Embracing the Future: How to Leverage Artificial Intelligence in Community Associations

If you have searched for a question online recently, chances are you have encountered an "AI Overview" or suggestion at the top of the results. Whether through search engines or programs like Microsoft Word, Zoom, or even at the McDonald's drive-thru, artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly integrating into and becoming ubiquitous in our daily lives. This is for good reason - AI offers the potential to simplify tasks and provide unprecedented access to information and resources. Many business and corporate enterprises, community associations included, are increasingly looking to AI as a possible way to streamline operations, enhance services, and improve overall efficiency.  Effective and responsible use of AI, however, requires an informed and balanced approach. This article provides a brief overview of AI, its advantages and disadvantages in the context of community associations and offers suggestions for successful implementation.

Understanding AI: The Basics

What exactly is AI? AI is a branch of computer science that focuses on creating systems capable of performing tasks that normally require human intelligence.[1] An increasingly common form of AI today is "Generative AI," which refers to AI systems capable of generating new content based on predictive models and large information databases. Generative AI learns from existing data and then is supposed to create new content based on that data. The effectiveness of Generative AI, however, depends heavily on the quality and diversity of the data it is trained on. Human oversight and judgment are essential to assist in guiding and shaping the behavior and outcomes of AI, because AI still lacks understanding of the concepts that it replicates and cannot reason or think like a human. [2] Nevertheless, as the data inputs grow, the capabilities of Generative AL continue to advance and improve.           

Using AI in Community Associations

A recent survey conducted by Common Ground (Community Association Institute industry magazine) indicates that only 4% of community associations and management companies are currently using AI, while a surprising 65% indicated that AI could be useful for community associations.[3]  Thus, there is a clear interest in using AI, but many may not know where to start. The AI industry suggests ten ways AI may currently be used by community associations:

-Data Analysis – AI has the power to analyze vast amounts of data, which may help identify trends and provide actionable insights, such as for creating a draft community budget.
-Administrative Efficiency – Automation tools may be able to handle certain administrative tasks associated with record-keeping and invoicing.
-Vendor Management – AI may streamline vendor selection and management processes by analyzing vendor performance data as well as assist in comparing key provisions and offer points in potential service agreements.
-Voting Systems – AI may streamline voting processes for elections and other matters involving a membership vote, with the goal of promoting accuracy.
-Efficient Communication – Chatbots and virtual assistants may generate responses to routine inquiries, streamlining communication.
-Parking Management – AI systems may be able to optimize parking space allocations and enforcement of parking regulations.
-Predictive Maintenance Tools – AI algorithms may predict equipment failures, enabling better proactive maintenance.
-Security Systems – AI surveillance systems may enhance community security by helping to detect unauthorized activity.
-Energy Management Solutions – AI may optimize the association’s energy usage, reducing cost and environmental impact.
-Accessibility Improvement – AI may enhance accessibility by providing language translation services, facilitating communication for non-native speakers, and improve user experience for people with disabilities through assistive technology.[4]

The Potential Benefits of AI in Community Associations

When implemented effectively and after much internal due diligence and testing, AI may offer numerous advantages for community associations. Automating routine tasks such as administrative work, scheduling, and homeowner inquiries, may improve efficiency. This would allow the board and association employees and managers more time to focus on more complicated community needs, strategic projects and non-routine inquiries. Using AI may also promote professionalism through work product standardization.[5] Associations may also benefit from AI’s ability to analyze large data sets, identify patterns, and anticipate future needs. Lastly, resident experiences may be improved through AI features such as chatbots that provide immediate feedback, which in turn can increase resident communication and satisfaction.[6]

Challenges and Considerations

While AI has great potential, it is not without its challenges. First, AI requires clear, specific, and contextual information to perform accurately. In other words, the quality of AI outputs depends heavily on the quality of inputs – the information in its database and the questions (prompts) entered by the user.[7]  If you want to increase your odds of producing a great response from AI, you need to carefully and precisely word your prompts to give the AI tool clear objectives. AI also needs repetition to produce accurate information, which can be seen by disclaimers such as ChatGPT’s language at the bottom of its search engine stating “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.”    The frequency of inaccurate responses is so common that they are now referred to as AI “hallucinations” – basically, the Generative AI tool fabricates an answer that simply appears to be authentic.[8]  

Bias poses another significant concern.[9]  Poorly crafted or overly complex prompts can lead to biased outputs, as AI is only as unbiased as the data it is trained on. [10] Users must exercise sound judgment and determine what tasks are appropriate for automation. For example, low risk tasks such as generating community informal notices of events and reminders could be automated and may require minimal supervision initially. In contrast, a high-risk task would require a higher level of human control and oversight, such as creating official notices and other documents that are either required by law or the governing documents and that, if not worded correctly, can expose the Association or board members to legal disputes or liability.[11]

Another factor to consider is that AI outsources interpersonal connections, which makes it impersonal to you. It’s important to ensure that any work product generated by AI retains a personal touch where necessary. Finally, privacy concerns must be addressed, particularly with respect to the collection and handling of sensitive homeowner data, which should be closely regulated and could expose the association to potential liability if improperly disclosed.[12]   Most publicly available Generative AI tools harvest all user-provided information to use to train the AI and to potentially share with other third parties.

Conclusion and Recommendations

AI has significant potential to assist community associations with everyday routine tasks, which can help board members and managers focus more on other more complicated governance and operational projects and decision-making. Before fully embracing AI, however, associations must be mindful of its limitations, such as overreliance on technology, potential biases in algorithms, privacy concerns, the need for human oversight and the need for ongoing training and monitoring.

As a first step, if considering utilizing AI, association boards of directors should first consider consulting with qualified, experienced IT consultant, and then, if the decision to is move forward, consider adopting clear guidelines regarding how AI will be used by the association. Even if the association is not currently using AI, but is anticipating doing so in the near future, establishing a framework will set the association up for future success and help ensure all board members, managing agents, and employees have a better understanding of when and how to use AI responsibly.[13]  The association’s legal counsel is in the best position to assist with preparing such guidelines for potential adoption by the board.

[1] Oxford Dictionaries. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095426960

[2] Artificial Intelligence Meets Community Association Law: Remaining Relevant In The Age of ChatGPT

[3] Common Ground Nov/Dec 2023 https://lsc-pagepro.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?m=20613&i=803183&p=6&ver=html5

[4]Artificial Intelligence Meets Community Association Law: Remaining Relevant In The Age of ChatGPT

See also Common Ground March April 2024 “2024: An AI Odyssey https://lsc-pagepro.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=814547&article_id=4719780&view=articleBrowser 

See also ChatGPT response “How are community associations using AI”: https://chatgpt.com/

[5] Innovate Before It’s Too Late: Generative AI and Community Associations, March 2024 CAI Webinar

[6] Artificial Intelligence Meets Community Association Law: Remaining Relevant In The Age of ChatGPT

[7] Innovate Before It’s Too Late: Generative AI and Community Associations, March 2024 CAI Webinar

[8] https://mitsloanedtech.mit.edu/ai/basics/addressing-ai-hallucinations-and-bias/

[9] https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/generative-ai-unesco-study-reveals-alarming-evidence-regressive-gender-stereotypes

[10] Artificial Intelligence Meets Community Association Law: Remaining Relevant In The Age of ChatGPT

[11] Innovate Before It’s Too Late: Generative AI and Community Associations, March 2024 CAI Webinar

[12] Artificial Intelligence: Responsible Guidelines for Your HOA - HOAresources (caionline.org)

[13]Common Ground March April 2024 “2024: An AI Odyssey https://lsc-pagepro.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=814547&article_id=4719780&view=articleBrowser