Community Leaders rarely get the luxury of distance. When you are neck deep in your day-to-day work as a Community Leader, it’s only natural to become rooted in familiarity. While this is necessary for bringing in expertise, an inside-out perspective narrows the field of vision for unique opportunities that help the Community move forward.

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Blind spots are nothing new. However, the changing ecosystem is asking us, more than ever before, to approach things differently. Bot traffic, no-search AI overviews, chatbots, and pressure to prove measurable value alongside, are challenging us to adapt.

March’s Meetup was Collaborative

This month’s meetup was designed to encourage an outside-in perspective. By utilising the eyes of others, we make space for fresh perspectives. Community Leaders came together to collaborate and build solutions to the challenges faced.

Through a series of polls, where community leaders would take a stand, have an opinion and share what is important to them, we reached a broader understanding of each other, what is happening in the community ecosystem, what challenges we see, and of course: some ideas on how to tackle these.

Same field, different ground

Although the Community Leaders share job titles and navigate the same landscape, a short introduction made clear that those are perhaps the only commonalities. And just to clarify… that’s a good thing! It was good to get to know each other a bit more.

The leaders represented a wide mix of industries, company sizes and experiences. Some are veterans, others newbies. Focus points for 2026 ranged from managing AI and Engagement, to understanding user needs, UX/UI improvements or even launching a new community. These differences are exactly what this conversation needed.

Is the rise of AI something to brace for or something to build with?

We asked leaders to position themselves along a spectrum of statements about AI, followed by an open-discussion. AI is impacting us all, but the scales below show that how we feel about it varies.

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While one feels positive about AI, another sees haunting risks on the horizon. In some communities AI is ruining engagement, others see that AI is surfacing their community in chatbot answers and nudging users to visit. One Community Leader explained this paradox well:

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“We're losing traffic because of AI chatbots. We've definitely seen that the numbers have decreased of people that come through. But spam bots aside, in general, we are seeing that the quality of the engagement is a bit better because by the time they come to the site they know what they want with it.”

The future present of communities is giving your customers value.

The responses to the second set of statements about the future of community were more harmonised. That the future of community is about giving your customer more value is something we can unanimously agree on.

The good news is that Community Leaders are already doing this. On the board, they shared what’s working:

• Creating valuable opportunities for members
• Hosting virtual and physical events
• Empowering super users

Caution, work in progress!

While these foundational areas are thriving, others are in motion. Leaders want to move beyond one‑off bursts of activity and instead create long‑term engagement. This includes finding ways to activate more members, and make sure that new joiners are encouraged to introduce themselves.

Balance is key, one leader noted wanting to find a way towards engagement without over-burdening their members. There are also ongoing efforts to improve the overall experience. Website and navigation redesigns, UI updates, and broader UX improvements were all highlighted as works in progress.

Having a community is a bed of roses, but not without thorns

Community Leaders know the work isn’t always smooth. Some challenges are evergreen, and others are only now starting to show. While categorising the challenges that Leaders added to the board, we identified three;

1. Engagement: the numbers are dropping compared to historical trends. If the numbers are higher, bots are often the cause.
2. Lack of resources: no dedicated budget, small teams, internal changes, and a lack of focus on community. Restricted team resources is a true roadblock for growing the community.
3. Platform limitations: missing or restricted features that make it harder to customise, communicate, or surface important activity.

These challenges have been around since the birth of communities, but are magnified by the still somewhat unfamiliar culprit: AI.

Moving forward

The intention of this meetup was not just to name the challenges, but to work together in finding solutions. Together, we picked 3 challenges to turn into solutions.

Challenge 1: Customer engagement: like / comments  

Ideas for solutions:

• Higher value incentive, attach value to engagement
• Get buy in from / onboard other teams to use the community (chat with customers, share product news, etc.)
• Use gamification
• Surface / feature questions or topics that need help from others

Challenge 2: Provide answers to questions on the Community

Ideas for solutions:

• Evaluate common question themes and generate more Community resources to address them  
• Cross pollinate / suggest related content  
• Enable CSMs to speak well about community and see the value  
• Involving subject matter experts

Challenge 3: Onboarding/welcoming new joiners

Ideas for solutions:

• Encourage a "first action" to generate momentum and overcome fears (i.e., first post, etc.)
• Perhaps obvious: a larger team
• Build a welcome journey that walks new members through the different groups in the community upon sign-up
• Focus on encouraging active engagement in the first joining days

Moving forward with an outside-in advantage

The biggest takeaway from this meetup was that communities grow faster when leaders stop trying to solve everything from the inside. The irony is that as Community Leaders we spend our days building spaces where people help each other, but when it comes to solving our own challenges we don’t rely on our community. Bringing in an outside-in perspective creates a cognitive friction that reveals opportunities you can’t see from your own vantage point. Borrowing eyes expands expertise. And in 2026, that’s exactly what we need.

Not part of the Community Leaders Forum yet?

You too, can be part of this group of community leaders. Become part of a true community where we help each other. You give and you get. All members gladly share their stories and can also ask the questions they are struggling with. Just go here and register. It’s once a month, every last Thursday, 10x a year and access is free.