From digital agency to AI innovation: Alex Skinner on The Association Podcast

We're excited to share that our CEO, Alex Skinner, recently joined Ben Muscolino (Breezio and AMS Geek), Jake Toohey (Adage Technologies) and Gretchen Steenstra (Breezio and AMS Geek), on The Association Podcast to discuss the evolution of Pixl8 Group, ReadyMembership, and our newest venture, ReadyIntelligence.

Why association management systems need a user experience first approach

What makes ReadyMembership unique? As Alex puts it, it all starts with our origins as a digital agency. While many AMS platforms were built from the database up, focusing first on transactions, business logic, and staff workflows, we took the opposite approach. We started with user experience and worked our way into the back-office functionality.

"We came front to back in terms of user experience first, building out the digital platforms, slowly building more and more capabilities within the back office piece," Alex shared. This philosophy continues to drive how we develop products today.

How associations should actually use artificial intelligence in 2025

One of the most engaging parts of the conversation centered on artificial intelligence and how associations should approach it. Alex didn't pull any punches: "Don't use AI where you can use something else, because it's a terrible idea."

The key distinction? If your process can be described as a series of decision trees with consistent rules, traditional workflows are more efficient and reliable than AI. But when you're dealing with digesting and utilising complex documents or tasks around verification, that's where AI can truly help.

ReadyIntelligence is being built with this philosophy in mind, offering agnostic intelligence that can be deployed across multiple scenarios, from chat interfaces and voice agents to workflow automation, without the environmental and operational overhead of running unnecessarily large models.

Why serve the membership association market?

When asked what drives him to serve the association market, Alex's answer was refreshingly straightforward: "You tend to work with nice people, and you spend a lot of time working."

But beyond that, he emphasized the value of working with mid-market organizations where you can engage directly with business leaders, understand their real problems, and be what he calls an "opinionated supplier," someone who isn't afraid to say when an idea might not work, while also being willing to explore uncertain territory when the destination looks promising.

Why member portals are broken and what associations should do instead:

One topic that generated lively discussion was the concept of member portals. Alex's take? "Portals should be taken out and shot with a cattle gun. As a concept, I think they're flawed." The issue isn't authentication or personalized content. It's the jarring experience of moving from a polished marketing website into something that looks and feels completely different. Modern members deserve a seamless experience where personalization is just a layer they bump into based on who they are and what they need, not a separate destination.

What's next for ReadyMembership and association technology?

What's next for ReadyMembership and ReadyIntelligence? Alex and the team will be at AMS Fest in November, and they're hosting an AI event two days before the conference. It's an opportunity to dive deeper into how associations can thoughtfully adopt AI without falling into the trap of adding "AI sprinkles" just because it's trendy.

Listen to the full Association Podcast episode with Alex Skinner

This blog only scratches the surface of a wide-ranging conversation that covered everything from the differences between UK and US association markets to the challenges of productization, from maintaining focus as an ADHD leader to why small language models might be the future of association AI.

Ready to hear more? Listen to the full episode of The Association Podcast and hear Alex discuss:

• The journey from two-person startup to 120-person company
• Why when something is interesting it doesn't always mean profitable
• The rapid fire round (spoiler: he prefers crunchy peanut butter to smooth)
• How he's balancing CEO responsibilities with hands-on development work
• The framework for thinking about assistive AI versus agentic AI