Anyone else using AI tools for their HOA board work?

Hi all,

I'm on the board of a small HOA, and over the past year I've been experimenting with AI tools to make board work less of a time suck.

Part of the problem was the board’s documentation was chaotic and disorganized when I joined. Most was in a gdrive, but there was a ton that just lived in people’s heads, or buried in old email threads. I ended up building a spreadsheet just to track vendor contacts.

Eventually I got up to speed and took on the task of fixing it, in part to make it easier for the next volunteer. I created a Notion dashboard (see attached) for vendor contacts, FAQs, meeting minutes, agendas, and our governing docs.

That helped a lot, but finding specific bylaws was still a hassle when you have to dig through half a dozen PDFs.

I learned about custom GPTS, and decided to build one for our HOA. Basically, it’s an AI chatbot trained on our docs and policies (see attached example). Now we can just ask it "Are parking spaces deeded or not?" and get a straight answer without wasting my free time. It's not perfect, but it sure cuts down on repetitive searching, and the board said they found it useful.

I shared a write-up about our experience and what worked for us, including a few AI tools anyone can try (no ads, not monetized):

https://medium.com/@jameswalsh_xyz/what-if-ai-could-make-volunteer-work-stop-feeling-like-unpaid-overtime-01317d2634e5

Would love to hear from anyone else using AI or tools to reduce admin overhead. Has your board tried any AI tools? Curious what's worked (or hasn't).

Some (anonymized) examples posted for reference.

Your board doesn’t know who owns the parking spaces?

I've just been elected to the Board, so only getting started. But having used Google AIMode often for personal research, I am applying it to my Board tasks - it brought me to this site! So far I used it to determine the local code requirements for the installation of a hot tub under architectural review and it was very thorough and helpful. As I proceed, I plan to ask myself, "What would AI say?" when I get a new Board task. This morning I got an AI created Reserve Fund recommended list for our specific community details. I plan to use it to review our recently re-issued list prior to approving.

There's too much confusion and misinformation in your reply to explain one by one, but but to be clear:

We are absolutely not using it to "look up HOA law", we leave that to the lawyers.

We use it to quickly find specific answers and clauses in our own CC&Rs.

All the best.

Yes it sometimes makes things up which is why you have to ask for sources and read the sources, but for those that can already use logic it's a great tool to get on a good path. for those that are gullible it can be dangerous, but you know who else makes up BS, HOA lawyers and HOA property managers. I;ve had lawyers tell me stuff that I knew was wrong! I've complained about it here and the response was well that's their opinion, lol.

Chat GPT is more accurate than these "professionals" I've dealt with. It's sad but true.

A number of folks have commented on the impact of technology on our brains. Our memories are less sharp - probably because we don't need to remember things if Google is at hand. Our attention spans are shot. This can be attributed to many things, including programs that are interrupted every few minutes for ads. Our brains get used to he incessant dopamine "hits" that we get from social media or texts - and if we don't get them, we go looking for them. It isn't just technology that does this to us, although it's very effective. Years ago I had a job that involved constant interruptions. After a few years of this I noticed that I was interrupting myself when engaged in tasks that required sustained attention, such as reading a book. This has only gotten worse, and no tech was involved in the process in the beginning.

AI has other effects. I think I mentioned that medical professionals have reported a decrease in their skills after using AI to perform a number of their tasks. I also spotted an article recently that said that younger people are starting to disengage from tech, especially the "smart" stuff. Hooray for them. "Smart" tech fosters a dependency that is counterproducive for thinking adults.

In short, when you engage with technology, it calls the shots and forces you to adjust to it. It's one of the things that bothers me most about AI, since its manipulations are more obvious. I don't feel like I'm using it - I feel like it is using me. Since "Tech Bros Inc" have been cramming AI down our throats, I think that this is an accurate reading of the situation. They don't need to railroad you if they're acting in your best interests. Convince me that I'm wrong...

The thing about AI is that people need to adjust their expectations. Too many people think AI will do a job perfectly. It probably won't. The question to ask is: does it do a better job than a human would do? In some cases the answer is "yes". But just as it's wise to get a second opinion from your doctor, it's a real good idea to verify what an AI system tells you.

(This applies to self-driving cars, or really any kind of automation, not just AI).

Bill