Over the past few weeks, we had the opportunity to visit seven cities across the country—San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Austin, Denver, and Minneapolis—connecting with community builders and AI thought leaders at our 2025 CMX Circuit events. Each city brought its own energy, perspectives, and questions about how AI is shaping the future of community. Across the tour, several clear themes emerged that reflect both excitement and caution about the role of AI in our work.

Here are seven key takeaways from our Circuit:

1. AI Should Enhance, Not Replace, Human Connection

In every city, attendees emphasized that AI is most valuable when it supports human relationships rather than attempting to replace them. AI can handle transactional tasks or surface potential connections, but humans remain at the heart of community.

“AI can help us get the gold out of the ground—but we still need the human in the loop.” — Chris Catania, Esri

Community teams are experimenting with ways to let AI remove friction—like automating routine answers or surfacing engagement insights—so humans can focus on deeper, more personal connections.

2. Trust and Transparency Are Non-Negotiable

Community leaders are clear: AI adoption requires transparency. Whether it’s labeling AI-assisted posts, disclosing the use of generative tools, or ensuring human validation of content, trust is the currency of community.

Wim Coorevits (Microsoft) shared how a simple checkbox noting AI-assisted answers helped maintain credibility in their Dynamics Community. Similarly, San Francisco discussions highlighted that guardrails—keeping GPT-generated responses out of key discussions—help communities preserve authenticity.

3. Measuring Impact and Proving ROI Is Key

Minneapolis added a critical layer to our understanding of AI in community: demonstrating value to leadership and stakeholders. Key discussion points included:

• Balancing qualitative vs. quantitative metrics to show impact.
• Managing up so leadership understands the value of community.
• Creating buy-in across multiple stakeholders.
• Tracking AI’s influence on health metrics like traffic, page views, support load, and engagement.

Community leaders are starting to ask: what is the next standard benchmark for engagement? What types of engagement should be considered good, below, or above average? AI can help surface insights and simplify measurement, but humans remain essential in interpreting results and proving meaningful ROI.

4. The Shift From SEO to AEO/GEO

As AI becomes the primary interface for information discovery, community teams are moving beyond traditional SEO toward Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Leaders across the Circuit noted that AI bots scraping community content are increasingly shaping the answers users see first.

This makes it essential for community content to be well-structured, high-quality, and attributable so AI models can understand, trust, and surface it correctly. Communities are becoming high-value training sources, which also raises the need to protect brand accuracy. Measurement is evolving as well: teams now track not just traffic, but AI-driven discovery, content authority, and the broader influence of community knowledge on AI outputs.

5. In-Person and Human-Centric Connection Still Matters

Across all cities, attendees reinforced that even in an era of advanced AI tools, face-to-face experiences are irreplaceable. Community teams are increasingly seeing the value of in-person meetups alongside virtual programs. While AI can facilitate and enhance engagement, it can’t replicate the trust, empathy, and magic that come from being together in person.

The Circuit itself highlighted this trend: roughly 80% of attendees expressed interest in more opportunities for in-person events to connect with one another.

6. Invest in the User Experience First

Michael Puhala, who attended multiple stops on the tour, shared a key insight: a majority of attendees (70%) favored investing in user experience over expanding community team support for AI. Community members want tools that make their experience seamless, intuitive, and engaging—not shiny AI features that may not feel relevant.

Austin in particular underscored this point, with recurring discussions around the question: “How do we use AI to deepen connection—not replace it?”

7. AI as a Strategic Amplifier, Not a Shortcut

Community professionals are thinking strategically about where AI adds value. AI can magnify efficiency, surface insights, and even help prove ROI—but only if used thoughtfully.

Jannita Demian (PowerSchool) emphasized doing more with less: focusing on the right events and interactions grounded in trust, rather than maximizing volume. Similarly, NYC reflections noted that while AI uncovers opportunities, humans must still build the relationships that drive lasting engagement.

Closing Thoughts

The 2025 CMX Circuit was a powerful reminder that AI in community is not about replacement—it’s about amplification. Across the U.S., community leaders are navigating questions of trust, transparency, and strategic impact while keeping human connection at the center of their work.

AI opens incredible possibilities, but the Circuit highlighted that technology only works when it aligns with community values, fosters authentic engagement, and empowers humans to do what they do best: connect, empathize, and build trust.

As we wrap this year’s tour, one message is clear: AI is here to stay—but true human connection will always be the cornerstone of our communities.