AI is obviously revolutionizing pretty much everything right now. This means online communities (or IRL communities) too!

And while it can be intimidating. While there are days that it feels like it's the end of human creativity and connection.

We're here to tell you that doesn't have to be the case!

In fact, we are watching AI-enhanced community engagement make online communities better than ever.

In this article, we'll talk about the connection between AI and community engagement. And we'll give you some ideas for getting the most out of AI.

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What is community engagement?

Community engagement is how much time, energy, and attention members put into a community. In an online community, we can measure it by things like how often they log on, how much they create or react, and how many conversations they have.

Meaningful community engagement is essential for businesses, creators, and entrepreneurs who want to create vibrant, connected communities that grow and thrive.

And to build a thriving community, you need more than just a great online community platform—you need consistent, meaningful participation from your members. That’s where AI can step in to help spark engagement from the very beginning.

How to use AI for community engagement at every stage

When setting up your community

Getting started with any new software can be overwhelming - you need to figure out how to customize it the way you want and get set up and running. This is true for building an online community too, but we can use AI to simplify many of the tasks any community creator does when setting up their community.

For example, we've been working on a community building process that will get you up and running quickly with the help of AI. You basically get a personalized setup based on your Big Purpose.

All the work of filling things out and customizing your software? Done by AI!

You can get started with adding members in minutes.

That's pretty cool.

And then there's branding.

Just as AI can help create websites with one click, it can do other branding work too. For example, AI can create a landing page for an event or help you create branded content. Your community can have AI create images and other visual elements.

This is AI making your life easier. Again, and creating more time for community engagement.

During new member onboarding

When people join a community, it’s those first interactions are the most critical. It's sort of like walking into a party if you don't know anybody - it can be intimidating.

And this is where AI can really help.

We've been using AI in community software to create the feeling we all want, that feeling of realizing you’re in EXACTLY the right community.

One example of this is new member welcome sequences. We've also been using AI to help with new member onboarding, and we've been experimenting with using AI to help create engagement. To help a new member have those first few conversations.

So for example, in general, new members are often shy. They don't always dive right in. They might lurk for a while. And–just like going to a party you don’t know anyone–they might get intimidated and disappear.

But what if we used AI to get them started?

• Helping them set up a profile.


• Showing them around.


• Pointing out some members they might like.


• Offering to start a conversation.

These AI engagement features can be the difference between a member who churns and a member who meets their new best friend!

To spark real connections

One of our use cases for AI is helping members create conversations. Obviously, we don’t want a community of bots talking to bots.

But can AI spark human convos and connections? Of course!

We mentioned a few examples above for new member experiences. But you can also use AI to:

• Formulate and post discussion questions.


• Prompt or improve messages and posts.


• Organize members by interest.

It’s tempting to worry about AI replacing human creativity and connection. After all, we see it in the news all the time.

But is that productive? What if we imagined ways AI can spark human connections? What if AI can make a community more human, not less? These are the questions we’re excited about exploring!

To save administrative time

AI can help reduce admin tasks. Obviously, when you run any digital business, you have a lot of routine work to deal with. Communities are no exception. Any community manager ends up doing the same 5 or 10 admin tasks again and again.

So could we automate these community management tasks with AI?

Absolutely! Obviously some of these automations don’t directly boost community engagement. But they do give you more time to focus on the things that do!

For example, we already mentioned onboarding assistance, but what about using AI to help understand member data? Or, using AI to automatically move members from one community Space to another based on preset member journeys?

AI can automatically assign or reassign members to different Spaces and roles in a community. Without it, it takes forever to do this manually. And honestly, these admin tasks end up taking up so much time for community managers.

Other AI automations directly impact community engagement. For example, AI can help with contacting members or following up with prospects. Specifically, you can use AI to identify members who haven't engaged in a while and send them a message to see how they're doing. This is obviously an administrative feature, but it can boost engagement too!

To get ongoing strategy help

Let’s make AI your business coach! AI can do great things for community management. It can help you create a Big Purpose or an Ideal Member. It can create Weekly Themes. You can ask it to critique your community business plans and for how to grow your community. You can get ideas for new products or offers.

Each thing we mention above is a way that AI can help community engagement. And for that reason, it’s an especially exciting time to be launching online communities.

Thoughtful AI implementation matters

Obviously, we want to be thoughtful about how we use AI-enhanced engagement in communities.

The worst thing in the world would be for AI to ruin the authenticity of your community. When you have this amazing thing happening where people love to connect to each other, it’s absolutely possible to implement AI poorly and create serious trust problems for your community.

Here are a few things to consider as you implement AI:

1. Watch out for spam

AI makes it easy to create content at scale, so naturally, you want to think about spam. If members could endlessly create content and post it, that could take away from the value in your community.

Imagine 40 posts a day instantly generated.

Let’s say 10 members do this.

Your community would drown in AI slop.

But the solution is pretty simple. Make sure you have some clear spam rules in your community guidelines. Make it clear what the actual expectations are, and try to prioritize the type of content that you love to see the most.

For example, AI can write a lot of things. But it can't write personal stories and anecdotes based on real experience from your members. They have to do that on their own.

2. Think about data

People will always want to know where their data is going and how it's being used - and that's totally legitimate. This might mean you need to explain how your particular community platform uses AI and what that means for member data.

Make sure you actually understand how AI works. And then make sure your AI policies are posted where members can find them and update them regularly. (Here are ours.)

3. Use AI carefully

We don't want people to get scared off because of how we use AI. The best way to handle this is to think carefully about how you use AI for community engagement.

Use it behind the scenes or to start conversations, but don't let it replace the human connections that people came for.

4. Keep your unique community voice

Honestly, AI-enhanced content can sometimes feel bland or generic. While this may or may not always be true, you certainly don't want AI that makes your community feel impersonal or takes away the special character that your community has.

After all, every community has its own unique spirit, and you want to preserve that.

14 Ways to Use AI for Community Engagement

Here are some practical ways to use AI to spark human-to-human connections:

1. Start discussions

AI is great for generating topics when you're stuck.

Use AI to come up with discussion topics for your community channels. Of course, you should always check the output. But when you're stuck creating content, AI can definitely help with this.

Some platforms like Mighty even have AI discussion questions built-in.

2. Ask human-first questions

By asking questions in a way that AI can't easily respond to, you make human contents more likely.

You can do this by asking people to share experience, opinions, and stories instead of just information.

Here’s an example: “Describe a time when you faced a challenge in your business and didn't know where to go next".

Or: "Who was the most influential person in your life?"

These types of questions are personal. They’re human focused. And they're way less likely to get AI-generated responses.

3. Draft and improve content

While we don't want AI to replace human connections, it definitely works great for drafting or improving content you've already created.

Use AI to help you with post drafts. Or if you're building out content plans, AI can help you brainstorm ideas.

4. Strategic thinking

AI works incredibly well as a brainstorming partner for your community engagement strategy. Try using AI to help you think through your community's purpose, your ideal member, or pretty much any element of your strategy.

For example, we built the Big Purpose generator into every Mighty Network–essentially using AI to generate a mission statement.

5. Ask for tips

Ask AI for tips and ideas - it's great at helping you think through things! Or, here’s a cool thing. Share a business plan or piece of content with AI and ask, “What am I missing?”

Asking AI to critique ideas or play devil's advocate can make your work better!

6. Repurpose content

Let's say you create an amazing webinar where you share a ton of value and your own personal experience. You could obviously turn that webinar into blog posts, emails, or social media posts.

But this is where AI can really help.

Even if AI might not create content that sounds exactly like you, it can do a great job of repurposing your own unique content for other formats. For example, take that webinar and ask AI to create a blog post version. You could even get AI to format it properly. Just make sure you check it carefully.

Or ask AI to create an email sequence based on your webinar transcript. By feeding your own content into AI and repurpose it, you can get more bang for your buck from your own original ideas.

This is the kind of stuff that helps you scale your IP and value. That's exactly what AI should be used for.

7. Show your AI work

Instead of being scared of AI or not talking about it, why not be transparent about it? It’s out there! Everyone knows it!

You can create a ton of value for your members by showing them how you're using AI to solve problems they have too.

So if you're a business coach using AI in your work, why not teach your members about how you do that?

They might get real value from it.

Or create AI challenges. For example, challenge your members to use AI to summarize data or have members share their best AI tips for making their own lives better.

8. Scale routine tasks

Every time you do something repetitive in your community, ask the question: can I use AI for this?

So for example, if you have new members who need to get placed in one of your online courses after they complete onboarding, you shouldn't be doing that transfer manually. That's perfect for AI automation, and it can make this part of your life way easier.

9. Take notes

Next time you have a community call or virtual event, try using an AI notetaker. Having AI transcribe and summarize your calls is a great way to add value and help members who couldn't attend live. You can upload a video or audio transcript of your meeting and ask AI to summarize.

Or

• Create an email invitation to watch the recording.


• Create takeaways or next steps.


• Create discussion questions from it.

You’re getting the picture by now. Incorporating AI into your community content creation can scale YOU.

10. Create member journeys

We've talked about this, but every member has a journey when they enter a community. Often the first parts are the scariest - like walking into a party where you don't know anybody and needing to introduce yourself or create your profile.

These are all things that are intimidating in a community. It’s just like walking into a party where everyone seems to know each other.

As the Host, it's important to remember what this is like for new members. After all, you probably know more people in the community than anybody.

So use AI to help with that journey - prompt new members to complete their profile, or use AI to introduce them to somebody, or use AI to help them draft their first post.

Again, when it comes to relationships, AI should be used to help facilitate real connections, not replace them.

11. Handle Technical Writing

If you host a webinar, it probably needs a description. Use AI to write great descriptions for your events - this stuff can be time-consuming but AI handles it well.

As we’ve covered, AI can also write email sequences or pretty much anything else for the technical side of your community. The trick is to train your AI to sound more like you instead of generic AI copy.

If you want AI to write descriptions that sound like your brand, train your AI by showing it examples of your own writing.

Then ask it to write in your style. The AI copy will be more engaging and on-brand.

Again, always check the outputs!

12. Use AI for Coding

If your community platform allows for customization or you're building custom features, AI can be incredibly helpful for coding tasks.

Whether you need simple automation scripts, custom integrations, or help troubleshooting technical issues, AI can handle a lot of the technical work that might otherwise require hiring developers.

13. Use AI to present data

Another underrated AI hack is using it for visuals: graphs, charts, etc. Running data into AI and asking it to create visuals for your next presentation can save a lot of time.

14. Keep it human

Above all, keep asking whether your AI is helping members meet each other and engage! That’s the goal, after all. A thriving community can include AI. But it can’t thrive without humans. Always keep the focus on where AI can free you up to focus on building human connections, or can boost human connections, and you’ll be okay.

Conclusion

In the end, AI is here to stay. And there's no need to fear it.

Get your feet wet. Try using it!

We hope this guide has you excited about the possibility of using AI for your community. You don't need to do all this at once. Start small. But don't be afraid to harness AI to make your community even better!

And if you want a community platform that has AI built into it, come and build on Mighty! We are G2's top rated community platform. We host more million dollar communities than any other platform–and using AI to boost human connection without replacing it is our jam.

Try it for yourself!

We'll build your community in the next 2 minutes with AI. And it's free to try for 2 weeks–no credit card required.

Start Your Free Trial

FAQ

1. How can I incorporate AI if my community isn't tech savvy?

In some cases the platform will do it for you! Mighty has a lot of AI tools built in. There's not much of a learning curve because they are native features.

But otherwise, if you want to use AI, teaching could be a part of it. Show your community how to use it. Consider a webinar or a training session.

It can be a great way to add value to non-techy people.

2. How can I make sure my community members trust AI?

Like we said above, have some very transparent AI policies. Help people understand what data AI uses of theirs–if any. And implement good moderation and spam policies.

You can also introduce AI in pieces, rather than all at once. That way people can get used to it.

3. Will AI replace human engagement in an online community?

It doesn't have to! We outlined some great strategies above. If done well, implementing AI can absolutely boost community engagement. We have seen it already in many Mighty Networks.

But yes, if using AI turns into spam and soulless content, there's a good chance it will push out real human engagement.

4. How do I make sure AI reflects my specific community values, cultures, and needs?

Before even thinking about implementing AI, make sure you have a rock solid understanding of your Big Purpose and Ideal Member. You can also talk to your community members about it.

As a community, decide what your specific values are. Understanding those non-negotiables help to create an AI strategy that won't threaten them.

5. What community challenges are well-suited for AI versus those requiring human-centered approaches?

There's no perfect solution here. You will find a way to use AI that feels authentic to your community.

But like we talked about above, keep human things human. Humans have stories and experiences. Hopes and dreams.

As far as we know, AI doesn't have these things.

6. What if my AI makes mistakes?

It's definitely possible! That's why it's always best to use AI with human oversight.

For example, Mighty Networks has an AI discussion question generator. You can generate and schedule discussion questions. But you should always check and approve them first.

AI has been known to hallucinate facts. So make sure you check.

7. How do we measure whether AI is actually improving community outcomes?

Great question! The best place to look is in your community analytics data. Any good community platform should give you data about how often members log on and where they spend their time.

If you implement AI and it boosts engagement, you will know because your community metrics will improve.