Hi, I’m Emilie, and I’m writing this newsletter, Connection Engine, to discuss reflections and actionable lessons on community building in a digital world. If you’re a community builder or just curious about community work, you can join the fun by subscribing below!
ChatGPT has been all over my Twitter feed recently — and for good reason. Probably the best (and spookiest) AI chat tool out there currently, ChatGPT simulates human responses and can generate an answer to well, almost anything. A sonnet about Santa’s reindeer? Check. A 500 word essay on Hamlet and grilled cheese? Yup. It’s thrilling and amazing and disturbing at the same time.
You can ask it anything and everything, and it’ll probably give you exactly what you’re looking for:
In this issue I’ll dive into the implications of AI for community and how I think a more AI-driven world will impact community building and belonging.
Am (A)I talking to a computer?
It’s increasingly becoming more difficult to tell if you’re talking to a bot or to a human. We’re in a new era of AI now, one where those ruthless robot recordings on service calls and usually unhelpful chat bots on websites will be a thing of the past. I believe we’re on the cusp of an age where AI will essentially pass for a lot of human activity — at least digitally.
And with the rise of our digital presence and participation in digital communities, it’s inevitable that at some point we’ll be interacting with bots in some form. But here’s the thing: even as the most amazing advances in technology are made, we turn to community to process and understand them.
When ChatGPT was released, did everyone share their enthusiasm with the AI itself? No. We came together in our digital town square and marveled at its abilities, sharing screenshots of ridiculous requests and asking each other questions on what it means for the future.
We turned to community.
And I believe this is a great representation of how AI will function within our communities: creating conversation, sparking new ideas, pushing tech forward — without sacrificing the uniqueness of our humanity and our need to be connected to others.
How AI will change community management
As with many advancements in tech, AI will definitely change many roles, including community design. With ChatGPT, you can essentially strategize and build a community plan with the bot, as demonstrated by David Spinks here.
The way I see ChatGPT currently is that it is less so a definitive replacement for human thought and more so a place to find inspiration and build upon the ideas generated by AI. But even the most perfect strategy written by a computer will need some human tweaking. Because imperfection is an essential part of the human condition.
Sure, you can try to use an AI to run a community but will it effectively be able to handle moderation, conflict resolution, empathy in a way a human can? Will it be able to design delightful experiences that give you that “Aha” moment of belonging? Will it be able to tweak itself to every single member, personalizing journeys in a way that is so special to community? Will a member find any satisfaction in praise from a computer, rather than a founder of a company?
Community design is not a plug and play formula. As I’ve mentioned throughout this newsletter, it takes a lot of experimentation, patience, consistency, and, most importantly, empathy and soul. We’ll never be able to relate to AI the way we can to other people because we’re not AI. The bond that connects us is more than just language, more than a well-worded essay, more than a perfectly-crafted response to a specific question.
So, how should you use AI as a community builder to augment your community strategy?
Using AI to design delightful experiences
If I was starting a new community from scratch and wanted to use AI to help me brainstorm, here’s how I would go about it.
Draft a skeleton of your initial strategy and all the points you need to consider. See more on how to get started here. If you ask the AI outright to draft you a strategy you risk losing key points.
For each point (mission, values, member persona, recruitment, onboarding, engagement tools, incentive design, outreach, moderation), ask the AI a very specific question on how it would approach the design. Use the responses to draw inspiration for your ideas and complement your strategy.
For any copy templates you might need (outreach, feedback, follow ups), ask the AI for sample copy but always tweak the language to make it sound more human. People don’t join communities to talk to bots.
Set up any AI messaging or integrations to help you handle a growing membership. Remember to always automate to notify, personalize to distribute.
Consider using AI to help moderate simple actions in your communities, such as flagging inappropriate messages, helping navigate a forum, or filtering for bots and spam (ironic, I know).
Relying solely on AI for your community strategy, outreach, and templates is something I’d avoid. AI can do a lot of tasks in a lot of different fields: community is not one of them. People don’t join communities to chat with computers. They join to feel the sense of connection, belonging, and joy that only comes from being around other living, breathing beings going through similar experiences and cycles of life.
In community there’s soul — something yet to be figured out in the AI world.
I enjoyed this thread on why AI won’t replace human creativity which has one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies:
“So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that.” - Good Will Hunting
Thanks for being a part of Connection Engine! I have some exciting things launching in the new year. Stay tuned :)
About me
I’m Emilie. Why am I doing this? To share my learnings on community work, to learn more myself, and to make new internet friends!
Want to read more? Follow me on Twitter and subscribe to my newsletter here.
Have a community question for a future issue or interested in working together? Check out my website or email me at ekormienko@gmail.com.