where Value Lives – Six Imperatives for AI success

Elsom proposed six questions that every board should answer before funding the next AI pilot:

1. Value creation – which member or beneficiary outcome improves?
2. Competitive advantage – what stops rivals copying it tomorrow?
3. New business models – could AI unlock services you cannot deliver manually?
4. Leadership and talent – who owns AI and who is upskilled?
5. Enterprise usage – is the solution scalable across functions?
6. Cross‑disciplinary collaboration – how will IT, data, comms and policy work together?

His warning still echoes: AI will not replace humans, but humans with AI will replace humans without it.’ Non‑profits should not be reassured simply because they do not face shareholders – their members will still drift to organisations offering instant, personalised answers.

Digital Leadership Panel – Practical Steps for Constrained Budgets

A lively panel featuring Elsom, Stephen Hall of The Makaton Charity and Cath Hume of the Arts Marketing Association explored the practicalities.

• Synthetic data is coming fast – but quality, not quantity, matters
• Power and sustainability: hyperscalers are buying nuclear plants. The sector must scrutinise vendors’ green credentials
• Two‑tier world risk: smaller charities could be left behind unless AI solutions truly democratise access

Cath Hume’s three‑point starter kit.

1. Form a staff AI working group that reports to the CEO
2. Nominate cross‑departmental AI champions
3. Invest in baseline AI literacy for every employee

Stephen Hall’s Cultural Lens

Start with the problem, not the technology. Empower curiosity and protect time for experimentation. Focus early pilots where data risk is low but impact is visible.

Both agreed that strategy documents without AI will be obsolete within ten years. Small organisations should see this as an opportunity: AI can close capacity gaps that budgets never will.

Governance That Doesn’t Kill Innovation – Lessons From the BMA

Carolyn Brown, Chief Information Officer at the British Medical Association, offered the most complete governance playbook of the day.

Four‑part strategy.

1. Alignment – every AI initiative must serve the BMA strategy
2. Readiness – robust data management and infrastructure before experimentation
3. Innovation – low‑code development plus external partnerships
4. Governance, security, risk – proportional to tool complexity

The BMA classifies projects from Category A (off‑the‑shelf tools like ChatGPT) to Category D (AI systems trained on confidential BMA data). Paradoxically, lower‑category tools require stricter governance because data often leaves the organisation.

Brown’s co‑pilot readiness programme deserves replication: policy first, mandatory training, licence issued only after the user signs an AI charter, and dashboard monitoring of real‑world usage.

Engagement Re‑imagined – Conversational AI in Hours, Not Months

Nej Gakenyi of GRM Digital and Nicole Rogers of AI12Z demonstrated how a large‑language‑model plus a website scraper can turn a static site into a member concierge.

The prototype answered questions such as ‘I need a receipt for my last subscription payment’ and ‘Can I make a donation of £50 by Apple Pay?’ – all without human intervention. Importantly, the agent pulled data from CRM and finance systems securely. Deployment time was counted in hours, not sprints.

Subscription‑based pricing means smaller organisations pay only for usage, not infrastructure. Leaders should, however, insist on clear policies covering hallucinations, data retention and tone of voice before going live.

Mindful AI – Culture, Trust and a Seven‑Point Ethical Charter

Paul Blundell from the Arts Marketing Association tackled the issue many avoid: shadow AI. His team ran an internal audit and found AI pockets everywhere – from image generation to grant‑writing.

The response was cultural, not punitive:

• Encourage staff to talk about their AI experiments
• Trial a four‑day week to show trust and free up learning time
• Publish a Mindful AI Charter with seven commitments, including labelling AI‑assisted images and respecting creators’ rights

Blundell’s question – “Can anyone in this room explain how an LLM works?” – elicited no hands. His point: we need literacy, not mystique. When staff understand that an LLM is simply predicting the next token, fears of a sentient overlord recede and governance becomes grounded.

The Intercloud9 AI Maturity Model

From Idea to Impact: Framing Your AI journey

Many delegates confessed to feeling overwhelmed by the sheer range of possibilities. This is precisely why Intercloud9 developed a free AI Maturity Model tailored to membership and non‑profit organisations.

The model maps People, Processes, Technology, Data, Governance & Ethics across five stages, giving trustees a common language and staff a clear progression path. By revisiting the model quarterly, you ensure AI remains mission‑aligned and ethically grounded.

Takeaways for the Boardroom

1. Speed beats scale – start small but start now
2. Problem first, tech second – link every pilot to a member or beneficiary pain‑point
3. Governance is a sliding scale – lower‑risk consumer tools still demand policy
4. Invest in literacy – AI working groups, champions and repeat training build confidence
5. Measure what matters – staff hours saved, member satisfaction uplift, new revenue
6. Think partnerships – blend off‑the‑shelf tools with your own data for defensible advantage
7. Embed ethics early – publish your charter before your first chatbot goes live

Intercloud9 is offering delegates and readers complimentary access to our AI Maturity Model toolkit, including a self‑assessment workbook, trustee briefing deck and sample AI‑use policy. Download it today and turn conference inspiration into a practical 90‑day action plan.

Ready to unlock growth? Access the AI Maturity Model here or contact our strategy team at hello@intercloud9.co.uk to book a 30‑minute discovery call.”

The Digital Excellence Conference proved that AI is no longer a buzzword; it is the operating system for future membership growth. The question is not whether to adopt AI, but how quickly and how responsibly you can move. We hope this summary helps you take the next confident step.