Topic: Stop Overpaying for AI: How Association Teams Can Build Affordable Custom AI Solutions and Drive Adoption

Speaker:  Dr. Gleb Tsipursky  

Association leaders face growing pressure to “do something with AI.” Many respond by purchasing expensive, vendor-driven tools that operate like black boxes. Too often, staff cannot see how these tools fit real workflows, which increases anxiety, triggers resistance, and leads to low adoption. The result: subscription fatigue, weak ROI, stalled innovation, and missed opportunities to serve members better. In this session, Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts and author of the forthcoming The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work, shows association professionals how to stop renting AI and start building practical internal capability. You will learn how to create custom AI solutions using accessible no-code and low-code platforms that non-technical teams can learn with the same confidence they bring to tools like Excel. You will leave with a clear roadmap to replace costly vendor contracts with staff-built AI tailored to your programs, events, education, marketing, member services, and internal operations, while using proven psychology to reduce fear, increase buy-in, and turn employees into confident AI creators.

Learning Objectives:

After participating in this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Diagnose why black-box AI purchases fail in associations, and identify the specific adoption and ROI warning signs to watch for
2. Compare “renting AI” versus building internal AI capability, and decide which association use cases belong in each bucket
3. Map high-impact association workflows for custom AI support across membership, education, events, communications, or operations
4. Outline a practical build approach using no-code and low-code platforms that non-technical staff can use safely and confidently
5. Apply evidence-based psychology tactics to reduce staff anxiety, increase trust, and move teams from passive users to active AI creators
6. Create a simple roadmap to pilot, measure, and scale staff-built AI solutions, while reducing vendor spend and improving outcomes

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About our Speaker:

Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, called the “Office Whisperer” by The New York Times, helps tech-forward association leaders stop overpaying for AI while boosting adoption and decreasing resistance. He serves as the CEO of the AI consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts. Dr. Gleb wrote seven best-selling books, and his forthcoming book with Georgetown University Press is The Psychology of Generative AI Adoption (2026). Prior to that, he wrote ChatGPT for Leaders and Content Creators (2023). His cutting-edge thought leadership was featured in over 650 articles in prominent venues such as Harvard Business Review, Fortune, and Fast Company. His expertise comes from over 20 years of consulting for Fortune 500 companies from Aflac to Xerox and over 15 years in academia as a behavioral scientist at UNC-Chapel Hill and Ohio State. A proud Ukrainian American, Dr. Gleb lives in Columbus, Ohio.