digitalNow 2026 Day 2 Recap: Outcomes First, AI Second

If Day 1 of digitalNow 2026 asked who should hold the keys to an association's AI, Day 2 answered a more practical question: once you hold them, where do you start? On Tuesday, October 27, the main stage at the Hilton Arlington Rosslyn at The Key heard from a nonprofit CEO who cut routine member calls by 28% with one narrow AI tool, a career diplomat on punching above your weight, and the author of Loonshots on what separates the organizations that thrive in turbulent times.

Day 2 Key Takeaways

• Outcomes first, AI second. Dave Dellin, CEO of the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), shared a four-step sequence any membership organization can run: name the outcome, test the fit, pilot one problem, then prove it before you scale.
• One problem, one tool, one number. At the American Paint Horse Association (APHA), a chatbot called Becca Bot cut routine phone calls by 28% while people kept the relationship work.
• You don't need a massive technology budget. AQHA's AI plan was approved inside its current budget with no new headcount, tied directly to its strategic operating plan.
• Innovation is a design problem. Physicist and Loonshots author Safi Bahcall looked back at 200 years of technology disruption to show what separates organizations that thrive in turbulent times from those that don't.

Dave Dellin: AI From a Nonprofit CEO's Perspective

Dave Dellin leads the American Quarter Horse Association, the world's largest equine breed registry, with 225,000 members, more than 7 million horses registered, and operations in over 100 countries. Before AQHA, he spent 13 years at the American Paint Horse Association, including as CEO, and 20 years as a horse trainer, show judge, and ranch owner and operator. His keynote offered a practical, outcomes-driven approach to AI that any membership organization can use, regardless of budget. His theme: outcomes first, technology second, human connection always.

The Reality: Doing More With the Same or Less

Dave started with the pressures every association executive in the room recognized:

1. Constrained resources. Budgets, headcount, and bandwidth rarely grow as fast as member expectations.
2. High member standards. Members compare your service to the best consumer apps they use every day.
3. Technology noise. AI hype is everywhere. The discipline is starting with the problem, not the tool.

A Four-Step Sequence for AI in Membership Organizations

His operating rule, used at APHA and now at AQHA, is simple: define the member problem, name the outcome, and only then ask whether AI is the right tool. Not whether it is fashionable. From there, the sequence has four steps:

1. Name the outcome. Name the friction and set the metric.
2. Test the fit. Ask whether AI belongs, and where it does not.
3. Pilot one problem. Prove value on one high-volume job.
4. Prove, then scale. Expand only after the outcome is real.

His goal for the session was for attendees to leave with a sequence they could run against one high-friction problem this quarter, not a vendor list.

When Is AI the Right Tool?

Step two is where many AI projects go wrong. Dave's filter for evaluating AI against the outcome, not the hype:

The decision filter underneath it all: AI should augment human expertise and the personal touch that defines membership organizations. It should never replace relationship-driven service.

Becca Bot: One Problem, One Tool, One Number

At APHA, staff polling showed that about 30% of incoming questions were already answered on the website or in the rulebook. That became the target: cut routine phone calls by 30%. The tool was Becca Bot, named for APHA founder Rebecca Tyler Lockhart and powered by Betty, built to handle routine member questions around the clock for a global membership.

The result was a 28% decrease in routine phone calls. As Dave put it, APHA did not need a platform. It needed a tool that could do that one job.

Becca was hybrid by design:

• What Becca did: instant answers on registration, show rules, benefits, and transfers; always-on service across time zones; and multilingual support that reduced language barriers.
• How it was designed: free on the public landing page with no login wall, human contact information always visible, and members could always choose to reach a person right away.
• What APHA learned: 24/7 responses freed staff time for higher-value work, inquiry data revealed programming trends (transfers were the most-asked topic), and earning trust required plain language that AI enhances service rather than replacing it.

How AQHA Is Applying the Same Discipline

AQHA is a larger organization, but Dave is starting with the same question. Its priority outcomes are member satisfaction and retention, membership growth, and registry growth. The work centers on finding the highest-volume friction in member service, registration, and information access, freeing staff capacity for people work, protecting the relationship, and tying every AI effort to the strategic operating plan.

Just as important is how the decision gets made:

• CEO ownership of technology. Technology decisions sit with leadership, not only IT, and outcomes and member experience drive the conversation.
• Hear the whole staff. AQHA held sessions with every team, including employees nervous about AI, and even used AI to help hear from the whole team. Their questions and concerns shaped the scope and the guardrails.
• Culture before code. AQHA's volunteer culture and member-service DNA set the non-negotiables: relationship work stays human.
• Executive Committee alignment. The plan was approved inside the current budget with no new headcount, and the pilot scope was defined by outcomes, not by the tools available.

Next up at AQHA is a scoped plan that includes an Equine Marketplace, measured against the agreed outcomes before anyone decides whether to expand or stop.

Seven Principles That Travel

Dave closed with seven principles that held at APHA and hold at AQHA:

1. Outcomes before tools. Technology is not the strategy; build on business principles.
2. Narrow, then expand. Prove value first.
3. Hybrid from day one. Never automate the relationship.
4. Data and ethics as core. Not a later add-on.
5. Free staff for better work. Service goes up, not just cost down.
6. Talk about it openly. Trust beats surprise.
7. Measure. Adjust. Stop. Don't be afraid to innovate, and if it doesn't work, pivot.

His ask of the room came down to two questions: What outcome must we improve? And is AI the right tool for that outcome? Then pick one high-friction, high-volume problem this quarter and run the sequence.

"The organizations that succeed will use AI to deepen human connection and improve their members' lives."
Dave Dellin, CEO, American Quarter Horse Association

Danny Stoian: Punching Above Your Weight Class

Danny Stoian, of the Center for Emerging Global Leaders, brought a perspective few association audiences get to hear. A career diplomat, he has served as Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, Director of Strategy and Solutions, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs, with overseas assignments spanning Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, Tunisia, and Bahrain. He started his career in the private sector with Nike, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and EmailLabs, and has been a Fellow with Cornell University and Harvard University.

His session, Punching Above Your Weight Class, spoke to a challenge most associations know well: making an outsized impact with a small team and limited resources, a theme that echoed the morning's message from Dave Dellin.

Safi Bahcall: Five Rules for Innovating in Turbulent Times

Safi Bahcall is a physicist, entrepreneur, and former public company CEO who co-founded a biotechnology company developing new cancer drugs and led it as CEO for 13 years. His book Loonshots shows how understanding phase changes in group behavior can help organizations design teams that innovate faster and better. It has been translated into 21 languages and was named a best business book of the year by Bloomberg, the Financial Times, and the Washington Post.

His keynote asked one question: what separates apex innovators, in any industry, from the rest? Safi looked back at 200 years of technology disruption, from the birth of modern science to the telephone, the transistor, and frontier large language models, to identify why some companies thrive in turbulent times and dominate their industries while others end up in the dustbin of history. Drawing on examples from Apple, Amazon, Best Buy, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and others, he distilled those lessons into practical rules teams can use to innovate faster and better.

For associations navigating the fastest technology shift most of them have ever faced, the lesson pairs naturally with the rest of the conference: innovation does not happen by accident. It comes from how teams and organizations are designed.

Afternoon Keynote Panel and Q&A

The main-stage program closed with a keynote panel and audience Q&A, giving attendees a chance to push the day's ideas further with the speakers.

How Day 1 and Day 2 Fit Together

Read together, the first two days of digitalNow 2026 make one argument. On Day 1, Amith Nagarajan made the case for sovereign AI: own your data, rent the intelligence, and control the leverage. On Day 2, Dave Dellin showed what disciplined execution looks like: start with the member outcome, pick one high-volume problem, keep people on the relationship work, and prove value before you scale. Own the foundation, then start small and measure.

Coming Up on Day 3

On Wednesday, October 28, at 9:00 AM ET, Sidecar's Mallory Mejias closes the keynote lineup with Auditioning for Relevance: Winning a Recurring Role in Your Members' Lives, drawing on hundreds of acting auditions to show associations how to stay the source members choose in a room that keeps getting fuller.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Becca Bot?

Becca Bot is an AI chatbot the American Paint Horse Association launched to answer routine member questions about registration, show rules, benefits, and transfers. Named for APHA founder Rebecca Tyler Lockhart, it runs 24/7 on APHA's public website with no login required and always shows how to reach a person.

How did APHA use AI to reduce member phone calls?

Staff polling found about 30% of incoming questions were already answered on the website or in the rulebook. APHA set a goal to cut routine calls by 30%, launched Becca Bot to handle those questions, and saw a 28% decrease in routine phone calls.

How should an association start with AI?

Dave Dellin recommends a four-step sequence: name the outcome and set a metric, test whether AI is the right tool, pilot it on one high-volume problem, and expand only after the outcome is proven.

When is AI a good fit for association work?

AI is usually a fit for high-volume, repetitive work with answers that follow a pattern, needs that span time zones, and clean, governable data. It is usually not a fit for complex cases that need judgment, work that is the relationship itself, messy data, or a tool looking for a problem.

Will AI replace association staff?

In Dave Dellin's approach, no. The design keeps judgment and relationship work with people. The goal is freeing staff capacity for higher-value member engagement, not reducing headcount.

Can smaller associations use this approach?

Yes. Dellin's advice is to start with one high-volume, high-friction problem. You do not need a large technology budget. You need a clear outcome.

Explore the full digitalNow 2026 agenda and speakers