6 min read
You open a browser tab, type a question into a chat interface, and watch as a highly sophisticated response appears on your screen in seconds. The output is impressive. It might be a draft of a member renewal email, an outline for your upcoming...
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5 min read
Walk into any association board room and mention artificial intelligence, and you will likely hear the same heavy sigh. The consensus is usually that...
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32 min read
Mallory Mejias: Oct 12, 2026, 5:26:32 PM
Summary: A chatbot can tell you what to do, but an agent can actually do it. In Part 3 of the refreshed Fundamentals of AI series, Amith Nagarajan...
5 min read
Every week brings a headline about a new artificial intelligence breakthrough. A major lab releases a model that shatters previous benchmarks. A day...
5 min read
Imagine opening the door to a taxi, sliding into the back seat, and finding the driver's seat completely empty. For a moment, the absence of a human...
5 min read
Look at any standard process documentation in your association. You will likely see a flowchart made of two primary shapes. Rectangles represent...
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38 min read
Mallory Mejias: Oct 5, 2026, 9:52:19 AM
Summary: A surprising amount of the work we hand to AI isn't writing at all—it's deciding. Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias sort through a busy...
3 min read
On a recent episode of the Leading Learning podcast, JD Dillon made a point that should land hard with anyone planning AI training for an association...
5 min read
When membership organizations decide to modernize their technology, the immediate instinct is to look for technical talent. The assumption is that...
5 min read
The traditional association technology committee is designed to be a safety mechanism. It might bring together representatives from membership,...
2 min read
Erica Salm Rench: Sep 28, 2026, 2:17:23 PM
I've had a lot of roles at digitalNow over the past decade. I've been an attendee, soaking up every session I could fit into a day. I've been an...
4 min read
Imagine discovering a leaking pipe in the garage. A quick fix is to grab a roll of duct tape and wrap the pipe tightly. The water stops. The floor...
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37 min read
Mallory Mejias: Sep 25, 2026, 3:07:44 PM
Summary: Vibe coding can patch almost anything, but a duct-tape fix only holds until the water pressure changes. Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias...
5 min read
Imagine an association executive handing a massive problem over to a new technology. The organization is facing a retention crisis, so the executive...
5 min read
There is a strong temptation to hand the keys over to the machine. When organizations start experimenting with artificial intelligence, the vision...
5 min read
Researchers resigning from major artificial intelligence labs. Open letters signed by thousands of industry insiders asking governments to build a...
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38 min read
Mallory Mejias: Sep 21, 2026, 12:42:32 PM
Summary: The people building AI are starting to sound scared of what they're building. Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias take on the AI safety...
5 min read
For generations, professional associations have operated under a fundamental economic premise. Expertise is hard to build, difficult to scale, and...
5 min read
Bring up artificial intelligence in any boardroom, and the conversation inevitably turns to the same roadblock. Someone will point out that language...
5 min read
The process of buying an association management system is a familiar ritual. It begins with a massive request for proposals. Committees form to...
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20 min read
Mallory Mejias: Sep 14, 2026, 1:49:47 PM
Summary: Intelligence is turning into a resource you can scale like electricity, and that shift changes what's actually worth your attention in the...
5 min read
Imagine a real estate professional looking for highly specific, county-level zoning regulations from two decades ago. They open a generic AI model...
5 min read
Anyone who has spent four years studying a language in high school knows the exact feeling of landing in a foreign country and realizing they cannot...
5 min read
Association leaders often approach new technology with a familiar playbook. They form a committee, draft a comprehensive request for proposals, hire...
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38 min read
Mallory Mejias: Sep 7, 2026, 1:18:40 PM
Summary: A drug company CEO just made the best case yet for why platform choice matters less than most associations think. Marking three years of...
5 min read
When a company goes bankrupt, its physical assets are typically the first things auctioned off to pay creditors. When budget carrier Spirit Airlines...
5 min read
A persistent critique of artificial intelligence is that the technology is nothing more than a sophisticated autocomplete. Critics often refer to...
5 min read
There is a famous psychology experiment involving a video of a basketball court. Viewers are asked to watch the players moving around and count the...
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38 min read
Mallory Mejias: Aug 31, 2026, 4:25:43 PM
Summary: When Spirit Airlines went bankrupt, its planes and gates weren't the only assets on the auction block — Google paid $10 million for its...
6 min read
There is a conversation that repeats itself constantly with association staff who use AI every day. They describe themselves as heavy users, and by...
4 min read
Consider where things stood in the middle of 2024. If your association was trying to do something serious with AI, the decision was close to...
4 min read
Ask ten association leaders what they make of AI right now and you'll get two answers that seem impossible to reconcile.
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28 min read
Mallory Mejias: Aug 24, 2026, 1:19:56 PM
Summary: AI may feel like it arrived overnight, but its foundations have been decades in the making. In part one of a refreshed Foundations of AI...
6 min read
The pressure on association leaders to maintain the integrity of their content has never been higher. Whether you are managing a peer-reviewed...
4 min read
The recent flurry of activity from tech giants like Meta and NVIDIA has sent a clear signal to the association sector. Meta recently released its...
5 min read
The word hackathon often conjures images of darkened rooms, rows of glowing monitors, and software engineers fueled by caffeine and complex code. For...
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34 min read
Mallory Mejias: Aug 17, 2026, 10:28:02 AM
Summary: Meta and NVIDIA are turning up the heat in the open-weight AI race, while Anthropic is taking a very different approach by watermarking...
5 min read
Many association executives view artificial intelligence as a technical challenge to be solved by the IT department or a specialized task force. They...
5 min read
For decades, the standard for success in member services has been defined by the dashboard. We look for green lights, low numbers, and empty queues....
7 min read
Many association leaders treat artificial intelligence like an optional professional development elective. They might offer a stipend for an online...
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40 min read
Mallory Mejias: Aug 10, 2026, 11:22:59 AM
Summary: In this interview episode, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan sit down with Torey Carter-Conneen, CEO of the American Society of Landscape...
5 min read
The reality of cybersecurity changed in mid-July when a fully autonomous attack hit Hugging Face, the world's largest hub for open-source AI models....
5 min read
In the middle of July, the digital infrastructure of Hugging Face, a central hub for the global artificial intelligence community, experienced a...
5 min read
Imagine booking a five hundred seat jumbo jet just to fly a single passenger across the country. The plane will certainly get the job done, but the...
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42 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jul 31, 2026, 1:02:15 PM
Summary: This week, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias unpack a whirlwind of AI developments shaping the future of associations. From Anthropic’s...
6 min read
Many association executives feel a reflexive hesitation when they hear about powerful new artificial intelligence models emerging from international...
5 min read
Imagine a high-stakes professional sports match where the rules are being written as the players run down the field. One team introduces a new play...
5 min read
Many association leaders feel a quiet pressure to pick a side. In the early days of any technological shift, we look for the winner—the one platform...
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34 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jul 24, 2026, 10:59:46 AM
Summary: In this episode, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias unpack a rapidly shifting AI landscape where powerful, low-cost open-weight models from...
5 min read
Many association leaders face a common instinct when a new technology arrives. They want to protect the organization by building a wall of rules....
5 min read
In the modern professional environment, the challenge is rarely a lack of information. For most clinicians, researchers, and specialists, the problem...
6 min read
Many association leaders find themselves in a difficult position regarding artificial intelligence. On one hand, the technical potential of the...
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34 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jul 17, 2026, 2:17:32 PM
Summary: In this interview episode, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan sit down with Vicki Deal-Williams, CEO of the American Speech-Language-Hearing...
5 min read
For years, the standard advice for association executives has been: "Clean your data first." It sounds responsible. It feels like the right thing to...
5 min read
For years, association leaders have been told that data is their most valuable asset. They have dutifully collected member records, event...
5 min read
Most association professionals view their inbox as a relentless list of tasks to be cleared. It is a digital conveyor belt of requests, complaints,...
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35 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jul 9, 2026, 11:00:34 AM
Summary: It’s been 130 episodes since Sidecar Sync last did a true deep dive on data—and a lot has changed. In this refreshed 2026 perspective, Amith...
6 min read
The narrative surrounding artificial intelligence and the workforce often feels like a foregone conclusion. If you follow the mainstream headlines,...
4 min read
Imagine a high-security research greenhouse where the most advanced botanical specimens are kept. For years, scientists and enthusiasts alike could...
6 min read
Many association leaders approach artificial intelligence with a single question: which model is the best? They look for the highest benchmark scores...
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32 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jul 2, 2026, 3:08:35 PM
Summary: This week on Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias break down a whirlwind week in AI, from Anthropic’s rapid-fire Claude releases...
5 min read
Imagine opening your inbox to a pointed question from a long-time member. They noticed your association recently launched a new search tool on the...
5 min read
Imagine hiring a brilliant assistant who speaks twenty languages and processes information at lightning speed, but they have no idea where the filing...
5 min read
Imagine a corporation with no human employees, no human executive team, and no human shareholders. The marketing campaigns are generated and deployed...
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41 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jun 25, 2026, 2:44:17 PM
Summary: In this episode of the Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias explore one of the most provocative ideas in AI yet: companies owned...
5 min read
“How many hours can we save?” It is the first question most leadership teams ask when they start exploring artificial intelligence. The math is...
5 min read
The conventional wisdom in association management dictates that new technology belongs in the IT department. When a new association management system...
4 min read
The conventional wisdom in association management dictates that launching a new digital initiative requires a massive budget, a long timeline, and a...
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49 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jun 18, 2026, 11:45:32 AM
Summary: What if building a million-dollar business no longer required a team, funding rounds, or even technical expertise? In this episode of the...
5 min read
The way professionals interact with artificial intelligence is undergoing a quiet but fundamental transformation. For the past couple of years, the...
5 min read
Associations are intimately familiar with the concept of vendor lock-in. For decades, technology planning has often meant choosing a single ecosystem...
5 min read
For many association professionals, artificial intelligence has become the ultimate administrative assistant. We use it to draft newsletters,...
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42 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jun 15, 2026, 12:08:51 PM
Summary: In this episode of the Sidecar Sync, Amith and Mallory explore three major developments shaping the future of AI. First, they unpack how an...
6 min read
Associations have long thrived on a very specific, highly valuable asset: deep, historical understanding of their members and their industries. This...
5 min read
When association leaders discuss the future of artificial intelligence, the conversation almost inevitably turns to talent. The instinct is sound:...
5 min read
Many association professionals have already taken the first step with artificial intelligence. They have logged into a platform, typed a prompt, and...
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45 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jun 8, 2026, 11:09:26 AM
Summary: In this jam-packed “mini” episode, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias break down a whirlwind of recent AI model releases—from Anthropic,...
5 min read
The volume of scientific and professional knowledge published each year is staggering. For associations and professional societies, which serve as...
5 min read
Associations sit on decades of trusted, vetted content. Historically, protecting that intellectual property meant a simple binary choice: keep it...
5 min read
For decades, the ultimate measure of success for digital content has been the human click. Association executives and digital teams have spent...
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27 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jun 1, 2026, 10:28:52 AM
Summary: In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias welcomes Dr. Jessica Miles, founder of The Informed Frontier, former VP of Strategy and...
5 min read
When the first tablet computers hit the market, there was no training manual required. People simply touched the glass, and the interface responded....
5 min read
For the past few years, the narrative surrounding artificial intelligence has been dominated by a single, relentless pursuit: the race for the...
5 min read
For nearly three decades, the blank rectangular search box has been the undisputed front door to the internet. We type in a few keywords, hit enter,...
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45 min read
Mallory Mejias: May 26, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
Summary: In this episode of the Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias unpack Google I/O 2026 and what it signals for the future of...
5 min read
When organizations begin exploring artificial intelligence, the natural instinct is to reach for the most famous, most advanced models available. If...
5 min read
For decades, the user interface was the product. When an association purchased an enterprise software system, the implicit agreement was that staff...
5 min read
For the better part of two decades, the ultimate metric of success for associations has been website traffic. Every few years, organizations embark...
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35 min read
Mallory Mejias: May 21, 2026, 5:06:53 PM
Summary: In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dig into two major shifts happening beneath the surface of AI: how...
5 min read
Associations are remarkably adept at creation. When a new industry challenge arises, a new committee is formed. When members request a specific type...
5 min read
When a highly anticipated technology suddenly goes dark, it is easy to assume the entire sector is in trouble. Recently, the web and mobile...
5 min read
Imagine you want to answer a seemingly simple question about your association's membership: Are there geographic trends in your year-over-year...
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32 min read
Mallory Mejias: May 12, 2026, 10:38:21 AM
Summary: In this episode of the Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dig into the hidden world of “dark databases”—messy, undocumented...
5 min read
This post draws on Wharton professor Ethan Mollick's recent article, "The IT department: Where AI goes to die," which we analyzed on a recent episode...
5 min read
For many association professionals, the path from a great idea to a finished visual asset is often blocked by a significant bottleneck. You might...
6 min read
This post draws on Wharton professor Ethan Mollick's recent article, "The IT department: Where AI goes to die," which we analyzed on a recent episode...
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35 min read
Mallory Mejias: May 4, 2026, 11:19:44 AM
Summary: In this episode of the Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dive into Anthropic’s latest moves with Claude Opus 4.7 and the new...
5 min read
To understand the current state of artificial intelligence, one must look back at the history of computing. We often feel as though we are living in...
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5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 29, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
If you work on the events side of an association, the math probably looks familiar. Budgets have been flat for years. Costs — venues, catering, AV,...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 28, 2026, 9:15:00 AM
Here's a story you may have heard a version of: a small team launches a free app in the App Store. Two weeks later, Apple calls — unannounced,...
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41 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 28, 2026, 8:54:02 AM
Summary: What happens when you put a Siri co-creator and longtime AI pioneer together with a next-generation events strategist? Adam...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 23, 2026, 12:25:40 PM
More associations are building AI-powered knowledge assistants every month. The pitch is compelling: members get instant answers drawn from your...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 21, 2026, 6:30:01 AM
Most AI conversations in associations start with the same question: which model should we use? Claude or ChatGPT? Gemini or something open-source?...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 20, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
In early 2023, if you wanted access to the smartest AI available, you paid about $30 per million tokens to use GPT-4. It was expensive, it lived in...
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38 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 17, 2026, 12:16:35 PM
Summary: This week on the Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias trace one of the biggest stories in AI: how cutting-edge intelligence...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 17, 2026, 11:38:59 AM
Associations have always been in the trust business. Members come to them for credentialing, education, industry standards, and reliable information...
6 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 14, 2026, 3:31:18 PM
Many associations are operating with IT teams of one, two, or three people — and those teams are responsible for protecting sensitive member data,...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 13, 2026, 3:09:21 PM
Many association professionals have moved past the "why AI" question. They've attended the webinars. They've read the articles. Many have...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 13, 2026, 1:37:54 PM
Twelve trillion dollars. That's the estimated annual volume of cybercrime flowing through the dark web — a figure that surpasses the GDPs of Germany...
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37 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 13, 2026, 1:06:01 PM
Summary: In this interview edition of Sidecar Sync, Mallory sits down with Eric O’Neill—former FBI counterintelligence operative, attorney,...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 8, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
Computer use — the ability for AI to see your screen, click buttons, open apps, and navigate software on your behalf — has been technically possible...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 7, 2026, 9:40:56 AM
In late March, a misconfigured content management system at Anthropic left nearly 3,000 unpublished assets publicly accessible. Among them was a...
3 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 6, 2026, 5:57:47 PM
If your association has been watching voice AI from the sidelines — maybe impressed by the demos but put off by the cost or complexity — the calculus...
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36 min read
Mallory Mejias: Apr 2, 2026, 12:18:11 PM
Summary: This week on the Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias unpack a whirlwind of Claude news, from Anthropic’s accidental “Mythos”...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 31, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
A lot of associations spent the past year or two making what felt like a big decision: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot. Teams were assembled....
6 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 30, 2026, 11:36:54 AM
If you've been anywhere near AI news in the past few weeks, you've probably seen the name OpenClaw. NVIDIA's CEO compared it to the arrival of Linux....
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38 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 27, 2026, 12:43:33 PM
Summary: In this episode of Sidecar Sync, co-hosts Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dive into the explosive rise of OpenClaw—an open-source AI...
7 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 25, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
Your members don't compare your website to other association websites. They compare it to every other digital experience they have in a day —...
6 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 24, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
In late January, a group of 14 people gathered at a beach house in Florida for six days. They worked 16 to 18 hour days, mostly self-directed, with...
6 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 23, 2026, 11:44:51 AM
Sidecar recently launched Grace, a voice AI agent that lives on our website. You can talk to her about Sidecar's offerings, ask questions about the...
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30 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 20, 2026, 9:33:03 AM
Summary: In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias pull back the curtain on one of Sidecar’s most ambitious experiments...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 20, 2026, 9:09:37 AM
Ask a room full of association leaders what's standing between them and meaningful AI adoption, and a version of the same answer comes up repeatedly:...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 17, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
There's a version of the current AI story where associations aren't really in the picture. The disruption is happening at the enterprise level, the...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 16, 2026, 11:23:43 AM
Earlier this year, a JP Morgan report flagged something that should get the attention of anyone running an association: the S&P 500 software index...
1 min read
John Huisman: Mar 16, 2026, 11:03:15 AM
We built something we're excited about and wanted to share it. If you visit sidecar.ai now, you'll notice something new: a research preview of our AI...
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38 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 16, 2026, 10:12:31 AM
Summary: In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias unpack three major developments shaping the AI landscape for...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 13, 2026, 11:38:01 AM
Eighty percent of organizations surveyed in Anthropic's 2026 State of AI Agents Report say agents have already delivered measurable financial impact....
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 11, 2026, 12:26:12 PM
When organizations across industries were asked what they plan to implement with AI agents over the next 12 months, the top answer wasn't customer...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 10, 2026, 12:10:29 PM
For a long time, the conversation around AI in associations has been about tools — things you ask, things that respond, things that complete a task...
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25 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 5, 2026, 1:05:50 PM
Summary: In this special solo edition of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias unpacks Anthropic’s 2026 State of AI Agents report and translates what it...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 5, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
Model Context Protocol — MCP — has quickly become the standard for connecting AI tools to external data sources. If you've heard the term floating...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 4, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
When association leaders hear the term "AI data platform," there's usually a familiar response: "Oh, so it's like a data warehouse?" Not quite.
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 3, 2026, 3:13:36 PM
On a recent investor call, HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan was asked how the company plans to respond to clients using AI agents to pull data out of...
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40 min read
Mallory Mejias: Mar 3, 2026, 1:05:55 PM
Summary: In this episode of the Sidecar Sync, Mallory and Amith dive deep into two seismic shifts rocking the AI landscape for associations: the rise...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 25, 2026, 2:08:42 PM
For generations, the trajectory of professional development has pointed in one direction: deeper. You specialize. Then you sub-specialize. You become...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 25, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
If you've been following AI developments, you've probably seen impressive image generators and video tools. You type a prompt, you get a visual....
3 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 24, 2026, 12:22:02 PM
Most association leaders making AI decisions right now are doing something that feels responsible but is actually a strategic mistake: they're...
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31 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 24, 2026, 9:59:44 AM
Summary: In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias zoom out to explore the AI infrastructure quietly reshaping everything...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 19, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
Most associations were built on a promise that still holds: bring the right people together and good things happen. That idea launched thousands of...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 18, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
If you've been paying attention to AI news over the past year, you already know the feeling. A new model drops and the benchmarks are unprecedented....
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 17, 2026, 2:25:34 PM
I recently bought a home, and like anyone staring down empty rooms and a budget that isn't infinite, I went deep — books, YouTube channels, design...
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36 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 17, 2026, 10:08:57 AM
Summary: If you think the future of AI is being decided only in Silicon Valley or Beijing, this conversation will stretch your perspective. Amith...
6 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 12, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
Associations are adopting AI at a pace that would have been hard to imagine even two years ago. Content generation, member service tools, internal...
6 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 11, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
On January 30th, Anthropic released a set of domain-specific plugins for Cowork, their enterprise AI product. The plugins target legal, finance,...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 10, 2026, 10:03:59 AM
Most association professionals have a working mental model for AI at this point. You give it a task, it works through it, and it gives you something...
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38 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 5, 2026, 3:12:59 PM
Summary: In this high-octane episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith and Mallory cover an ambitious trio of AI developments with massive implications for...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 4, 2026, 6:30:01 AM
When people talk about AI risk, they tend to focus on dramatic scenarios. Mass unemployment. Superintelligent systems escaping human control. Robots...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 3, 2026, 1:49:26 PM
Most conversations about AI and employment follow a familiar script. Jobs will be lost. Workers will need to reskill. Organizations should invest in...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 2, 2026, 1:22:02 PM
There's a question lurking in the back of many association leaders' minds right now: Who am I to lead an AI initiative?
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29 min read
Mallory Mejias: Feb 2, 2026, 12:59:16 PM
Summary: What do AI companions, deepfakes, and White House briefings have in common? Bruce Reed. In this episode, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan...
6 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 29, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
Every association claims to have a focused strategic plan. The board retreat happened. The priorities were narrowed. The strategic pillars were...
7 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 28, 2026, 1:14:51 PM
Economists Philip Trammell and Dwarkesh Patel recently published an essay that's been making the rounds in policy and technology circles. The premise...
6 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 27, 2026, 12:18:18 PM
The United States builds the most advanced AI systems on the planet. American companies created ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. American data centers...
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33 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 27, 2026, 11:42:44 AM
Summary: In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan unpack two powerful narratives shaping our AI future: the surprising...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 21, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
CES 2026 delivered its usual mix of the practical and the peculiar. But this year, even the quirky gadgets pointed toward a consistent theme: AI is...
3 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 20, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
Robotics dominated CES 2026 in a way we haven't seen before. More robots appeared at this year's show than ever, but what's notable isn't the...
3 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 19, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
CES 2026 just wrapped in Las Vegas, and while the Consumer Electronics Show has historically been about TVs, phones, and gadgets, this year's biggest...
33 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 15, 2026, 1:52:05 PM
Summary: CES 2026 brought the heat—and the robots. In this episode, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias break down the biggest stories from the...
3 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 14, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
A study from MIT's Sloan School of Management found that 95% of enterprise AI initiatives fail to reach production with measurable impact....
3 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 13, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
Your AMS vendor just announced an AI assistant module. It's an additional $10,000 per year. Your LMS now offers AI-powered content generation for a...
3 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 12, 2026, 4:51:26 PM
When association leaders decide to "do something with AI," the default instinct is predictable: build a chatbot. It makes sense on the surface....
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29 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 12, 2026, 4:21:34 PM
Summary: In this episode of the Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dig into the startling findings of a recent MIT study: 95% of...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 9, 2026, 12:42:32 PM
The conversation around AI skills has shifted. What was a "nice to have" a few years ago has become a baseline expectation. According to Microsoft...
6 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 6, 2026, 1:57:14 PM
AI agents have been "coming soon" for a while now. Every year brings new announcements, new frameworks, new promises about autonomous systems that...
6 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 5, 2026, 10:30:51 AM
We're officially in the second half of the decade. And if 2025 felt like the year AI went from interesting to unavoidable, 2026 is shaping up to be...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 5, 2026, 6:30:00 AM
Every association claims to offer excellent member service. Mission statements promise it. Strategic plans prioritize it. Staff work hard to deliver...
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36 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 2, 2026, 11:09:49 AM
Summary: In this annual predictions spectacular, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias kick off 2026 by looking back at how well their 2025 AI forecasts...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Jan 2, 2026, 10:17:23 AM
There's a lot of speculation about how people use AI. Productivity boosters. Coding assistants. Research tools. The assumptions tend to skew toward...
27 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 30, 2025, 10:50:20 PM
Summary: In this special holiday edition of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias unwrap two stories that feel wildly different—but point...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 30, 2025, 6:30:00 AM
The NFL has been quietly monitoring a supersonic jet company. Not as an investment opportunity. Not as a sponsorship play. League executives have...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 24, 2025, 6:30:00 AM
Somebody is going to train the lawyers of the world on how to use AI in legal practice.
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 23, 2025, 6:30:00 AM
One in four US doctors now uses OpenEvidence, an AI platform trained exclusively on peer-reviewed medical journals. That's 15 million consultations...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 22, 2025, 2:20:02 PM
In October 2025, two lawyers from a prominent UK firm launched Three Points Law, a legal practice built entirely on AI platforms from day one. No...
27 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 22, 2025, 10:37:08 AM
Summary: Domain-specific AI is having its ‘main character’ moment—and Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias break down three sharp examples. They unpack...
2 min read
Bruce Moe: Dec 19, 2025, 10:30:00 AM
Executive Summary
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 17, 2025, 6:30:01 AM
Many associations have launched online communities in recent years. The pitch was compelling: give members a space to connect, share knowledge, and...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 16, 2025, 12:49:06 PM
Ernie Svenson made an observation in our recent Sidecar Sync podcast conversation that should give association leaders pause. Ernie is a former New...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 15, 2025, 12:10:30 PM
A lawyer recently made a claim that got people talking: most attorneys get more practical help from a $20/month ChatGPT subscription than from their...
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37 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 15, 2025, 11:34:49 AM
Summary: In this eye-opening episode, Mallory Mejias sits down with Ernie Svenson—better known as Ernie the Attorney—to talk tech, tradition, and the...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 10, 2025, 6:30:01 AM
A post has been circulating on LinkedIn that should make every association leader uncomfortable. It shows what's now possible with AI image...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 9, 2025, 10:28:32 AM
Microsoft. Google. Salesforce. Adobe.
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 8, 2025, 12:37:22 PM
The AI leader from January isn't the AI leader now. And the leader now probably won't hold that spot six months from now.
36 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 8, 2025, 12:04:31 PM
Summary: This week on the Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan unpack one of the most explosive weeks in AI so far—from the stunning...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 3, 2025, 6:30:00 AM
Most associations have decades of content sitting in their archives. Journals, conference proceedings, research publications, technical standards,...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 2, 2025, 10:55:04 AM
If you've been waiting for your board to greenlight an AI initiative, you're not alone. Board buy-in is a common blocker association professionals...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 1, 2025, 3:01:25 PM
A recent podcast conversation with Jay Gilbert, Director of Scientific Programs and Product Development at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT),...
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26 min read
Mallory Mejias: Dec 1, 2025, 12:44:30 PM
Summary: When an association with 85 years of food science knowledge decides to launch an AI product, what happens? In this episode, Mallory Mejias...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Nov 26, 2025, 6:30:00 AM
This month, Google announced Project Suncatcher, their plan to build scalable machine learning compute systems in space. The vision: constellations...
4 min read
Mallory Mejias: Nov 25, 2025, 6:30:00 AM
This month, Inception Labs released an upgraded version of Mercury, their diffusion-based language model that first launched in February 2025. The...
6 min read
Mallory Mejias: Nov 24, 2025, 6:30:00 AM
Anthropic just released Claude Haiku 4.5, delivering frontier-level performance at a fraction of the cost and twice the speed of previous models....
34 min read
Mallory Mejias: Nov 21, 2025, 2:05:37 PM
Summary: In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan dive into three high-octane AI developments reshaping the landscape of...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Nov 19, 2025, 6:30:00 AM
Strategy typically flows in one direction. The board sets vision. Executive leadership interprets it. Senior management translates it. Staff execute...
6 min read
Mallory Mejias: Nov 18, 2025, 6:29:59 AM
Most associations operate under constant addition. New programs stack on top of existing ones. Member requests become new initiatives. Strategic...
6 min read
Mallory Mejias: Nov 17, 2025, 9:44:00 AM
Return on investment doesn't always arrive in a spreadsheet. Sometimes it walks up to you at dinner. Sometimes it shows up as a percentage drop in...
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21 min read
Mallory Mejias: Nov 13, 2025, 9:27:19 AM
Summary: Live from digitalNow 2025 in Chicago, this special edition of Sidecar Sync brings together voices from across the association world, sharing...
6 min read
Mallory Mejias: Nov 12, 2025, 6:30:00 AM
Dr. Denise Herzing has spent 40 years studying dolphin communication in The Bahamas. She founded the Wild Dolphin Project in 1985, recording...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Nov 11, 2025, 9:42:03 AM
Dr. Denise Herzing has spent 40 years in The Bahamas studying how dolphins communicate. She records their clicks, whistles, and burst pulses, then...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Nov 10, 2025, 1:12:45 PM
Dr. Denise Herzing has spent 40 years listening to dolphins in The Bahamas, recording their clicks, whistles, and bursts in an effort to understand...
29 min read
Mallory Mejias: Nov 6, 2025, 6:30:00 AM
Summary: In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias is joined by marine biologist and behavioral researcher Dr. Denise Herzing for a...
5 min read
Mallory Mejias: Nov 5, 2025, 10:57:04 AM
I'm sitting here on Day 3 of digitalNow 2025 in Chicago. Over the past few days, we've seen incredible sessions on implementation, infrastructure,...